Hey there, I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations about the amount of fruit I should be having per day.
I usually have 3-5 pieces of fruit per day, and it's usually a banana, pear, mango, apple or about 1/2 cup of grapes. The main reason I'm concerned I may be having too much is because I seem to be getting a lot of sugar at the end of the day when I tally everything up. I'm usually at around 64g of sugar per day with most of that amount coming from fruit.
I'm not sure if I should just ignore the amount of sugar I'm getting from the fruit, or if I should cut back. Any help is greatly appreciated
I wouldn't worry about it - as long as you are staying within your calorie allotment. Fruit IS caloric, healthy as all get out, but caloric, especially in large quantities, it's definitely possible to go overboard, so again - just stay within your budget and this shouldn't be an issue.
At some point you may want to switch those calories around - more veggies (& volume since they're less calorie dense than fruit), more protein = more filling power. You will see.
I think a lot of it depends on the kind of plan you're on, and whether you need to restrict sugar... As a calorie counter, I love fruit! It serves as a substitute for more caloric desserts, and there's so much variety! And can be so fresh!
But even though I don't restrict sugar, sometimes my trainer bemoans me eating too many sugars...
Fruit is so nutritious, but I was noticing your fruit choices. Bananas and Pears are some of the highest calorie fruits. I love them both, but I try to eat those 2 sparingly. You could switch that around some. I was just reading yesterday that Strawberries have the least sugar of any "popular" fruit. You could trade out a cup of strawberries sometimes, (45 calories) for the Banana (100 for a small 6") Melons are typically lower than pears by a long shot. Both have less sugar.
And as Robin mentioned maybe switch some of the fruit out for veggies. Way less calories/sugar and a lot of staying power.
Fruit has a lot of vitamins and minerals, but as pointed out already, some of them can be pretty high in calories and sugars. I don't eat bananas very much anymore, or grapes, because of their high sugar (carb) content. But then, I'm concerned about blood sugar because I"m pre-diabetic.
But I eat a lot of berries (my MIL's mulberry and rasberry bushes are heavy with fruit right now!), and melons (watermelon is one of my faves recently). I also eat stone fruit (cherries, peaches, plums) and apples. I don't eat much tropical fruit (oranges, mangoes, pineapple, bananas), because they tend to be much sweeter.
Maybe you could try some of the berries and stone fruits, rather than bananas and pears. See if that helps.
Right now I'm just doing the basic calorie counting diet and it seems to be working out very well as long as I restrict my sodium intake.
I'll definitely have to try out some different fruits with lower sugar/carb content like berries and throw in some vegetables once in a while to reduce the amount of sugar a bit.
Right now I'm just doing the basic calorie counting diet and it seems to be working out very well as long as I restrict my sodium intake.
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The basic calorie counting diet? I'm not sure what you mean by this, but I think you will discover as you get further into this that the types of calories that you consume is VERY important. You really want to get the biggest bang for you buck from them. It's also very important to dry up your wants for those other unhealthy foods even if they DO fit into your calorie budget. Empty calories, well they're - empty and don't do much and aren't satiating and it's HARD to stick to a calorie allotment while eating them.
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and throw in some vegetables once in a while to reduce the amount of sugar a bit.
Does this mean that you're not eating any vegetables? Because vegetables are also a vital component to good health/weight loss. They give you a HUGE bang for you calorie buck. And that's what we're after.
I 2nd rockinrobin, calories from fruit are not as satiating as say proteins or healthy fats and certain veggies. Fruit is so good but it can slow down weightloss because of the higher sugar content, imo.
Like others mentioned, pineapple,watermelon,bananas and others are very high in fructose so be careful with those and opt for berries.
It can be tricky. Like you already said you are going to be mindful of the fruits now, good idea!
Are you sensitive to sugar? I find that too much fruit triggers intense hunger and cravings for me. I usually have 1 banana each morning and 1 other fruit sometime during the day....apple, watermelon, cantaloupe, etc. I love summer fruits, so this can get tough sometimes.
