Why is dietary fat a problem?

Eating dietary fat is not actually a problem per se as fat is required in the body for various bodily functions like cell formation, optimal brain function, skin formation and even gut health. But as we saw yesterday, the type of fat you’re eating is a factor  and more importantly, how much you’re eating is critical too.

Some say as long as your calories are set correctly then the type of food you eat doesn’t matter, but that’s not true, because different foods are processed in the body in different ways.

For example, did you know that fat competes with carbohydrates to get into the cells? And that if you eat too much fat, then it negatively impacts carbohydrate processing in the body?

What do you think diabetes is all about?

Another factor with dietary fat is that if your calories are over your daily energy expenditure, fat is stored in your body DIRECTLY as the exact fat you ingest. So polyunsaturated fat is stored as polyunsaturated, saturated is stored as saturated – no conversion process of any kind is required, so it happens readily and easily.

Proteins or carbohydrates on the other hand, require a lengthy process to convert to body fat, which the body would rather not do if it can help it. It prefers to squander that extra energy and waste it if it can, rather than store it.

So this is why in a more balanced diet, like this Ray Peat style diet, nailing the correct amount of fat for your body is really important. Many like myself who were converting from a KETO diet, have all kinds of trouble trying to go lower fat. It’s just because it becomes part of your lifestyle to choose these foods and you cook that way too. It takes a really conscious effort to learn exactly how much fat you are having and relearn what you need to be doing instead.

Not super low fat

At the same token I don’t advocate a continuous super low fat diet, which is described as 10% of calories as fat or 20g in an 1,800 calorie diet, as this actually leads to health issues. You can read more about what happened to me when I tried that here: http://slimbirdy.com/low-fat-diet-a-health-perspective/

The level of fat we are aiming for is 40g or 20% of calories. This seems to be the mark to maintain health while effectively losing weight. Once you get used to this, then assess how you feel and adjust from there. For some it may still be too low — you will know if you get some of the symptoms I outlined in my article. If it is still too high, your weight loss may be stalled.

While I know for a fact that a continuous low fat diet is not healthy, short periods of a super low fat diet are definitely beneficial in that they improve insulin sensitivity and your ability to process carbohydrates in the body. Even when you switch back to the slightly higher level of fat at say 40g afterwards, the benefits seem to continue on.

One important point though is if you are trying really low fat, make sure you are definitely eating enough calories at the same time. Be prepared and have enough low fat food on hand, so that you are not going hungry. Hunger as well would be a double stress on the body and not beneficial.

Here is one of my low fat recipes to get you started:

http://slimbirdy.com/cod-recipe/

Next up tomorrow – what type of carbohydrates are the best!

Kristy x