Some fats actually increase our metabolic rate. So making sure we have these in our diet helps us lose weight if we need to. Keeping weight off is easier when these are included in our diet. Increasing our metabolic rate gives us more energy, making us more likely to exercise. This in turn helps with weight loss too.
This follows on from last week’s blog – all calories are not equal. Calorie counting is a very poor substitute for a proper diet.
Low Fat Diet Plans
For a number of reasons these are not particularly healthy and don’t make much sense when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off in the long term. Hunger is influenced by the types of food we eat. Different foods are digested and absorbed into our bodies at different rates and therefore keep hunger at bay for different lengths of time. For example:
- Fats can take as long as 5-8 hours to be fully digested
- Proteins can take 3-5 hours
- Complex carbohydrates take about 2-3 hours
- Refined sugars and refined carbohydrates can take as little as 30 minutes
Even though fats contain twice as many calories as carbs they keep hunger satisfied for 3 times as long
Not All Fats Are Equal
Things called fatty acids are building blocks for both the fats we eat and the fat we store in our bodies. Although all fatty acids produce the same amount of energy, our body prefers to save the important omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. They are used for making hormones and are incorporated into cell membranes. Omega 3 is also used to keep our skin soft and smooth. What this means is you can eat them and they don’t have to be stored as fat or burned off as energy.
These fatty acids also increase our metabolic rate, unlike saturated fatty acids which tend to slow it down and make us feel lazy and lethargic (& make us fat).
To help with weight loss and to increase your energy
You’ll want to decrease your intake of:
- refined sugars and refined carbs – these are turned into saturated fats and stored as fat
- refined oils – for example margarines – our bodies have trouble dealing with these so tends to put them into storage
- saturated fats – meat and diary – ok in moderation
You will also want to increase your intake of the good fats:
- eat more seeds and nuts – in their raw state, not roasted or cooked
- eat more whole grains – rice, whole grain breads
- oily fish – mackerel, salmon, sardines
Uber Health to you, Dr Julie (any ads that appear are nothing to do with me, I am NOT endorsing)
PS Within the next month I will be looking for a hand full of volunteers to who want to lose weight and would like my help over the course of a few months. Please email me if you are interested.
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