When it comes to taking care of our health, we often end up believing a number of shocking myths perpetuated by the food industry. Needless to say, most of these misconceptions are developed around the intake of fats and its effects on our body weight. Obesity, one of the predominant health issues across the globe, has always been linked to fat intake, especially the saturated ones. However, recent studies have revealed the actual truth behind it and today, we are going to elaborate it through this post.
Foods High In Saturated Fat
Before jumping into the serious discussion about saturated fat and its relation to weight loss, let’s have a look at the way we can get it. Some of the most common dietary resources of saturated fat include whole milk, cream, butter, lard, egg yolk, pork, steak, bacon, fried foods, processed foods, seafood, baked items, animal products, etc. There are also some plant sources if saturated fat, such as palm oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, and so on.
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Saturated Fat And Weight Loss: The Myth
Saturated fat has always been under investigation due to its bad reputation. According to some previous studies, this type of fat has detrimental effects on our blood cholesterol levels, especially ‘bad cholesterol’ or low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which is the main culprit behind several cardiovascular diseases including artery-clogging. To top it off, saturated fat is widely accepted to be an obesity-causing poison. As most of the saturated fats are significantly high in calories and dietary fats, they are believed to contribute to our body weight to a large extent. In one of its publications, the American Heart Association concluded that people who are dying to lose unwanted body weight should replace the ‘bad’ saturated fats with its healthy counterparts like monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. Being low in calories and high in proteins, these fat sources can promote the weight loss efforts of obese individuals which are usually obstructed by saturated fats.
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Saturated Fat And Weight Loss: The Truth
A number of latest studies have presented enough evidence to prove the aforementioned claims about the link between saturated fat and weight loss completely WRONG. Yes, you can now indulge in yummy foods loaded with saturated fats even if you have long been trying to get rid of excess body weight. All you need to do is to keep a check of the portion sizes you are eating throughout the day. But what has made scientists to change their decisions? We have jotted them down:
- There is no single cause behind obesity or too much weight gain in humans. It is a serious medical condition, which is associated with a number of complicated factors and saturated fat may or may not be one of them.
- Any type of fat is high in calories and saturated fat is certainly not out of the loop. The amount of calories yielded by a gram of saturated fat is almost twice the amounts of carbohydrates and proteins provided by it. In that respect, it can be considered as a trigger of weight gain. But if the portion size is kept under control, saturated fat will have zero negative impact on our body.
- Most of the high fat diets become fattening enough due to the presence of high amount of sugar as well as refined carbohydrates in them. Carbohydrates boost the production of insulin in our body, which helps in storing extra sugar as glycogen molecules in our muscle tissues. However, too much consumption of refined carbohydrates results in the generation of excess glycogen, which is mostly stored in fat cells making us overweight. It means it is sugar and carbohydrates that are to blame and not saturated fats.
- As a nutrient, fat is essential for our body and instead of taking it in minimal doses, we should include it in our regular diet. Increasing the intake of fat can even help people lose weight in some cases and a certain study has also come up with interesting results supporting this claim. It divided a group of obese people into three groups and they were given diets having 90% fats, 90% proteins, and 90% carbohydrates respectively. Once the study was over, it was found that the first group with high-fat diet lost the maximum weight!
- Eating adequate saturated fat also helps in the secretion of Cholecystokinin or CCK, which is nothing but a hormone that keeps us full and suppresses hunger. This way, we can stay away from overeating, thereby preventing further weight gain.
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Recommended Daily Intake
It is recommended that you do not consume saturated fat more than 10% of your total intake of calories in a day. To be more precise, your total fat include might include saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, and polyunsaturated fat in 1:1:1 ratio. However, try to adjust your saturated fat intake according to your weight loss goal for the most effective results.