Low Fat Diets and Being Overweight

Before we can begin to figure this out, we need to grasp the reality of this and understand the problem. It has been said that excess body weight is known to increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, pulmonary disease, and diabetes. Furthermore, a recent study suggested that increased body weight is related to an elevated risk of mortality from cancer. Since pre-existing chronic disease can lead to weight loss, this study also included alternative analyses that disregarded deaths occurring soon after enrollment and restricted the assessment to groups without pre-existing disease. In addition, the researchers adjusted for pre-existing disease by asking older participants to report their weight as it was when they were 50 years old. Examining weight at an earlier age provides a measure of typical adult weight that is largely unaffected by the onset of chronic disease.

Did you know that two out of three Americans are considered overweight? The primary cause is that we eat more and exercise less. There is no doubt that the more advances we make that enhance our lifestyle the heavier we become. Hold up...and wait a minute! What about all those low-fat foods that we eat now? Most people on low fat diets ask...How come I reduced fat in my diet but I’m still gaining weight? That's a simple answer. A few years ago we all became aware of the detrimental effects of fat in our diet. So what did we do? We began to concentrate on lowering cholesterol and taking fat out of our diets. This is a good thing. However, The National Center for Health Statistics studied eating habits of 8,260 adult American between 1998 and 2005. Their research showed that Americans had significantly reduced their fat intake but still packed on the pounds. How can this happen? There is no mystery. In the process of counting fat grams, we stopped counting calories! There's your problem.

Many of us bought in to the theory that if it’s “low-fat” it won’t make us fat...WRONG!

Did you fall off a turnip truck yesterday? Listen, you seriously can’t forget about counting calories. If you eat more calories than you need the body will store them as fat. It doesn’t matter whether the calories are from fat or carbohydrates.One school of thought believes that eating small amounts of fat can actually keep you from over indulging on total calories. The theory is that dietary fat causes our bodies to produce a hormone that tells the intestines to slow down the emptying process. You feel full and therefore are less likely to overeat. Adding a little peanut butter to your rice cake may satisfy your hunger for a longer period of time, thus preventing you from eating more than you need.Here’s more news that is surprising. 

Tufts University scientists put 11 middle aged men and women volunteers on a variety of average, reduced and low-fat diets. The results? Extremely low-fat diets which provided only 15 percent fat from calories (this is a diet near impossible in real life) did have a positive effect on blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.However, a reduced-fat diet (much more realistic) only affected those levels if accompanied by weight loss.

In fact, they concluded, cutting fat without losing weight actually increased triglyceride levels and decreased high density lipoproteins (HDL), the “good” cholesterol that helps protect again heart disease, and none of us want heart disease! Take care of your body, I say this daily..it's the only home you'll ever have and you cannot be replaced! Are you picking up what I'm laying down here?

So what can we do about this HDL and how can our bodies fight that 'bad?' We can deduce, therefore, while excess fat isn’t healthy, fat is also not necessarily a bad thing. Without some fat in our diet, the body won’t make nerve cells and hormones or absorb some of the fat soluble vitamins.Okay, so how can you determine your ideal weight? Just how much fat and how many calories should you consume to reach and maintain a healthy weight? The truth is, one answer just won't work for everyone... So you need to do some figuring to determine how much fat and how many calories you can have.Remember, take care of yourself, and seek the advice of a professional. 

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