Sport How much fruit is too much?

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Beetlejuice

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Just wondering how much fruit is too much to eat. I am a female rower, 64kg (about 140 pounds), 5 foot 9, trying to lose 5kg to get back to lightweight category. Current body fat is 13.3%
I currently eat quite a bit of fruit on a daily basis, as I try to eat cleanly and hate having to take too much time to prepare foods. I find fruit quick, easy, tasty and filling. However, how much is too much?
My current diet looks something like this:
5am pre-training: Banana
8am post-training: 2 eggs scrambled with skim milk on 2x multigrain toast, 1 cup fruit salad
11am snack: fruit
1pm lunch: Chicken or tuna with salad
3pm pre-training snack: Fruit
7pm dinner: Steamed vegetables - carrots, broccoli, sweet potato with chicken or fish
8:30pm snack: fruit with yoghurt

I feel like i might be getting too many simple sugars from fruit, is there anything else I can have as snacks etc? What else should I have in my diet?

Thanks in advance for the help.
Beetle
 
People wont agree with me, but honestly when i was trying to lose weight i would have as I wanted. Apples, bananas, watermelon, grapes, oranges, had a crapload of these everyday.

The simple sugars from fruit are natural sugars, not the same sugars from milk or white bread.
 
I would disagree with the eat as much as you can approach. At the very least Beetle you need to :-

1. Count your calorie intake
2. Eat at a caloric deficit from your maintenance level to lose weight.
3. Log your calories in and out daily.
 
Beetlejuice said:
Just wondering how much fruit is too much to eat. I am a female rower, 64kg (about 140 pounds), 5 foot 9, trying to lose 5kg to get back to lightweight category. Current body fat is 13.3%
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13.3% body fat is already pretty low for a woman. If you lose 5kg (11 pounds) of just body fat, you'd be down to 5.9%., which is below the usual quoted numbers for essential fat for women (which start at 10-12%, with some places suggesting up to 15%, meaning that you are already there or close to there).

In other words, you'll have to give up some strength (muscle weight) as well as fat weight in order to get under 60kg.

If you are limiting calories, choose fresh whole fruit and avoid fruit juices, dried fruit, canned fruit (typically in syrup = added sugar), and commercial fruit flavored yogurt (which has added sugar).
 
Beetlejuice,

You have a thread of philosophy, and researched info. Nutrition principles are nice BUT- and this is a BIG BUTT!!! You are a person, an athlete no less, and quite active.

Read the stickies in the nutrition section. You need to establish a BMI (I don't even know what that stands for). On average mine is very high. Well over 4000 (including my workouts) IE: this morning I ran over 10 miles in 90 minutes. With your daily nutrition design, my caloric deficiency would be sooo huge- and yours will too.--- take a bit of time and get a handle on your health. Otherwise you may end up in tooo much deficiency (then you have benges) or the wrong ration of fat to carb to proteins (poor results).

your health, building, cutting, developing strangth, and god forbid you have these young body builders help you with endurance---- what I am trying to say is- this is a bigger project! But can be done in short time.

Go read the stickies.

p.s. restricting your food, or actually changing it too much at all, prior to this 4 hour bike race you have coming up could hurt you, and your results ;)

did i mention to read the stickies?? those are the posts that have been looked over and scrutinized, and fixed up for the best of all.

It is in the stickies!! hhahahhaa
 
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tjl said:
13.3% body fat is already pretty low for a woman. If you lose 5kg (11 pounds) of just body fat, you'd be down to 5.9%., which is below the usual quoted numbers for essential fat for women (which start at 10-12%, with some places suggesting up to 15%, meaning that you are already there or close to there).

In other words, you'll have to give up some strength (muscle weight) as well as fat weight in order to get under 60kg.

If you are limiting calories, choose fresh whole fruit and avoid fruit juices, dried fruit, canned fruit (typically in syrup = added sugar), and commercial fruit flavored yogurt (which has added sugar).
Click to expand...

Well said tjl - good post.

When you consider ' essential fat for men ' is only around 2-4%, going from 12% ' essential fat in women ' to 6% would be close to the equivalent of a man with 4% bodyfat cutting further to 2% in order to compete in a demanding sport like rowing.

No female athlete serious about optimizing athletic performance safely should consider rowing at a 6% body fat IMO. And I would hope, an ethical rowing coach feel the same way.
 
Phate89 said:
People wont agree with me, but honestly when i was trying to lose weight i would have as I wanted. Apples, bananas, watermelon, grapes, oranges, had a crapload of these everyday.

The simple sugars from fruit are natural sugars, not the same sugars from milk or white bread.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the sugars in milk are natural. Doesn't milk naturally have lactose?

I can understand trying to cut out white bread, but milk seems like a perfectly healthy and natural thing.
 
Yes, there is lactose in milk. And, there is nothing wrong with consuming milk unless one is lactose intolerant (especially the lower fat versions of 1% or less).

