If you don't eat fat, you won't lose weight!

If you don't eat fat, you won't lose weight!

By Sherali S. Bharwani

You have always been told that fat is your enemy and responsible for your overweight-ness. You are also generally advised to completely abstain from fat if you want to lose weight.

I think the low-fat craze has gone too far. My clients are not only confused about it, they feel disappointed even betrayed. They say.. "I’m eating fat-free foods, why then am I not losing weight?" "I’m counting fat grams instead of calories, but I’m still fat!" "Aren’t fat-free products healthier?"

The focus on fat content seems to have so much backfired now that we’ve forgotten all about calories. According to a study, we’re taking in nearly 250 more calories a day now than we were 30 years ago. Meanwhile, Americans are spending over $30 billion a year on weight control, a large chunk of that on diet and low-fat foods.

A lot of people mistakenly assume that since a food is labeled fat-free, they could eat as much of it as they wanted. So, instead of replacing high-fat foods with low-calorie fruits and vegetables, they’ve been bulking up on highly processed foods loaded with added sugars and refined starches, which offer little nutrition other than calories.

Let's clear it up. If you completely eliminate fat from your diet, you will not lose weight! Research is showing that you should probably eat more fat, especially if you're trying to lose weight.

If you don't consume fat at all, then your body thinks you're starving. In this 'starvation mode' or 'famine mode', your body tends to store every ounce of stored fat and thus you don't lose weight. You may lose muscle and water mass but you don't lose fat!

Additionally, appropriate amounts of fats are required in your daily diet in order to keep your body functioning properly. Fats are required for your hair, your nails, your joints etc.

But determining the proper amount of healthy fat in your daily diet is a very tricky issue. You have to be very careful with the foods that contain fat. Just consider this..