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Did you know that healthy fat foods make it possible to add fat to your diet which will then help you lose fat? But not just any fat. Knowing which foods have the types of fats you want is SUPER important so your diet doesn’t look like this:
Short Story:
I always ask people if they keep a food journal to see how “aware” they are of their habits. When people do keep a journal this is the first place I look to find out more about them and their habits.
Jessica kept a meticulous journal. Everything she ate was charted accurately and honestly. Her diet was void of the typical things that most people don’t consciously add – greens, veggies, protein and healthy fat foods.
Jessica
was proud of her fat levels as they were within the ranges that her online food
journal suggested. In fact, they were
probably less than 15% of her total intake so Jessica was proud!
But little did Jessica realize that staying well under her suggested intake was not helping her – and the types of foods that contributed to her fat intake certainly was not helpful.
The items in her food journal that was responsible for her fat intake was tortilla chips, margarine, doughnuts and/or tater tots. Even though she limited the amounts and she was within her calorie limit.
But
she did not understand why she was not losing weight? And she made a comment to the fact that her
hair was dry and her nails were brittle – not even realizing that these things
are connected. So when Jessica was asked
to eat more healthy fat foods – she was certainly baffled. Why would she eat something that might make
her fat?
Just
as there are good carbs and “not so good” carbs – the same is true for
fats. Some sources of fat do way more
harm than good and not all fats are created equal. I can go into a lengthy discussion on the
elements of fatty acids and talk about hydrogen, carbon, bonds, double bonds,
methyl groups, carboxyl groups……I am sure your eyes would start to glaze over
and I would start to sound like that Charlie Brown character…..the teacher who
starts talking and sounds like “Mw – Mwa – mw – Mwa – mw- Mwaaaaa!!”
Sooooo........ let’s make this SUPER simple.
The fats you want to consume will have nutrient benefits and Essential Fatty Acids that you cannot get without consuming the foods that have it. And what will these types of foods with these types of fats do for you? Well, healthy fat foods will:
This is a very simplified reason of why you need to eat fat
to lose fat. But the source of fat can
help or hinder the process.
This Chocolate mousse contains a ton of healthy fats because the mousse is made out of Cashew Cream - one of my favorite tricks to make yummy desserts and cream sauces.
But how much fat should I be eating?
Good question!! After the low-fat craze we know that is not the answer and that it’s actually destructive. A diet that uses sources of fat like listed above that is about 15-20% of your total intake is a good place to start. As with every macronutrient suggestion – it’s very individual. Some may do better on a higher fat diet and some a bit lower. It is suggested to not go higher than 30% of total intake and not lower than 10% total intake. But again, it is very individual.
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