Lactose is a natural sugar found in milk. It's two sugars glucose and galactose bound together. Alot of breads and potato products are made with milk and contain lactose.


Best wishes to all on the forum! ROCK THIS YEAR!

Smile for a While and stay Versatile!



Chillen
 
actually essential fat for women is 8% (the lowest possible), not 10-12%, according to the book "Burn the fat feed the muscle".

8% is like the lowest women ever get, the equivalent of a man at 3%.

I have never heard of a woman safely getting under 8% before..

I could be wrong, but under 8% is unheard of for women.
 
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realworksuks said:
actually essential fat for women is 8% (the lowest possible), not 10-12%, according to the book "Burn the fat feed the muscle".

8% is like the lowest women ever get, the equivalent of a man at 3%.

I have never heard of a woman safely getting under 8% before..

I could be wrong, but under 8% is unheard of for women.
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Actually, it's been reported that The American Council on Exercise puts ' essential fat ' for women at 10-12%.

Body Fat Measurement: Percentage Vs. Body Mass
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I realise that cutting 5kg is going to mean losing some muscle weight if I'm going to get there safely. I have been there before, and managed to get down to 58kg and 8.7% body fat. It is not the ideal situation to be in, but given my height and build, I am no where near big enough to row as a heavyweight, therefore lightweight is my only option if I want to be competitive.
My BMR is approx. 1800cals and I burn on average about 2000-3000 cals training. My maintenance cals are somewhere around 4000cals a day. At the moment I am probably only eating 2000 cals. I think I might need to eat more, but am also really stressed out about losing this weight as nationals are in march and I want to be down a couple of weeks before hand so that I can focus on maintainiing.
I am worried that the amount of fruit I eat is too much and maybe I should be eating other things. I haven't been using protein shakes lately as I'm concerned about gaining muscle.
 
Well fruit does have a lot of carbs too. and carbs when trying loose weight have a big impact.

I have some dietitian's that are close to me... let me consult them and I will report back... based solely on the amount of fruit and loosing some weight.
 
danboyle said:
Well fruit does have a lot of carbs too. and carbs when trying loose weight have a big impact.
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This is not "totally" true. Yes, fruit have carbs. Yes, its true "some" "claim" to be carb sensative more than others. However, one can lose weight eating recommended amounts of carbs, and being in a calorie deficit. Likewise, restricting carbs can tweak additional fat loss. In either case, the laws of energy balance are the king of kings without any equal.

I have some dietitian's that are close to me... let me consult them and I will report back... based solely on the amount of fruit and loosing some weight.
Click to expand...

Eating natural fruit within a deficit diet (for one trying to lose fat tissue weight) is just fine. "Especially" post workout.

For example, I can maintain a deficit (and I assure you I dont skimp on the carbs), and drop weight like a rock. However, when BF drops sub 10%, then I have to resort to a deficit AND low-carb approach to tweak fat loss further.

Carbs get a bad name---THEY DO NOT deserve.



Chillen
 
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Im like anyone else who is sincere with their diet, I pay attention to carbs, protein and good fats. However, when I "traditionally" deficit diet, I pay close attention to carbs (but not for a fat loss reason, I let the deficit take care of it). I pay attention to carbs while deficiting to improve my energy intake (when deficits in calories restrict it), and to replenish what I use during my workouts. Viewing things "like this" is one way (among many) one can improve workout energy and replace sugar that is used during workout routines, and improve the negatives that deficit dieting "can" bring.

Depending on how I feel, I will "sometimes" allow a higher percent of carbs over protein when deficiting to try to improve energy and overall "well-being" and increase water intake. This is just once in a while, and has assisted with the low energy feeling one can get. This is just one thing I do (among many) to deal "effectively" with the deficit diet drawbacks.


Chillen
 
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Beetlejuice said:
Yeah, I suppose I do, just a little concerned about the amount of fruit I eat and whether I should be having more protein or something else in it's place...
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I totally hear ya on this. The point isn't that carbs (or fruit) are bad. It's that when you are working a calorie deficit, carbs tend to get crowded out as you try to meet your other nutritional goals (esp keeping protein up). So it is easy to get in the mindset that the calories that you spend eating fruit are "empty" ones. It's easier to allocate carb calories for things like oatmeal rather than grapes.

I struggle with this mindset sometimes, so I try for some balance on this (e.g., setting a goal of 3 fruits a day). Some fruits are more caloric than others, so I'm just more judicious about when and how to eat them. Apples and grapefruit aren't THAT caloric. Bananas are an awesome part of a breakfast or post-workout meal.

Also, I try to remind myself that eating healthy is not just about being 'clean' or hitting some calorie target. Fruits can offer all sorts of vitamins and nutrients and some are loaded with anti-oxidants. I figure that in 40 years from now, I'll appreciate that I found some room in my diet for them!

Hope this helps and good luck!
 
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