Lose weight while eating healthy fats

Avocados 

Though it may seem counterintuitive, increasing your intake of healthy fats may actually help prevent weight gain and help you maintain feelings of fullness.

Fat is essential for normal growth and development; it is not something to avoid.  Dietary fat also provides energy, protects our organs, maintains cell membranes, and helps the body absorb and process nutrients.

 Also, it helps the body burn fat, says nutritionist and owner of Nutritious Life meal system, Keri Glassman, RD, who recommends that about a third of any weight-loss plan’s calories come from dietary fat.

Fat burns fat in the body

The body requires three macronutrients for energy: Carbohydrates, protein, and fat. One gram of fat packs more than twice the energy of a gram of the other two.

 “When you don’t have any fat in your diet it’s like you don’t have fuel to burn calories,” Glassman says. The body needs energy to keep its metabolism properly functioning. A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that consuming fatty acids can boost metabolic health.

What is more, “old” fat stored in the body’s peripheral tissues—around the belly, thighs, or butt (also called subcutaneous fat)—can’t be burned efficiently without “new” fat to help the process, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. 

The Dietary fat helps break down existing fat by activating PPAR-alpha and fat-burning pathways through the liver.

It is like in the baseball spring training: young, hungry players (new fat) hit the field and show the general manger (the liver) that it’s time to send the old, worn-out players (subcutaneous fat) home. And they disappear like vapour.

Your goal: Never go hungry and fill up on foods that enable you to burn fat, rather than store fat in the body.

Then, what causes your body to hoard calories as fat, rather than use them for energy?

It all has to do with insulin, a hormone your pancreas secretes when you are digesting foods in the body. “Insulin is like a Miracle-Gro for your fat cells,” Ludwig says.

When you eat a meal full of processed carbohydrates like breads and bakery goods, your insulin level skyrockets as your body digests the carbohydrates in the food and immediately stores the glucose (sugar) from your food in your fat cells.

 When your body can’t access the calories in your fat cells? Then, hunger strikes! And your body experiences an energy crisis and it will demand for food. If you are reaching for more processed carbohydrates like bagels or pastas to stay satiated, the vicious hunger cycle would not stop.

Your solution: Eat more fat is one of them. 

“The fastest way to lower insulin levels is to substitute fat for processed carbohydrates,” says Ludwig. It seems counterintuitive that fatty foods can help you lose weight, right? Catch is: They have to be healthy sources of fat (think: avocados and olive oil, not Reese’s and Doritos). Foods rich in fat will help you feel satiated, and they won’t trigger the insulin high and crash as most processed carbohydrates do. 

Without insulin highs and lows in the body, your blood sugar will be more stable and your body can access the fuel it is storing in your fat cells.

Fat takes a while to digest and can help slow the emptying of the stomach, which can reduce appetite and hunger.

One research found that following a Mediterranean diet rich in healthy fats from olive oil and nuts was associated with a lower risk of weight gain compared to a low-fat diet.

Another research found that when people on a weight loss diet took two tablespoons (30 ml) of coconut oil daily, they lost more belly fat than those who were given soybean oil.

Though, unhealthy types of fat like trans fats have been shown to increase body fat, waist circumference and belly fat in human and animal studies.

Examples of healthy types of fat that may have beneficial effects on fat burning can be found in Olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, nuts and seeds.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that healthy fat is still high in calories, so moderate how much you consume. Instead of eating more fat overall, try swapping the unhealthy fats in your diet for these healthy fat varieties.

ABSTRACT

Fat is digested slowly, so eating it can help reduce appetite. A higher intake of healthy fats is related with a lower risk of weight gain and decreased body fat.