Is this truth, or a lie?

I have been trying to lose weight for some time now, and due to my sweet tooth, this hasn't been really effective. I have recently given up my chocolates and cookies (in moderation) and I have begun to look for substitutes.  I figured that fruit would be a good replacement (they are sweet!) 

Well, my mother told me that Fruit have a lot of CARBS and that leads to gaining weight.  Do you think she is right? should I cut back on the fruit? If so, what should I replace it with?  (I don't eat pounds of fruit.. but when I'm hungry for a bowl of cereal, I'll eat a banana instead...)

Yes fruit has carbs, but not bad carbs they are good carbs. Too much of anything can cause weight gain, not just carbs. And fruit is much better then cereal.

Yes fruit is full of sugar and Carbs, but if you're eating it in moderation, say a handful of grapes, an apple, or a medium sized banana then there's no harm.  If you're like me and actually physically crave sweets, try the sugar free gummy bears... lol... trust me they're sweet but you'll only eat too much once (in a lot of people they have a laxative effect if you eat too many which is a great deterant from binging) Just remember too much of anything isn't good for you

first, sugar is a carb.  so, yes, fruit has carbs.

second, carbs are good.  they don't make you gain weight; consuming more calories than you expend makes you gain weight.

third, fruit is good for you.  it's full of vitamins and fiber.  candy is not.

carbs don't lead to weight gain - over eating leads to weight gain.

if you are counting calories, and the fruit is within your limit, go for it. Veggies too!

I completely understand about the sweets.  They are my downfall.  I absolutely love chocolate and I think I would die without it.  But your mother is only partially right about fruits and carbs.  Fruit does contain carbs, but those are healthy carbs.  Your body needs carbs for fuel, so eating fruit is not going to make you fat.  It is the processed carbs that you need to stay away from.  Fruit is full of complex carbs, which are good for you.  So yes, fruit is a good option for a sweet craving.

This whole Atkins/South Beach diet craze has everyone believing that all carbs are the enemy.  But it's just not true!  Our bodies need fruit, vegetables, protein, and whole grains.  Eating fruit all day long would not be recommended (due to sugar highs and some not so fun trips to the bathroom), but everything in moderation, right?

That being said, now onto your sweet tooth:  I too crave chocolate and some other sweets and found myself overeating the low calorie stuff because it just wasn't good enough.  So I buy the Lindt dark chocolate truffles (which have about 70 calories each) and tell myself I can have 1 or 2 a day.  I don't always eat them, but knowing I have alloted calories for them keeps my cravings down because I'm not depriving myself.  This is the good chocolate that is so satisfying!  You'll find that if you allow yourself the real sweets (in moderation!), the intense cravings will subside.

 Good luck! 

Original Post by pgeorgian:

second, carbs are good.  they don't make you gain weight; consuming more calories than you expend makes you gain weight.

Well said! 

The density of calories is a lot lower in fruit than most sweets.  So you can eat more volume of fruit than sweets.  Penn State nutritionists recently identified that eating an apple 15 minutes prior to a meal, led to less calories being consumed (counting the apple).  Eating healthy is a relative term - but fruits and vegatables are a must of any healthy diet. 

I don't believe anyone has ever gained weight from eating fruit. I'll bet there's not one person that visits CC who can legitimately claim they over ate on fruit and got fat. The notion is down right silly.

A typical candy bar as 240 calories. That is equal to 3 medium apples or 2 1/2 medium bananas. If you ate 3 apples in place of the candy bar, you'd be too full to overeat on high calorie items.

a person NEEDS carbs- it is the main source of energy for your body.  Fats and proteins are consumed by the bodyfor energy if it does not have sufficient carbs in its diet( why the Atkins and similar diets)   If you eat too much carbs your body stores it as fat deposits. Glucose and fatty acids in your diet become layers of fat stores in your body. glucose is from carbs and fatty acids from fats in your foods.

Your body breaks down all carbs into glucose to be absorbed by your intestine's walls.  ( why diabetics have to watch what they eat-a quick and very high raise of glucose in the blood is not good because their bodies have a hard time adjusting the glucose levels(lowering it by it by cells using it or by storing it as fat,etc) It's the very long and high levels of glucose in the bloodstream that does long term damage to a diabetic)

 

 So the amount of carbs you eat determine how "fat" you get. Candy bars have lots of carbs for its weight. Fresh fruit though has a lot more water diluting the amount of Carbs you consume in a mouthful. Dried fruit especially dried sweet fruit, has so much less water it can rival candy bars for the amount of carbs.  the other thing fruit has is fiber to make digestion easier, candy bars have very little fiber. 

Look up CC's library and try to figure out what it says about  nutrition.   It's easier to figure out what is good food if you know what the various components of food do to your body, what they are good for.   Like for example vit C. if you know you body can only handle so much vit C a day, you know eating more than (say 3 oranges) will not give you extra vit C.  Your body will store extra iron but it can only absorb so much at a time. so for iron, eating a steak in one sitting is not as good as eating small pieces of steak over a couple of days.  with carbs, lots of carbs at one sitting translates into carbs been stored as fat, that is why fruit is better than candy bars or cookies as it has water to dilute the Carbs. You could have a similar effect by drinking 3 cups of water with a candy bar. it would certainly make eating candy bars or cookies less carb intensive if you drink a lot of water with them.  if you drank the water first,you are not likely to be that hungry for the candybar

Original Post by nsgardener:

 So the amount of carbs you eat determine how "fat" you get.

