Do You Know Why Low Fat Dieting Is Not The Answer?

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 9:45 pm

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There is no question that the low fat food industry is huge and seems to be growing every day. But I don’t believe that we can justifiably point the finger at “fat” and say that this is the reason that many people are gaining unwanted fat and then spend hundreds of dollars on ways to get ride of that fat. I believe that the fundamental reason that so many people jump on to the low fat dieting wagon train is that up front it seems logical and straight forward “I have to much fat therefore I should reduce my fat intake”. But when we begin to understand how the body operates and the internal systems that are in place for energy storage, then the idea becomes a little less straight forward.

For example, with the Adkins* diet plan people were getting great results by eating super low carbs and then eating what ever they wanted form the “fatty” food category. So by common sense deduction one would have to say that if “fat” was the problem then those people wouldn’t be getting the results they claim to have gotten.

Not until the food industry decided that the very refined sugars and processed fats should be a larger part of our daily food consumption did we see a real problem of fat, that for some can be unmanageable at best. Now the doctors that were seeing the results of this new food reacted in a way that seemed logical, they wanted people to reduce the amount of fat they eat by large percentage. Then the thought was, if less is more then keep reducing fat intake until you see results. Eventually this downward spiral in fat consumption would lead to the common wisdom that eliminating all the fat’s from your diet might be a good idea.

Not all fat’s are created equal:

With all this low fat dieting hype something vital was forgotten. Your body actually NEEDS fat to function properly, for some this might come as a shocker. But with that said, certain fat’s can be very harmful, case and point is the recent developments that show that modified fats such as partially hydrogenated oil’s like those in margarine can be actually worse for your health, let alone hindering your fat loss goals. The trick is to eat more of the essential fats like those found in fish oils and flax seed and concentrate on not just eliminating fat but reducing the “fake fats” from your daily food intake. Fake fats can really set you back in your fat reduction goals because they’re not metabolized in the same way as healthy fats and thus it can become a sludge in the system that simply weakens the body while adding a few inches to the waistline.

To sum it all up it is better to think in terms of what types of fats you are putting in rather than the amount. And in some cases those healthy fats can actually help, rather then hinder your fat loss goals. So add some knowledge about types of fat to your knowledge base and become empowered to take back your waistline.

Looking for good fat,
Nick

*Atkins is a register trade mark. I personally do not advocate the Atkins way of thinking.
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