eat fat to lose bodyfat?

[coach hale]

common statement made by some of the popular nutrition gurus

excerpt from Ch.2 (popular diets the science) Knowledge and Nonsense: the science of nutrition and exercise

comes from section discussiong Rob Faigin's Natural Hormonal Enhancement

Dietary fat is not only helpful but is necessary for shedding body fat and improving your body composition.
You do not have to eat fat to get lean. This assumption generally comes from the fact that FFA oxidation is highest when ingesting high levels of fat and limiting carbohdyrate. The amount of dietary fat being consumed does not significantly increase the amount of fat used for fuel by the body. Fat burning is determined indirectly by alcohol and carbohydrate consumption. The consumption of alcohol will almost completely inhibit the bodies ability to burn fat for fuel. The greatest rates of fat oxidaton will occur when carbohydrates and alcohol are limited. Levels of muscle glycogen also regulate how much fat is used by the muscle. I wonder if Faigin has ever researched therapeutic Protein Sparing Modified Fasts (these diets resulted in huge amounts of weight loss with virtually no fat intake) or seen people who have not eaten anything for prolonged periods of time. Would you drop weight if you chose to eat nothing but canned tuna? Probably so. Another thing to consider is where is the fat oxidation derived from? Eat more fat burn more dietary fat thus sparing bodyfat. I have seen numerous ketogenic dieters drop weight initially (water loss), but plateau due to excessive dietary fat intake (resulting in too many calories).
thanks
Coach Hale
www.maxcondition.com

[mikex1337]

Solution to lose most fat: get on a no-carb diet with a moderate exercise routine.

[Alan Aragon]

Originally Posted by mikex1337

Solution to lose most fat: get on a no-carb diet with a moderate exercise routine.

Ummm, no-carb? How bout just go on a no calorie diet, and wire your jaw shut for insurance? I hear that works too.

Nice post Jamie, can't wait for the book.

[coach hale]

just finished the ch on hormones

also added another appendix

Chapter 4 Hormones
Hormones
Hunger hormones
Insulin
Leptin
Ghrelin
Peptide YY
Neuropeptide Y and CRH
CCK
Pancreatic Polypeptide
GLP-1 and Oxyntomodulin
Adipokines
Resistin
Adiponectin
Testosterone
Growth Hormone
Insulin-Like Growth Factors
Insulin
Thyroid
Cortisol
Glucagon
Catecholamines

thanks
Coach hale
www.maxcondition.com

[miller]

I agree that to lose fat a diet with less amount of carb is helpful and if you have some average amount of exercise you\\\'d see results within some weeks.

Miller

[mikex1337]

Originally Posted by Alan Aragon

Ummm, no-carb? How bout just go on a no calorie diet, and wire your jaw shut for insurance? I hear that works too.

Nice post Jamie, can't wait for the book.

I didn't mean absolutely no carbs. The Atkins diet works wonders for my clients.

[Ian Kay]

You do not have to. But is it healthier if you do?

Your assumption that reliance on fats leads to too many calories might make practical sense in regards to the average gym-goer, but again, does not have to be the case.

If I need to consume 2000 cals to lose weight, and adhere to the low-carb approach, where will my cals come from? If I take in 200g of protein and limit myself to 100g carbs, where do the other 800 cals come from? About 89g of fat. That's considered fairly high by many standards, but it still keeps me at my calorie limit.

I obviously don't need to explain the health benefits of dietary fats.

Other benefits of fats over carbs while dieting down: satiety and effect on insulin.

Perhaps I missed something or misread the article. I agree you don't have to eat fats to lose fat... but are you saying anything more than that? If it has other benefits and no drawbacks (other than negligence towards total cals), shouldn't it still be recommended?

(Note: I'm not trying to knock your article. I just want to see what you say in regards to my points.)

[cuteamy]

i dont agree the no-carbs diet , i think u should eat everything but all in small quantities... remember your body needs a balanced diet, you dont want to be malnourished

[Lost Dog]

Virtually every food we eat is optional. We don't need potatos. We don't need steak. We don't need almonds. We can get all that we need, in millions of different combinations of foods.

We CAN eat everything in moderation and be fine, but you shouldn't use that line of thinking to plan out a dietary strategy.

The thing to remember is that, across the globe and over human history, people have eaten (and not eaten) lots of different things. The Innuit/Eskimos, for instance, didn't really need a lot of carbs. They certainly did just fine without bread and potatos. They were practically carnivores.

Bread, beans, sugar, and starch-heavy roots and tubers are pretty new to us from a long term dietary perspective. Yet we can do just fine with them in our diets. But, I believe that if we were to replace those same carbs/calories with carbs/calories from veggies and fruits, we'd be healthier. But, for some of us, that might be splitting hairs. For others, important.

"Everything in moderation" is the key, perhaps, to a good balance between physical and mental well being. If you can reach your health, fitness, and weight/leanness goals while still eating those foods, then by all means do it. No one should strive to be perfect. You gotta live.

[gobbla]

Any time you see "need" or "have to" it's probably going to lean more towards wrong than "can" or maybe even should.

*pure opinion from someone that don't matter*
For the average person (non legitimate in training athlete) I don't think the macro content (assuming they're getting the minimum of protein\fat) of their diet is going to make enough difference to worry about. The factors that really distinguish "why" you need higher or lower %'s aren't going to be factors because these people aren't training enough for it to be one.

For someone that's actually in competition, there's probably a more limited window that they can play with, but as long as they're healthy, happy, and performing high then the %'s aren't as important as the stopwatch or the lbs.

[coach hale]

bottom line
to drop bodybfat consitently create a cal defiict

with diet, with activity or with diet and activity

of course when speaking of performance and body comp things are different

there is always an individual factor

thanks
Coach Hale
www.maxcondition.com