Thread: ideal fruits for cutting.

berries are the best for cutting.

avoid bananas at all costs while cutting.

Peaches, apples, pears, grapefruit and berries

Wow, interesting. I have never heard that bananas are bad for cutting? Just because they're low-water and dense?

Alot of sugar Mike, it's how your body processes bananas.

Plums, Nectarines are ok

I still don't understand how your body processes bananas any different than oranges or apples. Doesn't make sense to me at all.

It is higher on the GI and the GL tables which means it spikes insulin much moreso than the other fruits I listed.

Originally Posted by MonStar

I still don't understand how your body processes bananas any different than oranges or apples. Doesn't make sense to me at all.

the starches in banana's change as the fruit rippens to glucose based sugars. a green banana has less sugar and a lower GI than a very ripe yellow banana with brown spots on it...

Originally Posted by MonStar

I still don't understand how your body processes bananas any different than oranges or apples. Doesn't make sense to me at all.

It doesn't process it that differently really.

Ripe banana's do have slightly more glucose and less fructose than other fruits. Regular bananas 60% sucrose, 20-25% glucose and 15-20% fructose. This is the reason why it has a slightly higher GI, although it is really not all that significant - An unripe banana has a GI of only ~30 and a ripe banana reaches an average of about 60 (there are reports of measurements anywhere from 50 to 70)... On average, a banana is only a GI of 50 odd - which is less than sweet potato and rice.... Anyway, the GL is higher (6 for a unripe banana and 12 for a ripe one, compared to values of under 10 for most of the other fruits) because of the greater amount of glucose/starches in the fruit (a typical nana has about 13g of glucose and 10g fructose).

People like the other fruits mainly because they have less energy per serve, have higher fibre per serve and have a lower GI...

Personally, I don't think bananas are all that terrible - and as long as they are eaten appropriately they are no more 'off limits' than other fruits. I feel they are excellent in terms of post-workout recovery, especially from heavy workouts and longer cardio sessions where lots of sweating/energy depletion has happened. This is because they are high in potassium which will help restore electrolytes. Post-workout they will also help to restore glycogen (due to the higher glucose content) and help replenish depleted liver glycogen (which is important in maintaining your blood glucose, especially following cardio/working out).They are also high in vitamin B6 (one banana gives you nearly 50% your daily requirements), vit C, Fibre, and magnesium!

Anyway, that is just my opinion....

ya, I went out and got rid of all my banana's yesterday I got some pears, but when I put it in fitday.com there's virtually no difference, same amount of sugar really...

I think that any and all fruit suck when cutting, but if I had to choose I would utilize cantaloupe and honeydew melons. Alot of water in these.

regarding GI, i thought this was an interesting read.

Interesting discussion on fruits, as i love fruits. However unless one is training for a competition, would it really make such a difference if one consumes 2-4 pieces/servings a day?

Fruits only fill liver glycogen, not muscle glycogen and it doesn't take much fructose to fill your liver. If you eat too much fructose you spill over, spilling over means turning to fat.

Originally Posted by Jodi

Fruits only fill liver glycogen, not muscle glycogen and it doesn't take much fructose to fill your liver. If you eat too much fructose you spill over, spilling over means turning to fat.

Eating fruits on my refeed is not going to help me build muscles then

lol Sara your obsessed with refeeds

Bah! Fruits aren't completely fructose.

And honestly, who eats bananas on their own for a meal? Forget the GI for that.

The reason i tend to stay away from fruits when cutting is cause i'd rather not have to remove other more filling foods toa ccomodate the fruit calories (not loads but the figures can add up over the day).

Originally Posted by Tom_B

lol Sara your obsessed with refeeds

Originally Posted by Jodi

Fruits only fill liver glycogen, not muscle glycogen and it doesn't take much fructose to fill your liver. If you eat too much fructose you spill over, spilling over means turning to fat.

I don't know if I would agree with you here.

Fruits are not just fructose - they also haven variable amounts of sucrose, glucose and starches and so they will also serve to replenish muscles to some degree... Sure, they will help fill liver glycogen, but it is not an 'either/or' event like everyone seems to believe.

They will also only fill liver glycogen stores if the body is not in need of energy - so if your blood glucose levels are low (like following exercise, or when on a calorie restricted diet) the body will prioritise the energy from the fruit and convert the fructose straight to glucose in the liver, which would then be released into the blood as available energy for the body. The body is pretty good at meeting it's needs and it will not 'hoard energy' in the liver if your brain/body needs the fuel.

