Why Fat Does Not Make You Fat After All
by Cora Penafiel
(Philippines)
Have you ever enjoyed eating almost all the foods you know about, but were afraid of eating fatty ones? It is hard to blame most people who believe that, in consuming foods high in fat you can directly add fat to your body as well. Media nowadays has been pushing this “fact” into the minds of millions of people for years now. After all, it is called fat, so in a regular person’s point of view, why is not consuming fat making you fatter? However, in order for us to understand, we will go through what your body does when you consume foods high in fat content, and the way the fat is stored in the body. You may be surprised.
Whether you are going to consume foods rich in protein, fat, or carbohydrates, your body will take that source of energy and create usable energy with it. The primary source of energy your muscles use is called adenosine triphosphate, also known as ATP. Every time you consume food, your body breaks down those macronutrients, which are composed of protein, fats, and carbohydrates, into a compound called acetyl-COA; this compound will, in turn, be used in order to create ATP.
You may not understand the complex terms used in this process, but whether you understand or not, the bottom line is, your body breaks down protein, fats, and carbohydrates and turns them into energy, which you can use for all of your daily activities. That proves that fat, when consumed, is directly stored as adipose tissue on your body. So if eating fat does not make you fat, what makes a person fat?
The reason is remarkably clear. However, there are some people who don’t accept this concept. People become overweight because they either eat too much or do not exercise enough and oftentimes both. And no, it is not because of your genetics or your thyroid or any other lame reason why you are fat. These are only sad excuses that people use all the time to make themselves feel better. Losing weight and becoming a healthier you is not that complicated, but it is indeed hard to achieve. And even though the ideas behind losing weight can be remarkably easy, staying motivated and following it can be extremely difficult.
To put it in a more straightforward way, you should burn more calories all through the day compared to what you consume. To burn calories, you need to exercise and eat little calories. Let’s put it this way, if you consume about 2000 calories in a day, you need to burn about 2200. You will lose about of 200 the regular calorie amount that your body can have, which is considered as a weight loss.
However, if you consume, for example, 2000 calories but only burn away 1800 of it, then you will gain 200 calories, thus causing you to gain more weight. Now you know the basic solution on how you burn calories; by consuming remarkably little calories and burning a lot, you will lose a lot of weight, like eating only 800 calories and burning 1500.
Well, that is not true. Although this sounds like a healthy diet plan to try out, it is not. First of all, if you are not consistent with your diet, you could end up with an eating disorder. Also, if you try to do a diet that is extreme like this, you will certainly fail. And you will probably go on an eating spree for an extraordinarily long time since you tried to follow this “diet”.
Another negative side is when you consume only a small amount of calories, you are certainly not getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals that your body needs to be healthy. If you have only, say, a 300-calorie deficiency, you can still consume right amount of vitamins and minerals to maintain a healthy body. Also, when your body is lacking calories, there is an old genetic mechanism that may kick in that signals your body to store as much fat as it can, since it “thinks” there is going to be a deficiency of the supply of food, which is the opposite of what you truly want to happen.
Fats are known to have a poor reputation. If they called it something else, like adipose, the fat would not get such a terrible reputation. The adipose tissue is essentially the tissue considered as “fat” in your body. So you should not call people who are overweight, fat. Another factor why fat has a terrible reputation is because, with each gram, there are more calories than proteins and carbohydrates. If proteins and carbohydrates have about four calories per gram, fat has about nine calories per gram.
So if a single food choice contains 10 grams of fat it will have about 90 calories; if the other food contains 10 grams of protein, then it will only have 40 calories. This is considered as being energy-dense. Since fat is more energy-dense, that is the reason your body stores energy as adipose tissue. So when your body is in a calorie deficiency, or it is burning more calories than how much it has consumed, your body will be dipping to the adipose tissue for more energy. That is when you are certainly going to lose weight.
In fact, there are certain types of fat that are highly vital for our body. Omega 3 fats are essential to the health of a person. These fats help reduce inflammation if you have any, and can also help prevent risk factors associated with chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and arthritis. These essential fats are highly concentrated and can be particularly valuable for the cognitive and behavioral function of the body. However, these fats cannot be produced by the body, which is why it is crucial for us to get these fats from food.
However, too much of something can be unhealthy. If you eat too much fat, it might cause you to gain weight, unless you burn the calories you gain. If you truly want to lose weight, you should do it with proper exercise and diet combined. There are a lot available weight-loss plans out there; you can search online or look for magazine and newspaper articles for plans that suit your taste. Remember, by losing that extra weight, you will be full of confidence to face the world. And not only that, you will become healthier; with that health, you will gain more time with your loved ones.
