Yes you can Eat Fat to Lose Weight and its totally possible. Healthy fat is important part of a balanced diet and will help you in losing weight. Diet which consist of healthy unsaturated fat which are full of omega 3 is very essential to make your diet a balanced diet. Diet which contains very low healthy fat will in fact increase your weight.
There are many types of fat, Some are good and some are bad for your health. Lets look at them.
Types of Fat
Healthy Fats – Poly Unsaturated / Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acids
Poly Unsaturated (omega 3) / Mono Unsaturated (omega 6) Fatty Acids are considered as Healthy Fats and you should include them in your diet. Omega 3 and Omega 6 are very important for your body to function normally and are integrated part in production of hormones and maintaining cell structures. You can get healthy fats by eating fish, peanuts, almonds, avocados, hazelnuts, grains, soya milk, walnuts, vegetable oils and olives.
Unhealthy Fats – Saturated Fats
Unsaturated fats are considered as bad fats as they can cause high cholesterol problem, heart problem, type 2 diabetes and many more illnesses. They are mostly found in meats, high fat dairy products, fast food or any commercial food products.
Very Unhealthy Fats – Trans Fats
Trans fats are also considered as unhealthy fats and they have a severe negative affects on your health. You can find them in candy bars, fried food items, doughnuts, chips etc.
How much Healthy Fat to Eat to Lose Weight
For losing weight, you should take a balanced diet, which means not too much and not too less and take all nutrients in right amount. It will make your body healthy and provide powerful nutrients so that your body can properly function. A diet which is low in fat can be healthy or unhealthy depending on your daily needs and other several factors. So in a balanced diet your fat intake should not be more than the 30% of your daily calorie intake. Saturated fats which are considered unhealthy should be less than 10% of your daily calorie intake and you should avoid trans fats. You should take 1 to 3 grams of omega three fatty acids per day.
A typical Fat contains two times the calories from proteins and carbohydrates. Mathematically a 1 gram of fat contains about 8 calorie while the calorie from carbohydrates and protein is only about 4 calories. So 3500 calorie is there in one pound of fat.
So if you are taking a low fat diet then you should include saturate omega 3 fats and exclude the saturated and trans fats which are unhealthy to your body.
Importance of Healthy Fats
As said above, Fats are essential part for our body to function normally. Lets look at some of its benefits.
- Improve your immune system.
- studies have pointed to the fact that lack of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids in diet results in decrease in immune power. They also point out that it helps in fighting many diseases including arthritis.
- It helps in keeping your brain healthy and good for memory.
- Good for nervous system and helps in fighting against Alzheimer and other mental illness like depression etc.
- Keeps cholesterol in control and keeps away Type 2 Diabetes.
- Keeps skin, eyes, bones and hair healthy.
10 Tips to Include Healthy Fats in your diet.
- Avoid trans fats. Learn to read the nutrition labels on your food and choose wisely.
- Decrease the consumption of saturated fats. Your calorie intake from saturated fat should be less than 10%. Most of the food contain saturated fat but you can replace them with one which contain low amount such as chicken, fish etc. Avoid red meat if possible. Choose olive oil in place of butter, us fat less natural yogurt and use low fat dairy products.
- Eat food which are full of unsaturated fats such as fish, grains, peanuts, almonds, avocados, vegetable oils and olives etc.
- Use low fat cooking methods.
- If you love to eat snacks then eat nuts at snack time. Nuts are considered as a fat burner.
- if possible don’t use salad dressings. Dressings are normally done using unhealthy food items. If you need it then use olive oil, lemon etc.
- Avoid fried food and instead use grilled or baked food item.
- Eat Skinless Chicken.
- Stay away from packaged food.
- Eat Fish at least twice per week. They are rich source of good omega 3 fatty acids.
Thanks for reading this article.