Looking at John's nutrition logs, I have this question. Well, I guess I should introduce myself first. I am matalo, 30 years, male, 6'1" 284 lbs. Before marriage= skinny and physically active. While married=not active and bloating. Also due to work I do. Sitting in front of computer screen is not most active job in the world.

Anyways, here is my question. I see on his logs, his sugar intake stays between 29-70g of sugars per day. For beginner fat loss, what is the "ideal" sugar intake per day? Is this a good example to use?

For one, you must distinguish the difference between 'good' sugar and 'bad' sugar. I like to encorporate a glass of orange juice in the day. Some people shun upon that, because of the sugar content. But I feel the nutritional benefits outweigh the non-nutritional benefits. Of course, you would want to stay away from any HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup)...anyone else wanna add to this?

Remember that you need to split your intake into Carbohydrates, Protein and Fats. There is little difference between carbohydrates and sugar, some say its just a fancy word for sugar. Basically anything your body can turn into glucose (for energy), it will. Carbohydrates are turned straight into substances such as glucose.

You see from the last post that cuttinking refers to 'good' sugars and 'bad' sugars. There are in fact 'good' and 'bad' sugars which are split up into two forms of carbohydrates. They are your 'complex' carbohydrates and your 'simple' carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are the carbs that are a slower, more constant release of glucose, wheres with the simple carbs, such as sugar, provide a glucose/energy spike which is undesirable.

It is better to look at your carbohydrate intake rather than your specific sugar intake. Basically you should choose those foods containg carbohydrates that are not substantially comprised of sugar, which can be monitored by viewing the nutritional information on the pakage.

For eg. for breakfast i may have a cereal (w/ skim milk of course) that contains 22g of carbohydrates of which 0.5g is sugar. This is obviously much preferable to one that contains 22g of carbohydrates of which 12g is sugar, such is found in your 'sweet' cereals.

You should minimise your sugar intake as much as you can while constantly monitoring how much you consume. Remember you are always going to recieve sugars from your regular foods such as those found in most fruits. Its fine as long as your sugar intake isnt excessive.

It might be a good idea to go to sites such as bodybuilding.com and reading basic articles on nutrition. This will give you a better understanding of what your body does with the foods you eat and how they affect weight loss.

I hope this has helped. :)

Its a pretty big question. Sugars in the right context are, themselves are not harmful. The levels of refind sugar present in many processed foods is a problem in that refined sugars pack a lot of calories and not many nutrients.

My advice is keep away from processed food (think everyone has heard that before) and attempt to keep the levels of whole grains and starchy carbohydrates high.

A good ratio is about 50% of calories as carbs, 20% as fats and 30% as protein. If weight training you can increase proein levels at the expense of carbohydrate to encourage muslce growth, as John did.

Because complex carbs take longer to be absorbed they also reduce insulin spikes which themselves lead to storage of fat- another reason refined sugar is BAD.

Whole foods also contain more fibre and micronutrients such as vitamin B, useful in themselves. Examples? Brown rice, brown bread, jacket potatos- keep the skin, wholemeal pasta.

These will naturally contain some sugars, but the concentration is pretty low so they get metabolized rather than stored.

I hope some of that helps.

damn, InExtremis, you beat me to it :D

avoid sugar if you want to lose weight. milk is full of sugar.

cereal.. eat oatmeal insted, much better and a much lower glycemic carb.

if you want to lose weight, concentrate your focus on eating low glycemic carbs such as green beans, salad, grape fruit, green apples, peppers, all beans, etc

the only time you want to have sugars.. persay is after a workout. and only after a workout is when you want something like dextrose with whey isolate protein. the dextrose will spike you insulin levels way up, replinishing glycogen in the body. creating pathways/carriers for the whey isolate to be taken directly to the muscle.

any other times if you consume sugar or a high glycemic carb with fats or carbs, they will be simply stored as fat.

the key to to inject low glycemic carbs throughout the entire day and only after training do you want to change the type of carbs you are eating. this way your body will not store excessive amounts of fat, and your anabolism will be increased.

I guess I should have been more specific. I was mainly concerned with the sugars in fruits. I know candy and other junk is a no, no. I have found some "snack" items from looking at weight watchers lists (I am not on weight watchers points system, but am instead doing further research into calories, protein, basically all nutrition data), and want to make sure I will be "OK" eating them and not going overboard on the sugars.

Here is the item in question:
Cal Fat Satfat Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Real Fruit Snack .7 Oz 68 0.3 0 16 1.7 11.5 0.2

This is 100% fruits. Just "compressed" into snack bar.

I wouldn't eat that...you are cutting, right?

I wouldn't eat that...you are cutting, right?

After looking at the contents more thoroughly,

Sugars 11.5-established that already
Fructose 8.0g
Sucrose .5g
Glucose- 3g

Def a no! no!

So green apples are safe?