Does Sugar Make us Fat?

If you get your nutrition advice from a woman’s magazine, you will probably be under the assumption that sugar is the source of all evil. Fear not, my fellow sweet tooth; you can indeed have your cake and eat it – and enjoy it! This current attack on sugar is ludicrous, and just another scapegoat for the obesity ‘epidemic’. Through reading the next few paragraphs, you too will be more informed to make flexible choices in your diet, leading to more long term success and better weight management without having to deprive yourself.

So where does this idea that sugar makes us fat come from? Well, there are a load of theories which look at how insulin raises when we eat foods high in sugar. Insulin is a hormone which helps shuttle carbohydrates into fat stores, and also works to inhibit fat burning. High insulin levels are also linked to obesity. All this makes it seem, to the uneducated observer, that sugar causes fat. But is there any substantiation to this claim beyond wild accusations from petri dish observers viewing a small time scale out of context to the human body in the grand scheme of things? In short – no.

Surwit and colleagues (1997) compared two separate diets, one containing 43% table sugar and one with just 4% table sugar. These people completed 6 weeks of these diets, and then the results of their body composition were taken. The results? There were NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES seen in both the loss of bodyfat or bodyweight between the two diets. So a diet almost half in sugar produced the same weight loss as one devoid of sugar. On top of this, a whole load of biomarkers and things such as satiety remained the same for both groups.

But I thought sugar enters your blood faster and raises insulin more

It does – but weight gain/ loss is more complicated than simply blaming one hormone and the amounts/speeds that it raises. You can look at short term studies all you want, but the real answer is in the long term trials.

In 2008 Aston et al. studied the effects of glycemic index on bodyweight in overweight and obese women, finding no correlation between faster acting carbohydrates and increases in weights when calories are the same. So even when the carbohydrates come into your blood at a faster/slow rate or insulin released is high or low it doesn’t mean you will get fat.

What does this mean for me?

What it means is that, in terms of weight loss, eating sugar is not going to impede your goals. In fact, if you are a sweet tooth like me, eating sugar can help you achieve your weight loss goals. Depriving yourself of some sweet things will more likely damage your motivation, leading to ditching the diet and stalling your weight loss/gaining weight.

Weight loss is a product of being in a calorie deficit, regardless of what your diet looks like. Look at This Study by Sacks Et al (2009) comparing diets with different amounts of carbs, protein and fats. There was no difference in the weight loss or lipid profiles of the subjects, even though they ate wildly varying diet compositions. Sure, I would make sure your protein intake is adequate (1 gram per pound of bodyweight) to ensure you lose more fat than muscle, but after that, feel free to make flexible choices with your calories.

Take home message

As usual, when it comes to weight loss, calories are king; set your weekly goals for calories and stick to them. Don’t deprive yourself of a bit of sugar every now and again, if you want a bit of cake and it fits into your calorie allowance, go ahead and enjoy it.

I should point out that I am not advocating a diet full in sugar. Whilst this could (as demonstrated by the scientific study) produce weight loss, it would not provide you with adequate nutrition in terms of vitamin, mineral, fibre, content etc. I would limit sugar intake to 100 grams per day if you are sedentary, and allow more if you are active. Don’t go crazy and eat nothing but sugar, but at the same time don’t completely eliminate it from your diet in the fear that it will make you fat (it won’t).   

As always, eat food high in nutrition on the whole, but enjoy sweets in moderation.

Scientific References

   Surwit RS, et al. Metabolic and behavioral effects of a high-sucrose diet during weight loss. Am J Clin Nutr. 1997 Apr;65(4):908-15.

Sacks FM, et al. Comparison of Weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein and carbohydrates. N Engl J Med. 2009 Feb 26;360(9):859-73.  

Aston LM, Stokes CS, Jebb SA(2007). No effect of a diet with a reduced glycaemic index on satiety, energy intake and body weight in overweight and obese women. Int J Obes (Lond). 2008 Jan; 32(1):160-5. Epub 2007 Oct 9.

Calorie cycling?

No, this has nothing to do with getting on a bike and cycling away your calories. This is a concept that can, once again, really aid you in your weight loss goals for several reasons. It will allow you more freedom to eat larger portions, get rid of cravings, aid in maintenance of metabolism and therefore keep your weight loss continuing for longer, and your ability to diet will be improved dramatically.

Remember, the person who loses half a pound a week for a year will be better off than the person who loses 10 pound a week for a month, and then quits. This is why choosing a diet that is sustainable in the long term and which doesn’t cut out any of your foods is the best option.... like this one.

What is calorie cycling?

A typical dieting approach involves a method (direct or indirect) of cutting overall calories. Most approaches employ a specific daily deficit – one where every day is a low calorie day. The main problem with this, as you will have found, is that your metabolism will eventually drop to match the new calorie intake. For example, if you normally eat 2,000 calories a day, dropping to 1,500 a day will initially see weight loss. But after a week/month, your metabolism will drop down so that it only uses 1,500 calories per day. The result – no more weight loss.

Has your weight loss frustratingly stopped?

Calorie cycling is where you would alternate the amount of calories you eat per day. For example, one day you would eat 1,300 and the next you would eat 2,000. The advantages of this approach are;

·         You are only really dieting one day at a time – when it gets tough, you can remember that “Tomorrow is a high calorie day”. This is a huge psychological advantage over an orthodox diet.

