Some Healthy Eating/Living Questions

.Ian.

.Ian.

Active member
Hi NSG,

I just have a couple of healthy eating/food questions and I was just wondering if anyone on here can help or give me some ideas to answer my questions. I figure that, most of us are pretty active on this site and I'm sure a good amount of people on here live at least semi-healthy lifestyles, so I think someone should be able to help.

Now, I'm not looking to lose weight here or anything. I already did that. My whole life up until about last year, I thought "oh I like junk food too much, I'll never give it up" but last year I realized how much better I would feel if I lost weight. I also found out how simple the concept actually is too, just less calories in than what your body burns, and you'll burn fat and lose weight. So I'm 6'2" and I used to weigh about 230 lbs. Now I'm a little bit too skinny and weigh 150 lbs, but I'm working on building muscle so hopefully I'll bulk up a little bit and not be such a twig.

ANYWAYS

Now since I've dropped so much weight, I really want to just build a little muscle, but still stay pretty slim too. I've been tracking my foods (calories, sugars, sodiums, and vitamins and minerals) and such, and I've been doing it for a really long time now. (I've actually been using an iphone app to watch all my food intake, and it's pretty accurate and I really like it)

I know keeping my sugar intake low is really a big part in staying healthy. My recommended (not sure who or what, set this recommendation but,) my recommended sugar intake for a day is to consume at most, about 48 grams of sugar per day. At the end of the day I always seem to be at about DOUBLE that. Haha. Now I must say, it's mostly natural sugar found in fruits, because I do eat a lot of fruits. I know this is kind of a dumb question, but how the hell do I lower my sugar intake? I mean, as it is, I never eat candy, or drink soda. I don't think I've consumed candy or soda (other than the occasional dark chocolate) since about a year ago. I don't drink gatorade or regular vitamin water or any of those "sports drinks" that are loaded with sugar either. Mostly just natural foods. So does anyone else have any suggestions on how to lower my sugar intake? What do you guys do? 48 grams seems like a lot of sugar, and a decent guideline to follow, but how accurate is that? Should I not be so worried about it, or is it actually a decent guideline? Haha Thanks.

My other question is this:

For the past year or so, since I've been losing weight, I've only drank water, and the occasional cup of milk added to a protein shake whenever I work out. (Not recently though because of a back injury). Back when I didn't care about health, I used to really enjoy soda and sports drinks like vitamin water/ gatorade. I realize now though, that unless your really working out, you shouldn't even drink those "sports drinks". So since I've been healthy, and wanted to lower my sugar intake, but I still crave that sweet taste of sugary drinks, occasionally I'll drink a Vitamin Water Zero, which seems to be decent. I mean, at least it's sweetened with Truvia, and has
 
(cont.)

Less than 1 gram of sugar in it, but I know it's not "natural" or even close. So what's an alternative that may be a little more natural to Vitamin Water Zero? I'll still drink it occasionally, just like I have been, but I'm just curious.

Actually, yesterday I had a Sugar Free RedBull. I know these are loaded with caffeine and crap like aspartame, so I really don't plan on drinking another one any time soon. Maybe I'll have one like once a month or something at most. I'm just wondering though, since I do like the taste of Sugar Free RedBull (I know some of you probably think it tastes like crap, it's all preference) are there any drinks out there that are similar too it, that possibly use vitamin B12 for energy instead of a crap load of caffeine. I realize caffeine isn't terrible if you rarely drink it, but I just want some alternative that I can still drink "occasionally" but maybe be a little more healthy and better off drinking it?

Thanks again guys. I really didn't think this would be so long.

Definitely +K to helpful responses!

Thanks.
 
Just relax, man. If you're only trying to gain a little weight you shouldn't worry so much about all of that stuff. If you're trying to get completely healthy out of your mind, I have no answers for you.
 
Congrats on loosing a third of your body weight, that's insane.

It seems like your only health question is about sugar? Google sugar info and good workout drinks?
 
Hitting your micro and macro nutrients are the most important in building up muscle/living a healthy lifestyle (I'm sure you know since you have been tracking).

