Good Fats, Bad Fats and Fat Loss

March 8th, 2010 by admin

Not all the fats are the same to your body, specially in the weigh loss world. There are actually some fats that will actually help your body in your fat loss endeavors.

The problem appears at the moment of recognize them, there is a lot of garbage information which is very misleading and do nothing more than confusing everybody.

So which ones are good and which ones are bad for or health?

Here is a list that will clear any doubts:

1. Saturated fat: Stay away from these because these are the most dangerous of all fats! Saturated fats tend to be animal fats and most of them are solid at room temperature. Its structural chemistry makes them more “sticky” so they tend to increase the cholesterol levels in your blood and also stick in your arteries. You can find saturated fat in: butter, cheese, chocolate, egg yolk, meat fat, palm oil, coconut oil are good examples of saturated fats.

2. Unsaturated fat (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated): Most of the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are vegetable fats. These helps to lower the cholesterol blood levels and also contains the popular “essential fatty acids” such as the omega3 and omega6. You can find monounsaturated fats in avocados, peanuts, natural peanut butter, olives and olive oil (extra virgin). Polyunsaturated fats are found in fish, walnuts, pecans, almonds, soybean oil, sunflower oil etc.

The essential fatty acids (EFA)

As its name indicates just like the essential amino acids these cannot be produced by our body and must be provided through our food. We can find the EFA in the mono and polyunsaturated fats that were previously mentioned.

so the two “essential fatty acids” are:

Omega 6 (also known as linoleic acid) and Omega 3 (also known as alpha linoleic acid)

Some benefits of the good fats (EFA): They improve insulin sensitivity, they are needed for the absorption of fat soluble vitamins(A,D,E,K), are also required for joint health, cell membrane integrity, energy production, oxygen transfer, increase metabolic rate and with that helps to burn fat.

So in conclusion avoid saturated fats as much as you can. The last does not mean you cannot eat a lean steak once a week or eat all the egg in your breakfast. It means that you should decreased progressively your intake of saturated fats as you increased your intake of the good fats which have a protective effect on the cardiovascular system.

That is why also a zero fat dieting might not be greatest choice in you are trying to get lean, because your are treating all the fats the same way. In that case the best low fat diet would be one with only have good fats as the ones previously mentioned instead of one with absolutely zero fats at all.

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