Good news! You CAN and SHOULD enjoy some candy once in a while without feeling like you are going to get fat.

People want an easy explanation for obesity. Sugar gets all the blame. Here’s the cold hard truth: SUGAR in itself will not magically make you fat UNLESS you are in a caloric surplus.

This CAN happen if you eat sugar without considering HOW MUCH you are eating, which is where most people go wrong. Eating “freely” after consuming sugar-drinks results in weight gain (1), and telling people to stop eating sugar causes weight loss (2). HOWEVER this is all explained by the calories people end up eating.

“Fun” foods like sugar CAN be enjoyed in moderation WITHOUT ANY negative side effects. 5-10% of your calories can come from sugar without increasing risk of heart disease (3). Therefore you CAN have sugar as long as your calories and nutrients are in check.

We like to eat “clean” 90% of the time, and throw in fun foods in moderation. On days where you know you’ll be eating a lot of “fun food” at night, our suggestion is that you limit calories to high protein “light” meals for breakfast and lunch, to then ENJOY a big tasty dinner at night. One way of doing this is to have a protein shake for breakfast and lunch.

COMPLETELY elimination sugar from your diet is COMPLETELY unnecessary. It probably won’t do your body any harm, but it sure as hell will leave you with pretty much no choice in the foods you eat and that’s no life to live.

Sources:
1. Sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain in children and adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.113.058362.

2. Dietary sugars and body weight: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials and cohort studies. doi: 10.1136/bmj.e7492.
 
3. Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2015.