Fruit is a wonderful thing and as long as you aren't diabetic (or otherwise medically sensitive to sugar/carbs) and it fits in your calorie allotment, I don't think there's such a thing as too much. I do think it is important to not allow the fruits to replace your vegetables. Most of the time my rule for myself is that I can't have a fruit serving until I have had a veggie serving at that meal. I will sometimes get an extra veggie serving in ahead of time when I know there is some fruity thing I want later - I doubled my veggies at dinner last night because I knew I wanted an all fruit smoothie later.
What I mean by the basic calorie counting diet is just reducing my calorie intake to the amount of calories suggested to loose 2 pounds a week according to my level of activity, weight and height. While counting calories I keep an eye on fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbs and try to not exceed the daily intake percentage that is scaled down to the calories I'm eating.
I have replaced white grains with whole grains with high fiber content, sweet snacks like cookies and cakes with fruit instead, and have gone for lower calorie/fat and sodium alternatives. I'm not sure if this type of diet has a specific name or not so I just call it the basic calorie counting diet since I'm not restricting a specific value like fat or carbs.
I'm not getting a whole lot of vegetables right now, I would say around one serving a day cooked into dinner. I understand they are extremely important and I should be getting a lot more then I do right now and its something I have been trying to work on.
I think I have been doing pretty good though. I went from not eating any vegetables besides onions, potatoes and carrots occasionally for the past 15 years, to being able to add a larger variety of vegetables to my dinner every night and start to enjoy them within the last month.
That's what really got me into eating so much fruit a day and taking multivitamins since I started my lifestyle change, was to make up for the lack of vegetables. I hope to be able to eat more vegetables as time goes on and I start getting used of the textures and tastes and be able to eat them raw. Eventually I hope to be able to increase the amount of vegetables I have to at least 4 servings per day
As far as fruit goes, I have been told by medical professionals that the fruits in sugars are natural, and, therefore, not as bad for you as the sugars that are found in candy (for example). However, it's still all relative. You're not going to lose weight if you switch out eating a full bag of potato chips daily to eating a full bag of apples daily.
It totally depends on you. And might change as you lose weight. I started losing weight by eating ENORMOUS amounts of fruit & veggies. Like, 4 peaches, 2 apples, a pint of berries, some plums, a cup of pineapple, a banana, and 2 cups of grapes in a day. Every day. But I was coming from a place where I was eating ENORMOUS amounts of JUST junk food every day. So doing that worked for me and eased me into a better diet. After awhile I cut back on fruit and counted calories but still at about 5 servings a day. I lost weight all along the way... 64 pounds in under a year... but then I stalled, had binges, regained some.
So now I have gone low carb and I plan to never really have more than 2 or 3 pieces of fruit in a day for the rest of my life.
Try different things, see what works for you. If you lose weight eating lots of fruit, great! Fruit is good for you.
Fruit doesn't bother me at all, I eat as much of it as I want. I do also eat more veggies, though, and if I eat fruit I need a fat and protein with it, or it can stimulate my appetite. For example, if I am eating an apple or banana for a snack, I also have some cashews or beans with them, it just satisfies me better.
I do basic calorie counting as well, I haven't had a need to go low carb or low sugar, I just try to eat a moderate diet of mostly whole foods, including full fats or some things, mostly whole, freshly ground grains, and lots of fiber. Sometimes my diet looks junkier, most of the time it is nice and healthy with ors of protein. But a good 60% of my calories still come from carbs, I feel better than way. They just so happen to be healthy, nutritious carbs like kamut bread (homemade and home ground flour) or a salad of homemade dressing, bell peppers, carrots, and lettuce. These things are carb-heavy, but they don't bother my body chemistry.
My age and health might also have something to do with it. Even though I am obese, I have fabulous cholesterol, good blood pressure, no insulin issues, even in pregnancy, and no deficiencies. So my body doesn't react badly to certain macronutrients like someone who has years of insulin resistance or body chemistry that creates binge reactions to sugar or fat might.
How much fruit is too much?
Dhani 
