Fat Control

You are doing your best to lose a little bit of excess weight. You are actively trying to move a bit more and eat a little bit less. You are trying to eat what you deem to be ‘healthy’ options. Yet, despite this you are still not managing to lose weight and don’t understand why.

Maybe you are still underestimating your calorie intake, especially with fats. No, fat isn’t the devil, and it isn’t the major cause of heart disease, cancer, strokes etc etc etc.  It is essential for the body to function effectively (with the exception of artificial trans fats)

But it is still high in calories. Roughly 9kcal per gram of fat, as opposed to 4kcal for both protein and carbohydrates, meaning it also isn’t something to be overindulged in.

For example, you are having a salad for lunch instead of a sandwich.  Great!  If this is something you like and want to do. Maybe a big plate of spinach, chicken pieces, tomato and cucumber.  Add some kidney beans and some olive oil.  Sounds great, it’s making me hungry. This salad without the olive oil would be roughly between 200-300 calories. Add in a tablespoon of olive oil would make it approx 400 calories. Blindly coating the salad with olive oil could make it potentially 600-800 calories, double the amount of that sandwich you chose to avoid. It’s easy done.

There are many examples where this could happen. 

•  Cheese on your baked potato. 30g of cheese is a small amount, about the  equivalent of 2 dice put together. 30 g is approx 120 calories. How many people would have that tiny amount???
• Cooking. More and more people are switching to the likes of butter and coconut oil for cooking with. Sure, great. Despite their benefits, it doesn’t make them any lower in calories than vegetable oils, or olive oils, or whatever you previously used. Don’t use too much.
•  Nuts!! Many benefits to them, Brazil, cashew, pistachio, almonds etc.  Great sources of protein and fats, but also very dense in calories. 6 brazil nuts would not fill up a guinea pig(don’t try it), let alone a grown adult, yet contain nearly 190 calories, making them very easy to overeat.

The point of this article isn’t to avoid fats, especially fantastic natural ones. And don’t go for low fat options because that just defeats the purpose.

Just be aware of portion control.

It can make all the difference.