If your trying to gain weight your sugar intake isn't too big of a deal but you need to be active. Fruits do have a lot of sugar in them. Try eating more veggies/almonds/beef jerkey/plain non-fat greek yogurt as substitutes depending on your macro/micro needs. To gain lean muscle mass you gotta keep the body fat off (ie too much sugar/fats/simple carbs). Depending on your metabolism you'll find gaining lean weight is just as hard work as getting it off.

Just a side note - Vitamins give you no energy (neither do minerals) they maximize your "energy potential." In other words, unless your deficient in your B12 intake you'll literally be pissing away your investment.

All in all, don't be worried about your sugar intake just stay active. I'm assuming you knew most of this but thought I would just put it out there.
 
Don't even worry about your sugar intake.. Since you are eating natural sugars and being active it's fine..your body can metabolize them and turn them into energy.. weight gain/loss is all about energy balance.. which you have figured out by now.. just eat some good lean meats..get some soy protien through veggies and you should be set..
 
If you're trying to build muscle and gain a little lean mass, lean proteins and a bit of a calorie surplus will supplement some resistance training and you will easily see gains. In the simplest terms that's all you should focus on.

As for all those questions about sugar.....it seems like the sugar you are consuming is mostly from fruit? You could exchange a large intake of sugary fruits with more vegetables but I honestly wouldn't be too horribly concerned with it. Gaining muscle is easy, and you've found a way to do the hard part of cutting already.
 
dafuq??? definitely do not listen to this guy.

you will be getting lots of fructose from eating lots of fruits but this is a good thing. fructose with fibre is natural and good for the body. if you are physically active you should never have a problem with fat from natural sugars. stay away from those drinks you are talking about. only thing i would drink besides water/coconut water is juices made from raw fresh fruits+veggies or milk.
 
seriously..most other drinks have high fructose corn syrup.. to use hfcs as energy you need to change it into fat..and it messes with brain synapses..not good stuff.
 
i;ve been just tracking my calories and macros to lose weight as well. lost like 25 pounds so far.

i drink a shit ton of diet pop still. i dont give a fuck what people have to say about aspertame. it's zero calories and what works for me

not to mention the rest of my diet is very nutritious so i find that people who judge 0cal pop are a bunch of fucking morons, mainly because they don't judge the fact that they drink normal pop or eat fast food.

anywho

back to your point

i enjoy sugar free jello, frozen yoghurt.
 
if i were you, i'd keep dieting and clean bulk 15lbs of muscle.

carb load a bit in the morning. get lots of protein throughout the day.

gaining muscle will help keep your body fat% low if you wanna consume more sugar.

i barely even watch my sugar myself. or try caffeine + ephedrine HCL (suppress the shit out of sugar cravings)
 
thats why i said stay away from those drinks.

fructose in it's natural state with fibre is good for the body. when you're ingesting it without it then it becomes toxic.
 
????

Dude... Vitamins and minerals give you ZERO calories...therefore no energy. They are tools to help utilize the nutrition from the food you eat. If you already are hitting your RDA in B12 there is NO POSSIBLE WAY for you to effectively use that vitamin any more (ie you take B12 supplements when your B12 intake is already at 100%).

This is very very...very basic nutrition. The fact that you don't know that is kinda startling.
 
crystal-light-pure-fitness.jpg


Crystal light also has sugar free mixes
 
what? the 7 classes of nutrition are vitamins, minerals, water, carbs, fats, protein, fibers...........

so if that isn't what you're talking about then are you referring to some spiritual energy that provides us with nutrition?

 
Thanks for all the help guys! + K was given to everyone. I definitely have a little more reading and research to do, but from what you guys are saying, it doesn't seem like I'm doing too bad right now. I'll definitely just eat a good amount of protein, and I'll eat a lot of nuts and legumes too, I already do, but I don't mind eating a few more almonds haha.

Thanks again for all the help and ideas!
 
betcha those are what hes talking about....

vitamins and minerals aid in the digestion and utilization of macronutrients
 
might of been said stay away from corn sweetners, theyre not just in in drinks, everything including most breads is made with it, you can have sugar thats not a huge problem just keep it cane, also a great way to lose weight is to cut out glutin
 
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