The number of calories you eat determines how "fat" you get.  All excess calories are stored as fat.  It does not matter if they come from carbs, protein, fat or alcohol. 

Fiber is technically a carbohydrate we just can't digest it, now if we were ruminates like cows and goats then we could break down a bit more of it. Think of all those delicious calories our ineffective digestive systems are missing.

That's my two cents, now off to eat celery which is pretty much all carbs

carbs, sweets, doesnt matter

 4 things -

1) eat less calories than you take in 3500 calories less a week than you need and you will drop .5kg or half a pound (guaranteed)

2) eat a low GI food for lunch to make sure you are not starving for dinner (beans lentils etc)

3) train for 30 mins 3 times a week to improve your metablosim

4) have one cheat day, eat basically what you want

 keep it simple, you will lose weight - I GUARANTEE IT

In the words of a dear friend..... fruit is full of sugar and "sugar retains water like a thirsty ethiopian kid."

 So just keep that in mind. Fruits are good for you, but don't think you can eat as many as you want and lose weight.

Generally speaking fruit contains good for you carbs. Some caution would be good though, as some fruits are high glycemic. Bananas are an example of a high glycemic fruit that may cause us to store fat because of the insulin response that eating high glycemic foods causes.

Apples are great choices and one of the few foods where you burn more calories eating them than the number of calories they contain!

Berries are good as well. I eat 1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt with 1 cup of frozen unsweetened blackberries for a nice sweet treat. Total calories 177, which is a whole lot better than 490 calories in a medium dipped cone from DQ. And the yogurt is low glycemic. Let me know if you would like to know more about low glycemic foods. Or, just search them out on the net.

 

 

The best way to lose weight is to learn how to eat right and count calories.  Right before Thanksgiving I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes and because of other things going on my doctor scared the daylights out of me and told me that I MUST exercise and lose weight.  She put me on 1800 calories a day.  I went to a dietician.  She agreed with 1800 calories a day and prescribed 45 minutes of sustained exercise a day.  Exercise where I'm sweating and breathing heavily. 

I stopped eating refined sugar the second I was diagnosed because it is empty calories that I did not want to deal with and it is a trigger for me.  I have to say I am addicted to sweets.  So, total abstinance is the only way for me.

I have replaced sugar with dry or fresh fruits in cereal.  And eat a couple of pieces of fruit a day.  But I weigh and/or measure EVERYTHING I eat.  By doing this eventually you will be able to eye it and know that's 5 ounces of banana you're looking at and 125 calories. 

I have lost 20 pounds since Thanksgiving and am about half way to my goal.  My doctor is very happy.  This is not the first time I have done this and lost weight, but I did not previously consult with a dietician.  And I also believe that for most of us it's a lifetime commitment.  You have to keep on counting those calories even to maintain your weight or it starts to creep back on.
Take care,
Mary.

I agree with whoever said that you need to eat a bit of what you crave, IF and only IF you can keep it in moderation. I also crave chocolate and if I don't have any in the house, I might binge on anything in sight.

So I always keep Cadbury Thin bars in my freezer. They only contain 100 calories each, and take a long time to melt in your mouth from the frozen state.

I also wash my grapes, remove them from the stems, and measure out 1 cup portions into small zip-lock bags, then freeze them. Delicious!!!!!

soybean3, you asked 3 different questions, all with different answers.

Is this truth, or a lie?  Truth. Unlimited amounts of any food will contribute to weight gain.

Do you think she is right? No. Fruit has less carbs than candy or cookies unless they are sugar free, and maybe even then, depending on the other ingredients. 

Should I cut back on the fruit? Depends on how much you are consuming.  Without knowing your age, weight & height, it is hard to know how much you need. The Harvard diet pyramid suggests 2 to 3 servings of fruit daily., and the USDA food pyramid suggest 3 to 5.Sounds like maybe you need to take advantage of the great tools that are on this site to find out how many carbs you really do take in daily, but just for the record, veggies are generally lower in carbs than fruits. 

One other thing.. Sometimes not enough protein in your diet is the thing that makes you hungry.Good luck to you.

I count calories, not carbs.  It is true, however, that carb calories get digested first in our bodies, thus allowing us to get hungry sooner than the calories in protein and fat.

I like to think of calories on a continuum.  For example, in general, many kinds of fruit have more calories than many vegetables, but less calories than a glass of juice.  A fresh orange (about 65 calories) has more calories than a cup of broccoli flowerets (20 calories) but less calories than an 8 oz. glass of orange juice (110 calories).  

Empty calories can be considered the same way.  A blueberry muffin (about 160 to 460 calories, depending on size, etc.) vs a donut (about 170 to 700 calories) vs a slice of oatmeal bread (about 73 calories)--the donut and muffin having more fat and sugar than the bread.  Then, consider what you put on the bread or muffin as well.

There are many good calorie counting programs where you can record what you eat and keep track of the calories. 

The DASH diet is another good approach.  It's designed for reducing high blood pressure--partly by moderate weight loss.  ("The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet can help you control your blood pressure. The DASH diet — which has been clinically proved to reduce blood pressure — is rich in grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products. It limits fat, saturated fat and cholesterol and provides plenty of fiber, potassium, calcium and magnesium."  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dash-diet/HI 00048) 

 

If you are looking for fruits low in carbs melons are great.Plus the high water content in them fills you up.

Try to eat fruits that are high in fiber such as oranges, berries, and pineapple. Melons are also good. Fruits to limit are apples and bananas. I have lost 140 lbs. and I eat a lot of fruit.

Hope this helps.