I’ve seen plenty of videos in various social media platforms , people saying how their entire body/physique/ overall health changed when they stop consuming sugar. Can one go without consuming sugar? How does that happen?
(Thank you in advance :))
In: Biology
Sugar is calorically dense without many other redeeming qualities, nutritionally. Removing sugar from your diet would likely reduce your intake of calories without doing harm in some other way. The size of the effect would depend on how much sugar you are already consuming and the extent to which you replace those calories with other food. There’s no particular benefit to consuming *zero* sugar as compared to just a tiny bit. It’s not like a virus that can replicate and spread from just a small exposure.
With all that said, social media fitness influencers make their money by wildly exaggerating the consequences of anything they try/recommend. You should not expect to see the same dramatic changes they do, especially in things that are easy to lie about like “mood” and “energy.”
ELI5 – Carbohydrates & sugar turn into fat (stored energy), if you stop eating carbohydrates & sugar all together your body starts consuming its fat (stored energy).
The actual biological process is much more complicated but if you just want results this formula holds true. Check out r/fasting if you want to make it even simpler.
About six years ago, I quit sugar and all refined carbs for a year to see what effects it would have on me (inspired by an athlete friend that did the same).
After about two weeks, my energy level stayed relatively constant all day long – I quit having the mid-afternoon sleepies.
I also stopped getting really hungry. This just about killed my snacking, so definitely a win.
Those were the major effects I noticed, so when my experiment was over, I still kept my sugar intake quite low – but no longer zero – so I will enjoy the occasional dessert, but for the most part, I retained my diet changes.
First some points of clarification. You can eat sugars… fruits have some sugar. The true goal is to keep your blood-sugar level from rising much. The amount of sugar in fruit isn’t too high, but also pulp of most fruit slows digestion, so the intake of sugar is slow. That’s okay, relatively speaking. Then again, avoid fruit beverages as that just goes right through you and the sugar slams your system. Chemically a lot of other “carbs” behave the same way. During digestion they just turn into sugar molecules quickly and go into you quickly. That’s what you want to avoid. But you don’t need to cut out fruit, just avoid more refined sugars/carbs. And of course, don’t just eat fruit all day.
Broadly speaking your body burns carbs/sugars before it burns fat, partially because of the blood-sugar problem. If blood-sugar levels are high, your body actively tries to burn it off. In fact it will make fat. This is what what insulin does – tells the body to burn off the fat, and hold back on releasing any stored fat so that the sugar goes first. So if you do bring in sugars, you want to do so slowly over time.
If you go really heavy on the no-sugar diet, there’s a body change as you enter what’s called ketosis. Basically you have so little sugar that the body needs to make alternative fuels for some parts of your body by breaking down fats into new molecules called ketones as the substitute fuel. Notably your brain needs them, and your liver is tasked with the job of making them. This can cause a major change in your body, and is probably what most of your social media people have talked about. The change is significant and you will notice that hunger pains basically go away, you don’t have energy highs and lows as much, and at least for a few weeks you (or even others) may notice new smells from your body as you go through the process change and your body adapts. Don’t worry, it goes away in a few weeks or so. I’m in this state now, and while I would recommend it, talk to your doctor especially if you have any health concerns… your liver being given a new job could be a problem for an unhealthy liver, diabetes can complicate this into being potentially life-threatening, etc. I am not a doctor, I don’t know much more beyond what I’ve typed here, and you should not take medical advice from weirdos on the internet.
Yes.
Most people eat too much sugar so you will likely notice health benefits by cutting back. The AHA recommendations are a maximum of 24g and 36g of added sugar for men and women respectively. Most people eat 3x that. Natural sugars are usually less of an issue because their absorption is slowed by fiber (i.e. fruit is ok), but things like fruit juices have had that fiber removed so they are about as unhealthy as soda.
You don’t actually need to eat any sugar, your body can break down carbohydrates into sugar, and in the absence of carbs your body can also make sugar from fat and protein. It’s worth noting that some carbs are broken into sugar more readily and so they will tend to be less healthy than others, generally the more refined the faster it will be broken down into sugar (you can look up a glycemic index chart for reference).
It’s a relatively aggressive way to change caloric intake, and many people will see results because it’s the first time they’ve REALLY tracked what they’re eating that closely.
Some people also get issues with insulin response after years of a high sugar diet, which can make it difficult to achieve the same actual caloric deficit a healthier diet history would generate when they do make changes because of how their metabolism responds to the changes but for most people most of the time it’s the first thing.
If you’ve struggled to lose weight with other structured eating and were genuinely sticking to those, trying a low carb option like south beach may be worth a shot. Some of it is hard science, a lot of it is just what people find themselves actually able to stick to. Dodging sugar and high carb meals entirely is a pretty clear rule that’s hard to accidentally slip up on.
To eliminate (added) sugar would inadvertently remove all ultra processed foods, which are designed to be highly palatable and there impossible to eat in moderation.
That’s what would give you most of those observed benefits!
Refined sugars actually have a very detrimental effect on the body. There are many studies on this, but they do all sorts of horrible things. Natural sugars in the amounts that one would find in fruits are much much much much smaller, compare the amount of sugar in an apple to a single Dr Pepper. You don’t need to remove sweetness from your diet, just processed foods that contain refined sugar. And to be quite frank, most of those foods are just generally awful, they’re not only high in sugars, but they’re high in saturated fats, and nutritionally devoid. As for whether or not you’ll feel the difference, in my experience if you’re over the age of 25, absolutely, if you’re younger then perhaps not, but your body will thank you when you get older Lol
Yes, it is possible by removing added sugars and avoiding anything with added sugars. Another big thing is eating less beef. Anything that reduces your daily blood glucose levels will do it; this is in good part what medications like Ozempic and Rybelsus and Wegovy do; they change the way sugar is processed in the liver so that the rate of conversion is lower and more of it is passed on to the kidneys and intestines to be removed from the body.
My doc told me to lose weight. I cut out sugar, alcohol, and almost all carbs.
Started eating lots of tuna, chicken, broccoli, carrots, etc.
Lost 60 pounds in 3 months.
Latest Answers