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Will FATS make me fat?

I’ll never forget when I got asked this (it was actually by another PT, but we’ll leave it at that)

Anyway, as the story goes… An American president died of a heart attack and a British Scientist wrote a paper saying the death was a result of too many carbohydrates in his diet.

Coca-Cola saw this and subsequently paid local scientists to write contradicting paper’s stating that the early death was due to extensive fats in his diet.

And so the macro nutrient war begins.

Almost 100 years later and this ridiculous idea of removing whole food groups from our diets is still raging on, only now we’re seeing trends like, Keto and Vegan. I’m not sure this will ever end but I’m here to provide quality information so you can make your own mind up on how you want to live.

And if at any point you decide you want to be a part of my paid coaching program then brilliant, you can find my details at the bottom of this page, just hit me up and we’ll fully look after you.

Anyway, today we’re looking at fats.

Will fats make me fat?

Basically, no, fats won’t make you fat, unless of course you eat them in excess, calories rule supreme and you’ll get fat if you eat any macro nutrient in excess.

Fats are an essential part of our diet, we need them to regulate and produce hormones such as testosterone and estrogen, they also support our immune system and provide cognitive fuel for our brain.

If your diet is short in fats, you’ll soon know it, you’ll get hungry, you’ll have less energy, cloudy thought processes. Eventually you’ll get ill and I don’t think you’ll ever get this far but a diet short in dietary fats will lead to death.

Protein and fats are essential, carbs aren’t essential for life but they are great for performance, adaptation, recovery and compliance. No one needs to go carb free, even diabetics can digest and absorb a small amount of carbs, that  story is for another day though.

Today is about Dietary Fats.

My preferred source of dietary fats is nuts as they provide an almost perfect balance of mono-unsaturated, poly unsaturated and saturated fats. They also hold nice levels of carbs and protein which allow us to build nicely proportioned meals.

Other sources are obviously fine also, pretty much select anything that’s listed within iNutrition under the drop down menu. (so if you haven’t already, you can click ‘Macadamia Nuts’ and select a different source within the menu, the program will automatically re-calculate the totals for you. I have played around with Meal 5 for you so you can see but have a go yourself and let me know how you get on). I’m currently on 175g of mixed nuts per day, so similar to you.

Beyond that, dietary fats provide the fuel our body needs to regulate and produce nearly all hormones within our biology. They also provide cognitive fuel, improve mood, lower the risk of heart attack and depression, increase bone structure and strength, improve cholesterol levels and improve immune function amongst other things.

So when designing a nutrition plan it’s essential to include dietary fats, but to what level will depend on the individual.

First we calculate total calories

Then Protein amounts 1.8 – 2.4g per kg of body weight per day.

If the client is composition based then carbs are calculated next normally 2-4g per kg of bodyweight

Then fats make up the remaining calories.

Fats

Fats are an essential nutrient used by the body for energy, Cognitive function, vitamin absorption and hormone production and regulation. Wow, there’s some pretty important roles for dietary fats. Don’t be scared to eat fats, without these we would soon find ourselves in poor health.

There are 2 types of fats split into 5 sub categories:

saturated

butter

cheese

milk

coconut oil

unsaturated

• mono-unsaturated

Promote healthy skin, reduce heart disease

            Olive and canola oil, almonds, walnuts, avocados.

• poly-unsaturated

These help to raise good cholesterol

            Sunflower

            Soy oil

• Omega-3

These lower blood pressure and lower bad cholesterol

                        seafoods

                        fish

trans fats

Are what form when oils harden through a process called hydrogenation, trans fats are often used to make foods last longer and are the un-healthy fats. Try to avoid these fats, found in fast foods, restaurants and packaged foods, these have little or no health benefits.

Fat contains 9 calories per gram and a nice base line is to never drop below a total of 20% fat in your daily caloric intake. Trying to achieve a level of Omega 3, saturated and unsaturated.

That’s about it for fats so I’m signing off for another week.

If you want to be a part of our paid coaching program you can contact me on
teambodyproof@hotmail.com