Is Low Fat Part of the Problem?

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Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,622 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    TheMrWobbly wrote: »
    It is correct that each person is different, what we do know that the government supported theory that 'fat is bad, gives you heart disease' has no proven basis. I won't go on about LDLs and HDLs here though everybody should understand more about them. Anything to excess is bad but an amount of fat is necessary and it does make you feel fuller (generally). Just keep away from trans fats.

    WHO recommendation, last I checked, was 15 to 30% of calories from fat with 20% for women of reproductive age....

    A quick read of the current recommendations doesn't say much about fat being bad as an absolute...

    https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet

    US recommendation is currently 20-35% of calories for total fats for most adults (but less than 10% from saturated fats).

    https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/appendix-7/
  • liz0269
    liz0269 Posts: 139 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    TheMrWobbly wrote: »
    It is correct that each person is different, what we do know that the government supported theory that 'fat is bad, gives you heart disease' has no proven basis. I won't go on about LDLs and HDLs here though everybody should understand more about them. Anything to excess is bad but an amount of fat is necessary and it does make you feel fuller (generally). Just keep away from trans fats.

    WHO recommendation, last I checked, was 15 to 30% of calories from fat with 20% for women of reproductive age....

    A quick read of the current recommendations doesn't say much about fat being bad as an absolute...

    https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet

    US recommendation is currently 20-35% of calories for total fats for most adults (but less than 10% from saturated fats).

    https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/appendix-7/

    Both agree to the 10% from saturated. WHO is putting forth the 30%; but, it is a limit mainly placed to control calories. Neither 30% nor 35% sounds like don't eat any fat or you'll die! The limits on Saturated and Trans DO sound like it, though, and they're meant to!

    Exactly! What I read in one of those reports is 15% is recommended for health - the rest is preference.
  • tanyaltrl
    tanyaltrl Posts: 42 Member
    edited July 2019
    I don't know what kind of low fat diet you're doing, but I've personally followed a low fat vegan diet. When I first started, I didn't use any oil at all, including oil free salad dressings and spaghetti sauce. Also ate a ton of greens and steamed veggies. My macros were maybe 85% carbs 7% fat 8% protein on average.

    There was a point when I added hummus, regular marinara sauce, and even a teaspoon of margarine from time to time. