Want to Lose Weight? Eat More Fat! | Exercise.com Learn: Your Fitness Business Resource

Want to Lose Weight? Eat More Fat!

Tyler Spraul is the director of UX and the head trainer for Exercise.com. He has his Bachelor of Science degree in pre-medicine and is an NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist. He is a former All-American soccer player and still coaches soccer today. In his free time, he enjoys reading, learning, and living the dad life. He has been featured in Shape, Healthline, HuffPost, Women's...

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UPDATED: Aug 25, 2020

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Get the Basics...
  • Following a low-carb diet may not be an extremely healthy way to eat.
  • Make sure you eat complex carbohydrates that are found in veggies and grains.
  • Avoid simple carbs that are found in a variety of sugary snacks such as cake and candy.

If you are living in fear of never being able to achieve weight loss because of the presence of animal fats in your diet, you are worrying needlessly.

There is a way to make animal fats an ally in any weight management plan and they will work far more effectively to help you shed pounds than any high carbohydrate, low-fat plan that exists.

Consider the fact that our ancestors had two sources of food: what they killed and what they farmed from the ground.

This means that century after century mankind has essentially followed a diet featuring animal fats and vegetables as its major source of calories.

Meat and fish have zero carbohydrates and most vegetables are very low in carbs as well. Therefore, almost since the beginning of time, mankind has followed a low-carb diet.

Yet the alarming rate at which the instance of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke are increasing did not begin to occur until the last 40 years of the 20th century—when people were taught to shun fat in lieu of high carbohydrate diets.

Remember, exercise is also an important component of your overall health. If you are looking for an exercise routine, look no further. Go PRO today for access to certified personal trainers, workout plans, and more.

The Reinvention of the Wheel

Suddenly heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and excess belly fat are reaching epidemic proportions. This confuses many people, especially when it appears that numerous individuals are eliminating animal fats from their diets and turning instead to foods that contain carbohydrates.

Perhaps those frightening health statistics are because we have shunned the eating habits that kept our ancestors slim and healthy for centuries and began regarding animal fats as something entirely bad when they were really not the culprit at all.

Many men and women in the medical profession are now beginning to realize that replacing fats with high starch foods is not a healthier way to eat.

Those who feel that the aforementioned animal fats are “dangerous,” or that those following a low-carb diet are participating in something unhealthy, should seek a better understanding of how the human metabolism works.

Want to Lose Weight? Eat More Fat!

Each calorie you consume either comes from a fat, a protein, or a carbohydrate. Carbohydrate calories are used by the body for fuel and can be simple or complex.

Simple carbohydrates are nothing more than sugars and are found in certain fruits and many sugary snacks, while complex carbohydrates are found in foods such as vegetables and whole grains.

Foods in which carbohydrates are found include the following:

#1 – Simple Carbohydrate Examples

  • Cake
  • Pie
  • Candy
  • Fruits such as bananas and oranges
  • White flour products
  • Sugar
  • Honey

#2 – Complex Carbohydrate Examples

  • Broccoli
  • Spinach
  • Celery
  • Asparagus
  • Cauliflower
  • Lettuce
  • Cabbage
  • Mushrooms
  • Certain nuts
  • Whole grains
  • Wheat bread
  • Oats
  • Most berries
  • Avocados

The Role of Insulin

Whenever you eat, insulin is released into your bloodstream for the purpose of guiding the behavior of your cells. The message it sends largely depends on the foods you have just consumed.

Your body burns carbohydrates first, proteins second, and fats last. If you have eaten a high carbohydrate meal, the insulin produced in your body tells your cells to absorb the calories from the blood and burn them quickly.

This is because sugar — the substance carbs are converted to by your metabolism — causes damage to your blood vessels when allowed to loiter, which is why many diabetics have trouble with their circulation and vision.

In addition, the released insulin tells your fat cells not to burn fat that is stored in your body, as there are already carbohydrates present as a source of fuel.

Where the trouble begins is when more carbs are eaten than are necessary for energy, which is a daily occurrence for most individuals who don’t follow an exercise routine to burn off the excess calories.

If this is the case, the excess carbohydrates are stored and they are stored as fat, thus defeating your goal of weight reduction, particularly the reduction of belly fat.

Your body will stubbornly refuse to burn fat if you are eating too many carbs; however, successful weight control can be achieved through the intelligent use of animal fats.

What Are Fats?

