How to Eat Fat to Lose Fat.

Besides the irony of saying such a thing, the even more ironic thing is that you can lose fat while eating fat. The key is knowing how to do it correctly. 

First, the basics:

Not all fat is bad. In fact, there’s a lot of good fat out there that’s even necessary to help us maintain essential functions in our body. Don’t let “conventional dieting wisdom” fool you. It constantly flip flops around issues, continually confuses people and ends up making a lot of money out of all the confusion. High fat diets work.

Here are the most important things to remember when trying to lose weight through a high fat diet:

You can really eat as much fatty foods as you like so long as they are the right fatty foods (you’ll get a list). Eat every meal until you are satisfied. With more options of what to eat on the table, you can bet there’s less chances that you’ll fall of the wagon. There’s really no set rule on how many calories you need to intake. If you’re aiming to lose a lot of weight, one strategy you may want to follow is eating under your BMR level. As for long term purposes, there’s really no set amount. 

You’ll find a lot of fatty foods on the list of a high fat diet are also protein rich foods such as chick (with the skin). It’s completely fine to eat it. 

Here are some examples of high fat foods you can eat:

Meat: Chicken, beef, turkey, bacon (I recommend turkey bacon).

Eggs: (I prefer hard boiled)

Oils: Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil (I love this one), flaxseed oil. You can add these to your drinks. 

Dairy: Anything with high fat concentration (as long as it’s natural). Margarine doesn’t count. 

Nuts: Walnuts.

Vegetables: Avocados and any vegetables with high fat levels as well as any vegetables in general.

Drinks: Water, coffee, tear (no sugar).

As for sugars, if you can get it from a natural source, do it. Fruits, berries (all organic). Think Paleo. Everything natural, nothing artificial. And also keep it in low amounts. 

The most important thing to keep in mind is really to limit carbs. Carbs are the enemy. Even if you nothing else changes, reducing carb intake is a step in the right direction to losing weight. Keep sugar intake low. If possible, avoid white sugar and products with that ingredient. I also add white flour and regular salt to the mix. Avoid foods such as bread (even whole wheat), foods with starch, drinks with tons of sugar (juices and soda), dairy with sugar (ice cream), cereals, rice, pasta.

On the topic of weight gain, carbs have always been the culprit, not actual fat from foods. Carbs what increase glucose levels in the body which lead to fat deposits in the body and an accumulation of weight around specific areas of the body (waist, stomach, behind). Fat on the other hand helps regulate the body’s metabolism and provides essential nutrition to help it function better.

Stick to fatty foods which are organic or grass fed. The more natural it is, the better. 

Any special diets that focus on this style of eating?

You can find a lot, but there’s 2 in particular which you may want to check out:

1. The Bulletproof diet. A completely high fat diet with a few differences and unique elements added in (bulletproof coffee and intermittent fasting). This diet is very good when it comes to explaining the benefits of a high fat diet, but I really don’t like that it doesn’t focus on anything else. Chances are cholesterol levels will rise if you follow it, but if you want to get a good idea on the theory of high fat dieting, this is a great book to check out.

2. The 3 week diet. It’s a 4 phase system. Each phase is a different dieting style and the last part of the plan is an actual high fat diet. I think compared to the Bulletproof diet, this one is more convenient in that it’s less strict on what you can eat. Plus there’s also more focus on fast weight loss. You can lose 20-30 pounds within 3 weeks. The Bulletproof diet is more of a lifestyle change and weight loss results can be anywhere from high to gradual. 

And the best diet on healthy fat eating, and losing weight is…

3. Eat Fat, Get Thin. Without a doubt, there is no other book more comprehensive on the misconceptions of eating fat and how to lose weight doing it than this one. A highly, highly recommended book that will undoubtedly change how you look at this subject forever.

And one more recommendation:

4. You can get free fat loss tips (cheats) to drop a few pounds every single week (here).

Health benefits & risks?

There are many health benefits to eating a high fat diet. Besides weight loss (not very major), you’ll feel more energy, better focus, more stamina and more. Also by having more varieties of foods to eat, you can also expect this to raise your confidence levels. A lot of traditional dieting isn’t very flexible and it really affects people’s confidence levels. High fat diets are much easier to deal with.

As for risks, it’s hard to explain because the “risks” I’ll list here, some would say aren’t really that but just initial side effects you may feel which go away overtime:

You may feel irritable. This is usually because you’re cutting down on the sugar and this can make you feel tired and frustrated. However, like I said before, these “risks” are said to be temporary and in this case, once your body gets used to eating a high fat diet, irritability will go away.

Higher cholesterol. If anything is guaranteed, this is it. If you eat a lot of eggs, bacon and other high fatty foods, expect cholesterol to go up and this includes both HDL and LDL levels. 

You can also find more foods and great tips on high fat dieting on this site.

The other side effects I’ve read about seem mild and temporary as the body gets used to it. It’s really the cholesterol effect that I don’t like. I said before in a previous article that eating should be balanced. If you eat in a style that’s too similar, you’re probably going to overdo it overtime so if you currently have high cholesterol levels or fear it going up, cut down on eggs whenever possible and substitute it with other healthy foods. Always talk to your doctor if you’re worried!