Will Eating Fat Make You Fat & What Should You Eat for Weight/Fat Loss?
Lesson 1
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If you're wondering what foods you should or shouldn't eat to lose fat, and whether eating fat leads to weight gain, we will address these questions and more this week.
This week, we will focus on answering the following questions: Will eating fat make you fat? And what should you eat for weight/fat loss? We briefly touched on the second question during Week 2, Day 3, but we will delve into it in more detail this week.
NOTE: You will receive a total of 3 cards today.
Lesson 2
Losing weight requires being in a negative energy balance, meaning the most important factor is eating less.
When you consume fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.
The key is finding a diet that allows weight loss without causing distress, fatigue, or lethargy.
Studies show that caloric restriction, not macronutrient ratio, determines weight loss.
You might be wondering, "What about X or Y diet?"
ALL diets work because they reduce the number of calories consumed.
For example, the ketogenic diet is high in fats, low in protein, and very low in carbs.
Or what about the Atkins diet? It's high in fats, high in protein, and very low in carbs.
How about the paleo diet? It's high in fats, high in protein, and low in carbs.
So, are there foods you should focus on eating more of?
As you can tell from the above-mentioned diets, you should focus on eating foods high in protein, fiber, and water.
Lesson 3
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The short answer is that if you consume more calories than you burn, especially from fat, then dietary fat might contribute to weight gain. However, if you consume fewer calories than you burn, it likely doesn't matter if those calories come mostly from fat or carbs.
Dietary fat has a dietary-induced thermogenesis (DIT) percentage of 0-3%. This percentage represents the energy your body uses to digest dietary fat.
The takeaway: Compared to the other two macronutrients, dietary fat requires the least amount of energy to digest relative to the energy it provides, and it gets stored with 90-95% efficiency.
What happens when you consume carbs, for example?
Your body can burn them for energy, store them as glycogen, burn them as heat, or convert them into fat (the last choice).
What happens when you consume protein?
Your body can use it for protein production and other metabolic purposes. It can also burn protein for energy or, in rare cases, convert it into glucose or fat.
Now, what happens when you consume fat?
Your body only has two options: burn the fat for energy (which only happens if there are no carbs or excess protein available) or store it as body fat.
So, the answer to the above question is that eating fat won't necessarily make you gain fat.
Studies show that low-fat and low-carb diets produce similar weight loss results, at least in the long term. Both types of diets work because individuals end up reducing their calorie intake, not just carbs or fat, and as a result, they tend to consume more protein, which is more satiating.