Group: Specific Diets & Nutrition

Created: 2012/01/01, Members: 104, Messages: 22775

With so many diets and nutritional plans out there, you can get lost. Find out what works best for others and share your experiences!

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Sugars

spanishgirl
spanishgirl
Posts: 157
Joined: 2001/06/06
United States
2001/11/08, 02:15 PM
I am trying to lose a little more fat and tone up...should I really be watching my sugar intake closely?
ltroisi
ltroisi
Posts: 764
Joined: 2001/11/06
United States
2001/11/08, 10:32 PM
watching your sugar intake closely is VERY IMPORTANT. While carbo's are important part of a balanced diet Sugars are high in the glycemic index.It creates the high and low blood sugar that drives you to eat more sugar! I am sure you have read or heard about that? It a hot topic in those books from the low carb diet guru's. Check out the Nutrition section here at FT and read the Carbohydrate section. And if you must have sugar read the label..if it says more than 5 grams of sugar set it down and walk away!
Alorle
Alorle
Posts: 196
Joined: 2001/10/07
United States
2001/11/08, 11:00 PM
Yes! Definately! You burn fat by using more calories than you take in. You don't gain fat by eating fat, and you don't lose fat by avoiding fat. It's all in the calories. You can go low fat, and still gain weight if you are eating too much sugar. My favorite example (or two), Coke has no fat, but 8 oz has 100 calories of pure yummy sugar. Drink a 20 oz and you get 250 calories without blinking. Yikes, what if you drink more than one a day!?! You also should remember the highly advertised naturally fat free food, Hershey's Chocolate Syrup. It too has no fat, but do you think you would lose weight if you poured it on everything? Of course not!

Now, as far as depriving yourself and watching every gram of sugar, I don't think that's a good idea if you are hoping to keep the fat off. You have to be willing to make a change in your lifestyle, permanently, and I don't know anyone who could give up sweets for good! Even IDDM's indulge in a sweet occasionally.

If you want to really jump start your fat loss, try boosting your metabolism. When doing your cardio workout, boost your intensity until you are at your max. You will be in an anaerobic state, which doesn't burn as many calories at the time, but elevates your metabolism throughout the day so you'll be burning more all day. It also increases your endurance so that you can keep increasing your intensity, which then increases your metabolism more, which then causes you to burn more calories!! Yeehaw!