Today’s topic is the benefits of good fats and why good fats cause weight loss. For decades we all assumed that to lose fat we have to cut fat out of our diets.
This was based on faulty science, but thus the low fat craze was born. And it turns out, that’s not how it works.
The problem with eating a low fat diet is that you have to replace that food with something else, and that something turned out to be sugar and carbs. Uh oh.
Hello and welcome to Fearlessly Holistic.
My name is Irma and I want to share my journey to improved health by eating whole foods, moving my body and eliminating stress as much as possible.
It is my hope to inspire you to make daily changes. Why? Because eating fresh, seasonal food, getting some sunshine, and purging unhelpful thinking is the best way to increase longevity. But you do not want just a long life.
You want a quality long life, and you want to look and feel your best while you live it.
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The Truth About Fat and Weight Loss
Carbohydrates raise blood sugar levels as well as insulin levels. As it turns out, our bodies are very good at turning carbohydrates into body fat and insulin plays a big role in that process.
And it gets worse.
While insulin is in your blood, your body can’t burn body fat for energy, making it impossible for you to lose weight.
In the whole history of humans, the way that people got carbs was primarily from fruit and veggies. People did eat bread, but not often because homemade bread dries out quickly.
After World War II, when the economy was booming, the push to sell convenience foods like pre-sliced bread started ramping up.
Fast forward to the 1970’s, when fat-free went into full swing, and ta-da! processed, high-carb, high-sugar foods were everywhere.
It is pretty easy to see what happened if you look at a timeline of the rise of obesity.
If you want to reverse this trend in your own life, start with healthy fats.
The first goal when you want to lose a few pounds then is to lower your insulin levels.
The best way to do that is to replace some of the carbohydrates you’re eating with fat.
In other words, you need to do the exact opposite of what we’ve been told by so called health experts for decades.
Skip the low fat foods and grab some fat instead.
When you do that some interesting things happen in your body.
Let’s say you start your day with some eggs and avocado. It’s a low carb, high fat meal that will keep you full for hours.
You won’t even go looking for lunch until early afternoon.
This will keep your blood sugar levels low and in turn your insulin levels low.
Why is this important?
Think of insulin as a gate keeper. When it’s high, your body takes any extra carbs and sugars it can find and turns them into fat for storage.
When insulin is low on the other hand, your body turns to those fat stores and burns them for energy.
The end result is that you start to lose weight.
Since eating fat keeps you satisfied longer and allows you to stretch the time in between meals, you’re keeping those insulin levels low for longer.
That’s how eating fat can help you lose more body fat on a regular basis.
Don’t be afraid of fatty foods.
Make smart choices, and choose healthy fats instead when you’re ready to get in shape and drop that excess weight and body fat.
This does not mean eating spoonfuls of butter or drinking cream. Just beware that there are no health benefits to eating margarine or skim milk.
Embrace the healthy fats and make them part of all your meals.
A Short List of Healthy Fats
When I was a child, I was one of those super skinny kids. People always made of point of saying that I was skinny. Sigh.
I was trying to figure out why, and I realized that my mom fed us (1) skim milk and (2) margarine. We ate very little processed foods…almost none in fact.
So I basically was eating fat-free and carb-free for years.
This did not work for my high level of activity, like climbing trees and swinging all day, so I was skinny.
Now I would never recommend that anyone eat this way. Never.
Not when something as awesome as the keto/low-carb diet is around.
Because while starving yourself skinny might sound good on paper, it deprives your body of a lot of essential nutrients.
Your body needs certain levels of essential amino acids (animal foods have the best) and essential fatty acids (from whole foods fats).
Vegetable oils are highly processed and so are the ‘foods’ made from them, like margarine.
A simple way to start is to replace all low and non-fat products with their full fat version.
- Start buying whole milk instead of skim milk.
- Grab full-fat cheese and yogurt.
- Make your own homemade vinaigrettes for salad instead of buying low-fat bottled dressings.
- Replace your fake butter spread or margarine with the real butter.
These small changes alone will make a big difference in how you feel and how good your food tastes.
Meat is another area where you can incorporate more fat into your diet.
- Start embracing fuller fat cuts, and don’t be afraid to go for the inexpensive, slow-cooker kind of meats
- Replace your grilled chicken breast with chicken thighs every once in a while.
- Go for a higher fat content in your ground beef and enjoy a marbled steak.
- Grill a pork loin chop or make BBQ pork skewers next time you have your barbecue fired up
- And enjoy fatty fish like salmon, with some nice herbed butter on top.
Buy the highest quality meat you can afford, ideally organic and grass-fed.
If that’s not an option, stick with leaner fish and meat and top it with some healthy olive oil or a bit of quality butter.
Something interesting happens when you start to add more foods that include healthy fats like nuts, seeds, and avocados for example.
- Your skin starts to look better,
- So do your hair and nails.
- Your eyes have more shine to them.
- You feel mentally clearer…bye bye brain fog
- Dark circles start to fade as you start to sleep better.
- You have more energy during the day and start moving around more.
- That exercise in turn helps you look even better.
Last but not least, all that healthy fat in your diet keeps you full and satisfied longer.
That’s how adding high-calorie fatty foods actually helps you eat less and burn excess body fat.
It’s an amazing process that I hope you’ll start to experience for yourself.
Embrace those healthy fats and start making them a part of every single meal and snack you eat. Your body will thank you for it.
Start right now by making a list of healthy fats you can get at the store.
Start with:
- Avocados
- Walnuts
- Pecans
- Good quality olive oil
- Butter
- Steak
Add anything else that sounds good.
- Start using the whole eggs instead of egg whites for breakfast and fry them up in a little butter or coconut oil.
- Drizzle the olive oil over your salad and chop up avocado to go on top.
- Snack on some nuts and full fat cheese.
- Grill up that steak and enjoy it with grilled veggies and some butter.
Incorporating healthy fats into your diet is easy. You just need to start.
Conclusion
I have been eating low-carb since Atkin’s diet was a thing. I was in some really great message boards and learned a lot of great tricks.
But the best tip I can give you is to keep trying to make your health better.
I get it that sometimes life happens and all of our good plans go out the window. But the difference between failure and success is the ability to get back on the wagon and keep trying.
If you are interested in how I do Keto, please check out my FEARLESS KETO DIET KIT: get recipes, a shopping list, tips, and a planner to set goals, track progress, and success tips, and an actual goal setting guide.
This kit is all the help you need to get started eating Keto diet to lose weight and there is nothing else like it anywhere else.
Have you started your keto diet yet? If not, I suggest grabbing my free keto food list and quick start guide…absolutely free!
Holism targets overall wellness, and when we are well, we only get better with age.
Eat the best food that you can afford to give your body the building blocks it needs for optimal health, longevity, and looking good for as long as possible 😉
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Until next time, here’s to our health!
-Irma