CARBS AND SUGAR PLEASE HELP!!

You should really only limit ADDED (refined, like in processed foods) sugars, not non-added ones in fruits and natural things like milk. Read the nutrition label: if it says sugar (or high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, etc etc) then it goes towards your limit. If not, ignore it.

If you are eating fruits and berries you are going to be waay over on your "limit" even though these things don't have added sugars. But in reality you don't have to limit them because they are not going to mess with our insulin levels like the added sugars do because they are natural and have lots of fibers and things. And so you should eat them up!!

This is a big problem with MFP, it is very misleading.

I just joined and this is something I noticed! I don't eat things with a lot of added sugar very often but when I tried to track my sugar, I couldn't believe how quickly I went over. I eat a lot of protein, vegetables and fruit and my sugar was insane(according to them). I figure I'll give it some time eating the way I am and if I don't notice changes, then I'll modify. I'm tracking iron and calcium instead, haha. I wish there was some differentiation because I think it could lead people who are new to eating well (and eating whole foods) to believe they aren't being healthy when they're actually improving their diet.

If you are interested: you can make your own entry that has 0 cals and negative units of sugar, and then at the end of the day count up all your sources of non-added sugars (apples, milk, strawberries, etc) and force add them in to see your true added sugar count for the day.

Thats a good idea.
If you look at the latest completed entry, the OP had 207g carbs - 62g good carbs, the rest 145g was sugar (did not include the sugar in fruit in the sugar amount of 145g).

If you look at the latest completed entry, the OP had 207g carbs - 62g good carbs, the rest 145g was sugar (did not include the sugar in fruit in the sugar amount of 145g).

Yeah, caught that. See my edit.

Yeh, saw it - thanks.

If you're serious about losing weight you could take out the excess sugars and reduce the calories accordingly. If "a calorie is a calorie" there would be no argument for replacing them.

The arguement for replacing them is to be HEALTHY. not necessarily for weight loss.:huh:

Wow, the ED issue gives so much more context to your original question.

Eating sweets for many people causes sugar cravings, its a vicious cycle. Eat sweets, crave sweets, repeat. I have found that my personal sweet cravings were greatly reduced by eating whole fruit or frozen fruit when I would have had some sort of treats. A favorite snack/dessert for me is cottage cheese with fresh strawberries, sweetened with some truvia. (I use real stevia for most of my sweetener, but truvia works better for certain things because it has the same crystalline texture as sugar). That snack has natural sugar, fat and protein, so it's actually very satisfying. When I was trying to break the sweet craving cycle, I ate a lot of fruit whenever I had those cravings, and it naturally tapered off to where I don't eat so much extra fruit, but I don't crave sweets anymore either.

Now, if you need to up your calories, and the sugar is what is helping maintain your recovery from the ED, then by all means eat the sugar! Keeping control over your ED is SO much more important than sticking to the limits set by MFP for your sugar allowance! That being said, soda and organic sugar are calorie dense, but nutritionally void. You can up your calories with more nutritionally dense choices, if you feel ready to do so. Natural peanut butter, healthy cooking oils like olive oil and coconut oil, nuts, dried fruit, dark chocolate, cheese, avocado, full fat greek yogurts, or adding a protein shake with any combination of these ingredients can help you add calories and add other nutrients as well.