Also - the average serve of low-calorie fruit (apples, berries etc) only have 3 to 5g of fructose and even higher-calorie fruit (such as pears and banana's) only have about 10g. So at a maximum you are only getting 40 calories from fructose... Which is not a lot of energy at the end of the day. This is especially relevant if you consider the average human liver has the capacity to store ~ 80 to 100g of glycogen - which is ~ 320 to 400 kcal in energy...

So, if you get, say, 40 cals from 'fructose' and then (as it takes energy to form glucose and then glycogen), you use a few cals for the process of conversion, you can see that you need a lot more energy than you would get from a piece of fruit (or even a few pieces of fruit) to fill your liver stores completely... Especially if you consider that, while dieting, your liver glycogen stores are going to be significantly lower than normal anyway...

Originally Posted by Nate

regarding GI, i thought this was an interesting read.

Pahhh... That study was flawed... 10 weeks is really not enough to gauge the long term effects for the benifits of lower GI diets. Also, you have to wonder how much the data was altered by the fact that they basically had to force-feed the subjects - the subjects had to follow the 'energy plans' layed out and, a few weeks into the study, were all complaining of being 'too full'... You have to consider how much would this alter data when you consider one of the benifits of lower GI diets is that they keep you 'fuller' than higher GI foods!

If you look at the data over those 10 weeks you DO see that the trend of greater FAT LOSS (and WEIGHT LOSS) is seen with the lower GI diet - and would probably continue to increase as time went on.

There are a plethora of other studies that show lower GI is benificial (both nutritionally, healthwise and in terms of helping with dieting), so I would not pin too much on this one study.

Originally Posted by BulkMeUp

Interesting discussion on fruits, as i love fruits. However unless one is training for a competition, would it really make such a difference if one consumes 2-4 pieces/servings a day?

I do not believe it would make the slightest bit of difference - in fact, I feel that the vitamins, minerals, fibre, phytochemicals and other nutrients you would get from a few pieces of fruit/day would benefit your health more so!

Think of the amazing properties that some fruits have.. For example: Blueberries have a HUGE antioxidant potential! They are thought to decrease blood triglycerides and are seen to help maintain brain function and decrease the rate of brain aging...

This is also one of the reasons why I feel fruits after a strenuous bout of exercise are also a good thing - With their antioxidant potential and in being a rich source of vitamins and minerals they help in muscle recovery and prevent the oxidative damage associated with heavy exercise! Also, as I noted before, they help in maintaining blood glucose and keeping your brain/body 'happy' in terms of glucose availability, which allows the partitioning of any other incoming energy (eg: oats) to be directed towards muscle recovery....

Nice postage, babycakes.

Originally Posted by Jodi

Fruits only fill liver glycogen, not muscle glycogen and it doesn't take much fructose to fill your liver. If you eat too much fructose you spill over, spilling over means turning to fat.

That's an oversimplified explanation. Fruit is not as evil as it is made out to be.

but all in the end...it doesnt help fat loss...only hurts it ..

and all in the end losing weight means, more calories burnt, then calories consumed and I heard alot of fruits and vegetables are negative calorie foods (not sure if this is a myth of not) which means they require more energy to digest themsleves then what they actually contain.
lol and seriously Emma where do you get all this information? god I wish I knew half the stuff you do

Originally Posted by joey2005

but all in the end...it doesnt help fat loss...only hurts it ..

An overly simple statement there....

Fruit can help with fat loss - it keeps your brain and body 'fed' which, in turn, helps prevent some of the neurohormonal downregulation in metabolism seen with dieting.

It can also aid in recovery from exercise and, during strenuous exercise, helps you perform at maximal intensity, which is, on a both an overall calorie expenditure level and a 'bang for your buck' measure (that is, time invested v's energy expended) a benificial thing.

If you oversimplify things then you can argue that food in general doesn't help fat loss!

*hands out a "job well done" sticker to Emma-Leigh*

Originally Posted by Emma-Leigh

Pahhh... That study was flawed...

i don't really disagree with you.

i think the only difference is with respect to satiety. if you can get full on a cup of cheerios as a opposed to a 1/2 cup of oatmeal, by all means, eat the cheerios if they make you happier.

i think the GI is vastly misunderstood.

sorry for the quick post, i'm on the run...