Hey Power Girl! What I’m going to tell you today may shock you.
It goes against everything we have been told and everything girls think.
FAT is actually…
Are you ready for this?
GOOD FOR YOU!!!
That’s right. Our bodies need fat. GOOD fat that is.
We have been told to avoid fat because it makes us fat.
There are many adults who have been told to follow a low-fat diet to prevent disease.
Well something is not right.
You know why?
We have so many low-fat diets and low-fat foods and yet 65 % of Canadian adults are overweight, 30 % are obese and get this….
20% of Canadian 4 year olds are obese!
Dietary Fat is down from when our parents were growing up because of all the low-fat foods and low-fat diets that have become popular, BUT obesity is up!
WAY UP!
Here is the stat I found…
In the 70’s people ate 40 % of their calories from fat and now we eat 34 % of our calories from fat…
BUT… obesity is up from 14 % to 22 %!
So we are eating LESS FAT, but we’re getting FATTER!!
We have more low-fat foods and low-fat diets than anywhere in the world and yet we have the HIGHEST rate of obesity!
Does this make sense to you? It didn’t make sense to me!
This is what I have learned about fat.
Dietary fat is GOOD for you!
Our bodies NEED fat!!!
We NEED fat for our metabolism.
We NEED fat to allow our bodies to use fat-soluble vitamins.
We NEED fat to make hormones.
We NEED fat for our brain and nerve system to work properly.
One of the hormones released when we eat fat actually signals the brain to stop eating!
Fat allows our body to BURN fat!
Fat (like protein) slows the sugar from carb, from entering our blood AND lowers the amount of insulin (the hormone that pushes sugars into storage) that our bodies release.
Insulin is a fat-laying hormone so it is really important that our bodies don’t release too much of it at one time.
Stored body fat is our bodies preferred source of energy.
Our bodies are meant to be FAT BURNERS!
Many people, maybe even YOU, have become SUGAR BURNERS and if you CRAVE SUGAR, that is why!
Your body may not have the right fats from your diet to be able to burn fat.
Your body may not even need to try to burn fat because you always eat too much sugar or carb!
Now that you understand that you actually NEED fat and MUST eat HEALTHY fats, I need to tell you which fats you should eat.
You see not all fats are good for you. Some fats ARE bad for you.
Learn which ones are good and eat those EVERY day.
Learn which ones are bad for you and STAY AWAY from those ones.
GOOD FATS
- all good fats are UNprocessed
- Avocados
- fat from fatty fish like salmon, herring, real crab
- RAW nuts and their butters and oils
- RAW seeds and their butters and oils
- Coconut butter (can cook with this too)
- REAL butter (raw is best)
- Olive oil, grapeseed oil (good cooking oils)
- Cheese (if you can get raw cheese)
BAD FATS
- all hydrogenated fats/trans fats (margarine and so many packaged foods)
- oils that go rancid easily (almost all vegetable oils)
- fried foods (they are cooked in oils that go RANCID and these are TOXIC)
So the key here is to drill into your head what fats you should stay away from.
The bad ones ARE BAD and can cause so many health problems and diseases like heart disease and cancer.
The good ones ARE REALLY GOOD. Eat a bit of them everyday.
The key with fat is to know how much you should eat and how much is too much.
Even TOO much of a good thing can be bad.
I eat around 50 g of GOOD fats every day.
I would think that you should aim for around 50g too.
If you are really active and you eat a lot than you could eat 75g.
Just like my blogs on CARBS and PROTEIN, I am going to make it easy for you and tell you how much is just about right when it comes to food choices.
The servings of fat listed below are broken down into 5g servings.
WHAT IS A SERVING OF A GOOD FAT?
- healthy oils (avocado, olive, grapeseed, nut/seed oils – 1 tsp
- coconut fat or butter – 1 tsp
- avocado – 1/4
- almonds – 5
- walnuts – 2 halves
- cheese – cubic inch
Ok now the tricky thing with fats is unless YOU are cooking with them you don’t know how much you are actually eating.
You can approximate that you will be getting at least 15g of fat in your cooked foods.
Keep this in mind when choosing your healthy fats.
My suggestion is to add at least 5-7 of the above choices to your meals and/or snacks.
REMEMBER…If you don’t eat enough fat you WILL NOT burn fat.
I will put all the information you have learned from my last 3 blogs together so that you will have a meal plan to follow in the very near future.
I am writing the Power Girl Nutrition Revolution Meal Plan Guide along with my Mom who was a dietitian for 15 years.
It will be AWESOME and worth the wait!
My next video is being shot later this month and will take you into my kitchen with my Mom and me where you will get to learn step-by-step how to prepare meals.
We will be doing everything from breakfast to dinner and even healthy snacks!
Please be patient with me…
I’m working hard to give you EVERYTHING you need to be healthy, strong, lean and to get the body of your dreams!!!
Your friend and coach,
Jessy Lipke
