Do you want to switch to high fat diet to enjoy the awesome weight loss effect on your body? Read this article to know the truth about high fat diet and chances are it is not what you expect.

When it comes to diets, picking between high fat and low fat it can be a difficult choice. You do your research and ask your doctor and you feel more confused.

Too much fat in your diet, can raise your cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. But is that true? In recent decades, the West has undergone a shift in eating patterns from low-fat, high carbs to a diet which is completely the opposite, let’s see why.

What is fat?

Fat is a macronutrient, like carbs and proteins. They all have different functions, but they have one thing in common, calories.

A gram of fat provides 9kcal of energy compared with 4kcal for carbohydrate and protein.

Fats are substances that help the body use some vitamins and keep the skin healthy; they are also the main way the body stores energy.

The main types of fat found in food are:

saturated fats

unsaturated fats

Saturated fats are found in many foods mostly come from animal sources, like meat and dairy products, as well as some plant foods, such as palm oil and coconut oil.

It is said that saturated fat is one of the main causes of heart problems as it increases cholesterol.

Cholesterol is a fatty substance that’s mostly made by the body in the liver.

It’s carried in the blood as:

low-density lipoprotein (LDL)

high-density lipoprotein (HDL)

Eating too much saturated fats in your diet can raise “bad” LDL cholesterol in your blood, which can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

“Good” HDL cholesterol has a positive effect by taking cholesterol from parts of the body where there’s too much of it to the liver, where it’s disposed of.

If you want to reduce your risk of heart disease, you will be better off reducing your overall fat intake and swap saturated fats for unsaturated fats. However, there are some saturated fats present in meat and chocolate that don’t affect the cholesterol levels.  

Mostly found in oils from plants and fish, unsaturated fats can be either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated.

Monounsaturated fats help protect your heart by maintaining levels of “good” HDL cholesterol while reducing levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol in your blood, and those fats are found in olive oil, rapeseed oil avocados some nuts, such as almonds, brazils, and peanuts

Polyunsaturated fats can also help lower the level of “bad” LDL cholesterol in your blood.

There are 2 main types of polyunsaturated fats: omega-3 and omega-6.

Some types of omega-3 and omega-6 fats cannot be made by your body, which means it’s essential to include small amounts of them in your diet.

Omega-6 are found in vegetable oils and some nuts

Omega-3 are found in oily fishes.

Does our body need fat?

Fat is an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet. Fat is a source of essential fatty acids, which the body cannot make itself.

Fat helps the body absorb vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin E. These vitamins are fat-soluble, which means they can only be absorbed with the help of fats.

Fat is the favourite energy source for your body, that’s what it burns 80% of the time. From the moment you stand up from your bed your body is in an aerobic state, and that state uses only fat as an energy source.  

Low fat diet

There are many reasons why people choose to follow a low-fat diet, like reducing calories intake, lowering cholesterol levels, or for weight loss. They were once promoted for lowering the risk of heart disease, but subsequent research has found that saturated fat may not be the villain it was once thought to be.

Eating less fat is not necessarily the best way to lose weight or to lower the risk of chronic disease. It’s better to focus on the quality of your diet, increasing your fibre intake, and lowering your intake of processed and fatty meats rather than placing attention on a zero-fat diet.

If you want to reduce risk of heart disease avoid sugar, that’s the enemy.

Sugar can affect your heart by: Increasing the likelihood of obesity, of developing type 2 diabetes, which in turn increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

What is a high fat diet?

A high-fat diet is essentially the opposite to low-fat. In recent decades, there has been an emergence of diets like low-carb, high-fat like the ketogenic or Atkins diets.

What’s true is that foods like olive oil, avocado, and nuts contain beneficial fats, and the omega-3s present in fish are good for your heart and brain. However, partially hydrogenated trans fats are bad for you — there’s no debating on this — and eating too much saturated fat may contribute to obesity.

The idea behind the high fat diet is to increase fats consumption over carbs and proteins focusing on finding a healthy balance to promote fat expenditure as the main source of energy.

But remember, calories are calories, no matter where they come from. If you eat more than you should, you are still going to store fat.

What about the heart?

You’re probably aware that your diet has a key role in your risk of developing heart disease. It is the leading cause of death worldwide. It affects your heart and your blood vessels because fatty deposits build up in the arteries. As a result, blood can’t flow freely, and the blood vessels are less elastic. These deposits can break off and cause a complete or partial blockage, leading to a heart attack.

Saturated fats and trans fats are associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease. Unfortunately, the Western lifestyle is largely to blame because it contains high levels of fats and sugar, which can also damage blood vessels when blood glucose levels are too high for long periods. People who follow the Western diet also have lower rates of physical activity that the body needs to stay healthy.

Ok, let’s wrap up!

Fats are essential for our good health and we can find mainly 2 types: saturated and unsaturated. If you consume a high amount of saturated fats, you are more likely to increase LDL levels (bad fat) and cholesterol and so you are more at risk of heart disease and strokes. On the other hand, unsaturated fats reduce your LDL levels and so we define them to be more the healthy choice. Find the right balance that works for you and don’t abuse either of them.

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