Fat makes us Fat
We know that most of us know if you consume excessive amounts of fat will make us fat, but we all understand why this is true. To be able to go to a weight management program you first need to know a good understanding of fat and why this nutrient makes us fat. The amount of energy a particular food has depends on the calories or quantity of fat, carbohydrates and proteins that it contains. Foods can either be made up of fats, protein, carbohydrates, or a combination. A food which contains mostly fat will contain more than twice the calories than a food containing mostly carbohydrates or protein. One example is comparing a serving of low fat yogurt to a serving of nonfat yogurt, ok now the low fat yogurt has quite a few more calories than the nonfat variety because every gram of fat has more than twice the calories of a gram of protein or carbohydrate.
Fat contains 9 calories per gram; protein and carbohydrates yield only four calories per gram. Therefore, it is important that you move towards replacing foods high in fat with foods higher in protein and complex carbohydrates.
During the process of converting protein and carbohydrates to fat, your body uses them as energy and burns more than a quarter of their calories; it takes even more energy to convert carbohydrates and protein into body fat than it does to convert dietary fat into body fat. Thus, more carbohydrate and protein calories are used and fewer are stored as fat. Dietary fat, on the other hand, goes straight into storage, with very few calories being used. For example, if a girl consumes 2,000 calories a day of which 40 percent come from fat. If the girl replaces half of...
Dietary Fat
Your balanced perspective makes sense. Almost everyone has probably heard the saying "fat makes us fat" but there isn't agreement among dieticians if this is in fact the case. Advocates of the Dr. Atkins diet, which has been discredited in the eyes of some but certainly not all, claim that it is actually excessive carbohydrates which make people fat. I'm not in favor of loading up on fat as long as I consume little or no carbohydrates, but would recommend adherence to another bit of time worn advice, "everything in moderation."
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