·         Human metabolism is much more reactive to 3 day spans. By using your ‘up days’ (high calorie days), you are essentially telling your body that there is still food available and there is no need to drop metabolic rate.

·         You can combine your high calorie days with your exercise days (if you are exercising) so that the extra nutrients are used to support muscle maintenance/glycogen replenishment rather than fat replenishment.

·         You can use the high calorie days to eat some foods you have been craving – how many other diets can say this?

·         Even if those foods are a little sugary, they will be better partitioned as your skeletal tissue will now be more insulin sensitive (a good thing) and your liver will be glycogen depleted.

What this means for you is less fat, more lean body tissue (think toned body), and a diet which is mentally easier to stick to and physically easier to stick to.

There is evidence that this type of calorie cycling can also be valuable for a range of health benefits, such as lower inflammation, positive effects on asthma, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, blood glucose levels, heart disease markers etc. There are even animal studies showing that it can extend life-spans a very significant amount, and lower risks for Parkinson’s disease. It is too early to say regarding humans, but preliminary tests look good.

How to do this?

Work out how many calories you need per day to maintain your weight. For example, if you are a typical active male, this would be around 2,500 calories per day. Eat at maintenance level every other day, and in between those days, cut your calories by 500-1,000 calories. So it may look something like this;

Day	Calories
Monday	2,500
Tuesday	1,500
Wednesday	2,500
Thursday	1,500
Friday	2,500
Saturday	2,500
Sunday	1,500

That totals 14,500 calories for the week, which is a 3,000 calorie deficit – almost a pound of fat. With the above plan, the person was also on high days for the weekend (when they may be going out, socialising), and only had 3 diet days in the week. By eating the correct foods on the ‘down days’, the person would be able to feel fully satiated. By combining the calories like we discussed last week, this could also mean two big meals of 750 calories each. Then on ‘up days’, they would be able to be a little more lenient on their food choices and have a little of what they felt they were missing out on. Maybe a bit of ice cream J

 Ice cream on a diet? surely not!

An introduction

I have an insatiable appetite; I can sometimes go through 2,500 calories in a single sitting and 5,000 calories in a day. I also have a sweet tooth. I love cakes, biscuits, sweets (candy, for our American counterparts), chocolate - is your mouth watering yet? The problem with this combination is that you can easily put on weight, and left unchecked I can easily put on 10 pounds in a week or two. Do this over the course of a year and you have serious problems.

Luckily for me, I have managed to maintain my weight consistently over the last 10 years. Sure, there have been some fluctuations, but I have found ways of staying well within the healthy range whilst enjoying foods that I want in quantities that I want. I want to share some of those concepts with you, so that maybe you can be freed of the helplessness you feel regarding controlling your weight.

I hate hearing when others are on a ‘diet’ as it always signifies that they are going to be depriving themselves for the next 2 weeks (or however long their weak willpower lasts). If you have ever seen me on a diet, you will realise that I certainly don’t deprive myself – often people make comments more in the range of “you are so lucky you can eat so much and still stay thin”. What they don’t realise is that I am not lucky at all, but through certain strategies I use, I am able to still indulge in large portions of delicious food whilst dropping weight.

The typical story for a dieter goes like this - realising they have 20 pounds to lose before their next beach holiday, they quickly research the latest fad diet which involves cutting out everything they love. Usually they will have to do something very strange as a ‘hook’, such as drinking a glass of bath water. There will usually be some idiotic scientific explanation for why drinking a glass of bath water will somehow use the lost bodily salts to supercharge your metabolism (please people, don’t try this – it is just a sarcastic example). After a week, they are already craving everything they cut out of their diet and are pretty sick of the bath water, but as they have lost 6 pounds in their first week, they continue on. Second week comes, they step on the scales and nothing, didn’t budge an inch. All that effort and missing out on good foods, only to see the same reading on the scales as last week. Very quickly, the diet is abandoned and a binge fest of epic proportions begins. Within a week, they have put back on most of the weight they lost, within a month they have gained a little more than original. Now, the cycle either begins again with the next fad diet, or the person feels that dieting simply doesn’t work for them.

Is this someone you know – or you? It doesn’t have to be this way. I am going to try and write a few articles in my spare time - different strategies to help you break free of the above destructive cycle. It will allow you to consistently lose weight and still maintain the ability to go out, have drinks and meals without sabotaging it. I will also try and go through some quality foods that can add a nutritious punch to your meals, as well as fill you up better. The foods and strategies suggested will also enable you to maintain as much muscle as possible during your weight loss, so it will leave you much more toned than most other diet plans.

This is a serious passion of mine, I have spent many years researching this stuff and putting it into practice through tinkering and experimenting with variants and extremes to see what works. I hope that this can influence people in a positive way, and make them think a little differently about dieting and have a more healthy relationship with food. Taking care of yourself and being in shape is one of the best things you can do for your health and general wellbeing. And now, it doesn’t have to be a chore either. Bookmark this page,  share it, add it to your favourites or add your email address at the top of the page to keep track of the updates. I hope it helps you.


Enjoy your food :)