Around the strategies to lose weight there are endless myths about what you can eat and what not, as well as on the quantities. In this sense, It’s important to know what the right amount of fat is when dieting.
Knowing this information is essential. Indeed, many meal plans fail or harm people’s health because they have not been elaborated with due meticulousness. Therefore, we are sure that this information will be very useful for you.
There are many myths related to the presence of fat in the diet. Some point out that they are harmful and fattening. In fact, popular belief rejects them. But this statement is false. In this article we explain not only why you should eat fat, but also what the recommended amounts are.
fat myths
it cannot be denied The most mistreated food group of all is fat. This is because people blame them for their metabolism-related health conditions and, of course, their excess weight.
As we have pointed out, There is a widespread belief that fatty foods make you fat. Which isn’t entirely false, but it’s also not entirely true. You have to pay close attention to this.
It’s not true that fat alone makes you fat, excess calories are what makes you fat. Indeed, fats contribute to the amount of calories, but proteins and carbohydrates also have a significant caloric intake.
Reducing your fat intake does not guarantee weight loss
Many people reduce, or even eliminate, their fat intake while dieting. They believe that with this they will be able to lose weight. However, you may not shed those extra pounds. But not only: if your fat intake is insufficient, your health may suffer.
It is a mistake to believe that simply by stopping eating fat you will lose weight. It’s more: if your protein and carbohydrate intake is too much, you will generate fat in your body, even if you don’t consume it directly. Indeed, the investigations claim that sugar-restrictive diets are more effective than fat-restrictive ones when it comes to weight loss.
Fats during the diet
In the daily diet of an adult it is recommended that fat intake be 30% of total calories. For its part, when it comes to feeding a child, this figure rises to 40%.
However, When we follow diets to lose weight, the natural thing is to reduce food consumption, both fats and other nutrient groups. As mentioned earlier, all foods provide calories.
The percentage of fat during the diet is basically the same as in the daily diet. However, depending on the course of the diet, the proportion can be slightly reduced. In case you want to lose weight, the optimal level is around 25%.
Now, if you gain weight very easily, you can reduce your fat percentage to 20%. In the opposite case, that in the first weeks of the diet you lose weight quickly, it is advisable to increase the percentage of fat up to 30%, in order to compensate for the deficit.
In any case, it is important that you do not make decisions for yourself. It is best to seek the advice of a doctor or a nutritionist. This way you will avoid following unbalanced diets.
Keep in mind that you need to consume a minimal amount of fat. These, especially those from the omega 3 series, have an anti-inflammatory effect. In fact the a study published in the journal The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews stated that consumption of unsaturated lipids reduces cardiovascular risk.
How to measure the number of calories in grams?
It’s not the same thing to talk about the number of calories than the number of grams. If we say that the percentage of fat compared to the other food groups is 30%, it does not mean that you should eat 30 grams of fat for every 100 total grams of food.
Quantities are measured in calories. This means that you need to calculate the corresponding percentage of fat in relation to your calorie intake. For example, for 2,000 total calories with 30% fat, the number of calories from fat you should consume is 600. Now, that 600 represents calories, not grams.
In that regard, you can use a calculator to see how many grams of fat those 600 calories provide. So the calculation is simple each gram of fat equals 9 calories. Therefore, you just divide the amount of calories you need by 9.
The fat you eat is not the same as adipose tissue
All the confusion about fat stems from the fact that we confuse the fat we eat with the fat stored in the body. We should call the latter “adipose tissue”. It’s what makes us look overweight.
In fact, the fat we eat provides material that becomes adipose tissue. But as we said before, excess calories are what generates overweight. Therefore, excesses from any other food group also turn into adipose tissue.
Fats are essential macronutrients
For all the bad rap fats may have, they are actually vital macronutrients. Provide essential fatty acids which, as the name suggests, are necessary for the good health of the body.
However, its caloric intake per gram is higher than that of the other food groups (9 calories per gram). For this reason fats during the diet must be consumed in the right amount.
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