FAT!!! Everything you need to know…and more.

 

  

 To say you haven’t heard the phrase “good fat/bad fat” would indicate that you’re either suffering from amnesia or you have spent the last decade reading only Harry Potter.Or maybe you’ve worked for the American Heart Association for 40 years and didn’t get the memo that even they have changed their recommendations away from avoiding all fat to instead include “good fats.”My futile attempts at humor aside, most of us know there are “good fats” out there — fish oil, some nuts, flaxseed oil, olive oil… The list goes on depending how much money you’re willing to wave at the health food store clerk. But most of us just want to know if we have to have a certain amount of fat, if it will help or hurt our attempts to lose weight, and how we can get it in our diet easily. Save carbon chains, hydrolysis, free-fatty acids and gluconeogenesis for grad students — just tell me what to do! In a nutshell, saturated fats are bad, unsaturated fats are good. So they tell us. Saturated fats come from animal products like beef, pork, high-fat dairy, and egg yolks (fish being the exception) and unsaturated fats come from plant sources as mentioned above. The terms saturated and unsaturated refer to their chemical composition and stability. Saturated fats are bigger and more stable and therefore harder to break down to use for energy. Think of them as big clumpy, sticky molecules that clog up your arteries – a big, yucky hairball in your drain. Unsaturated fats are more easily digested and used as energy and they actually have some amazing benefits.They are used by the body to create cholesterol-derived hormones, some of which are helpful in metabolism and even things like mood and libido. They contain essential fatty acids that are used for cell repair, cell membrane maintenance, the nervous system, the immune system and will even help increase the good cholesterol (HDL) in your body while reducing the bad. So instead of just avoiding all fat, if you make an effort to sneak in some of the good, you’ll increase your health and potentially lose weight, if it’s part of a good overall plan. 

In addition to the direct fat-loss effects, you may find that additional fat in your diet helps control carb cravings and it becomes easier to eat less. Studies with protein have demonstrated the same — when kids were made to eat a certain amount of protein per day, but then could eat anything they wanted, they ate hundreds of calories less per day just due to being more satisfied/full after eating. Fat does the same thing. If you add fat as a regular part of your diet, add good fat.

When I’m dieting, I do make an effort to add good fat and it works – it’s not theory and it’s not merely academic. Start with flaxseed oil. Why? It’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are hard to find in nature (if you don’t want to eat salmon every day), are the most helpful for every reason on this page and more and are easy to integrate. Simply add half of a tablespoon to a meal or two where it fits nicely. I usually recommend about 20 percent of calories coming from fat when dieting, and certainly more is allowable when maintaining weight. For the average female, that equates to about 25 to 35 grams per day and for men around 45 to 55 grams per day (depending, of course, on calorie intake which depends on things like age, activity level and metabolic rate). Cook with olive or canola or even grapeseed oil. Make or use salad dressings with olive oil. Some nuts like almonds also have high percentages of unsaturated fat and unique health properties. I certainly don’t like to see someone go to one extreme or the other (no carbs or no fat) but many dieters are terrified to add fat. Consider this a polite prompt and permission to try it. You can even get a note from your doctor; I’m sure he or she would agree. I think you’ll find it easier to lose or maintain your weight, your brain will be happy and I’ll bet even your hair and skin look better — who wouldn’t like a nice, shiny coat?! Some people, because of good genetics and/or a great lifestyle, can end up too low in total cholesterol, LDLs, triglycerides, etc. Most struggle in the other direction for sure, but here’s the correlation: Being in a dieting state for long enough can mimic my client’s condition. Though I’m not a fan of dieting on a very-low carb diet and eating a ton of saturated fat, a lot of people could benefit from keeping some of their fat intake coming from saturated sources. The hormones I mentioned that are cholesterol-derived can’t always keep up when the diet is “too clean.”