On the opposite end of the spectrum with popular weight loss approaches, is low fat dieting. These diets became popular in the past 30 years or so, because it was believed that eating fatty foods would cause you to have heart disease and become fat. Like any diet which tries to go too far to one extreme though, this one has inherent problems of it's own too.
Most people interpret "low fat" to mean "low meat consumption". Some people in fact, tried to cut meat from their diets entirely. Now this is possible to do of course, and there are varying forms of vegetarianism which prove it can be done. Like other extreme eating styles though, cutting out all sources of meat and fat in our diets is quite difficult to do. And it's not overly healthy for us either.
Different types of meat have different vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients our bodies need to survive. And some of these nutrients cannot be gotten from any other type of food source.
The other problem with cutting out meats from our diet, or cutting down on them drastically, is that we must fill our stomachs some other way. And the only ways left are with carbohydrates or sugars. Now there is fiber of course, and that can be gotten with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. And fiber helps a lot towards helping your body feel full after eating. Most people unfortunately, don't eat enough fiber in their diets though.
So they try to fill their stomachs with carbohydrates which - as we've discussed earlier in this series - are quick fuels which aren't designed to sustain us for long periods of time. So eating high carbohydrate meals often leads us to eating way too much food each day. We eat something at 8am and we're hungry again at 9 or 10. And if the stuff we're eating is simple carbs with lots of sugar in them, then we're simply packing on more fat as we go throughout each day.
This is the primary reason most people are miserable on low fat diets. The diets call for a certain amount of calories each day, but eating those calories with primarily carbohydrates leaves us feeling hungry and deprived. In order to eat enough to feel full and satisfied, we're tripling the amount of calories we should be eating. Sometimes we're even consuming five times or more than the daily amount that's appropriate for us.
Like carbohydrates though, there are both good and bad sources of dietary fat. By adding good sources of fat into our daily eating habits, we're able to keep the worst of our hunger at bay, and add longer term sources of energy and fuel for our bodies too.
Omega-3 Fatty acids is one source of fat that should be included in everyone's daily eating plans. These come from fish primarily, but they can be gotten from supplements too. There are also saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Then there are trans fats as well. Trans fats and saturated fats are very bad for you, and should be kept to a bare minimum if you can't cut them out completely. Unsaturated fats though, are essential for the proper health and nutritional balance in our bodies, and these will also contribute to your weight loss goals too, because they help you to eat less.
Eating high quality fats in some form of protein is the best dietary choice though, because the protein also helps your body maintain it's energy levels longer, keeps you from getting hungry too soon, and helps your body build stronger muscles and bones too. And all of these are essential to maintaining a healthy body weight.