Fats are an excellent source of food energy (it provides more energy gram for gram than carbohydrates) just as proteins and carbohydrates are, and although frequently touted as unhealthy, fats are actually very essential to human health.

Fats in your diet are important for a variety of reasons including the following:

  • Brain development
  • Controlling inflammation
  • Hair health
  • Skin health
  • Absorption of vitamins A, D, E and K

Foods that contain animal fats include meat, poultry, cheese, nuts, oils, butter, and cream.

An effective way to lose weight and burn away unwanted belly fat is to strictly limit carbohydrates and follow a diet that allows a liberal amount of animal fats and protein.

Achieving Weight Control by Forcing Your Body to Burn Fat

The human body needs carbohydrates to function. When carbs are replaced with animal fats and proteins such as meat, eggs, cheese, and low-starch vegetables, the body is forced to burn fat as a source of fuel and goes into a metabolic state known as ketosis.

Therefore, regardless of the amount of food you eat, if you are not eating carbohydrates, your body will burn your stored fat for energy and will continue to do so until your desired fat loss has been achieved or you increase your carbohydrate consumption.

On the other hand, if you follow a diet high in carbohydrates, your body will simply continue to store them as excess fat unless you severely restrict your caloric intake.

Start following a low-carb diet with a great weight loss workout plan and see amazing results!

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Additional Benefits

Fats and proteins also satisfy hunger in a manner that carbohydrates cannot. When you eat foods containing animal fats or proteins you will not crave more fat and protein.

If you eat a large steak it will not make you crave another large steak, rather, you will simply find that you are full and stop eating.

On the other hand, the more carbohydrates you eat, the more you will crave, making it very hard to lose weight permanently on a high carbohydrate diet.

The Role of Protein

As previously mentioned, fats are not only essential to your health, but can be used to turn your body into a fat-burning machine, but when they are eaten with carbohydrates the opposite effect takes place and fat will continue to be stored in your body.

However, when proteins and carbohydrates are eaten together, the proteins slow the absorption of the carbohydrates, and the energy from the latter are released at a slower pace, which is a beneficial occurrence and helps to speed weight loss.

The carbohydrates will be used for instant fuel rather than stored as fat, while the protein will be used for muscle repair and support—protein’s primary function.

Redefining the Balanced Diet

If you have ever considered a low-carb diet you have probably been told by a well-meaning friend or relative that such a diet is not “balanced.”

However, in reality, it is a high carbohydrate diet that is not natural or balanced.

Most people are referring to the food pyramid when they feel the need to “warn” others about following a balanced diet, but this advice is based on the assumption that pasta and bread are a food group when in reality, they are foods man invented.

For millions of years such foods did not even exist, but now society is told that such fare is a food group and that without these foods a diet cannot be balanced.

If you follow the food pyramid guidelines, you will consume approximately 300 grams of carbohydrates a day. The human body literally does not know what to do with this amount of carbohydrates; therefore, they are stored as fat.

Building a Diet on the Appropriate Foods

Eating animal fats and protein-containing foods and shunning flour products, sugar, and high sugar fruits is the fasted way to achieve permanent weight reduction.

The following are some of the foods you should build your meal plans around to lose weight and burn fat:

  • Meat
  • Fish
  • Chicken
  • Eggs
  • Veggies
  • Berries
  • Walnuts
  • Brazil nuts
  • Hazelnuts
  • Avocados
  • Cream
  • Butter

If you have been a victim of the philosophy that fat is evil, you may wish to consider conducting your own research project to discover the facts (that is if you don’t find this article convincing enough).

Losing weight is a lot easier when carbohydrates are slashed and a diet containing animal fats, proteins, low-starch vegetables is followed.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How many calories should I eat?

How many calories you should eat depends on a number of factors. To get a rough estimate, check out this article.

What is bulking? What is cutting?

Bulking and cutting are techniques used by bodybuilders to grow muscle and shed fat. Bulking requires eating in a surplus while weight training in order to build muscle. Cutting requires eating in a caloric deficit to shed body fat in order to “expose” the muscle built during the bulking phase.

Do I have to bulk? Do I have to cut?

No. Unless you are a professional bodybuilder, you do not have to bulk or cut to lead a healthy, happy lifestyle.

Couple a low-carb diet with a workout routine and you will begin to see great results. Go PRO today for access to certified personal trainers, workout plans, goal trackers, and more!

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