Sugar intake each day....MFP says I have WAY too much...

I have been trying to utilize my fitness pal more because my weight loss took a complete stand still, and I had even gained a few pounds. I have been tracking every day, and I have met my calorie goals of being under 1200 each day, I have been getting over 70 grams of protein each day, and my fat has been well under goal. However, MFP says my goal for sugar content is 24 grams. I have consistently been well about double that each day. For breakfast I eat a tub of greek yogurt with some protein granola, and I eat one piece of fruit a day. Adding that to the standard sugar in my foods here and there, it adds up really fast. I know sugar can be bad for us and can also lead to dramatically slowed weight loss. But I also know that natural sugars, such as in fruit, are not as bad....so am I okay with this level of sugar intake each day? My "artificial sugar" intake today was 12 grams, plus 11 grams for the granola (I don't know if any of that is natural or not?). I then had 6 grams for my greek yogurt and 15 grams for my pear I ate. Am I hurting my weight loss by having this amount of sugar? Any advice or insight is appreciated! Thank you!

What you're doing sounds fine to me.  I see a big difference between added sugar like sucrose or high fructose corn syrup and the naturally occuring sugars in milk (lactose) or fruit (fructose).

Thank you, Kelly! I always appreciate your feedback (and I really love it when you think I am doing okay, haha). 

 

24g seems a little low when you have to take natural sugars into consideration.  I eat enough dairy and fruit that I am sure I get more than that every day and it hasn't hurt maintaining my weight.

Lora

I thought 24g seemed really low too. But all of the goals it sets are based on my current weight. It has actually been relatively difficult to stay under 1,200 calories a day lately now that my appetite and ability to eat are getting closer to normal. I am not too sure how accurate MFP's goals are for my real needs, but it says at 1200 calories a day, I should lose 1.4 pounds per week. So we will see how that works. 

Thank you for your input!

If that's a typical day I wouldn't worry too much. Yogurt will naturally have sugar and fruit does too. If it concerns you maybe try berries instead of the pear the sugar should be less in berries.

Or better yet give the fruit a rest for a week and eat fresh veggies and see if your weight loss increases.

Oh, my weight loss had stopped because I was making awful choices. I started eating more than I should, I was snacking and grazing and eating just overall poor choices. I deserted the protein first rule, I wasn't taking my vitamins. I knew it was horrible, but I couldn't make myself stop. So I started tracking again and it has completely straightened me out. My dietician says tracking turns me into an obsessive freak (in nicer terms of course) and I shouldn't do it. But apparently I need to. Since starting tracking again, I have lost the 5 pounds I gained and also lost an additional 3. I have also been taking my vitamins consistently again and getting all my protein and fluids in. I apparently need to track to be a good girl. 

My dietician had set a goal for me to get at least one fruit and one veggie in a day. So I have been working on that. I was getting my veggies but not my fruits. So yeah....I have been trying to get at least one serving of each a day. It is honestly kind of difficult to get them in without having high sugars and/or carbs. 

I was told that any serving portion that had more than 5g of any kind of sugar (natural or otherwise) 5 g of fat was too high.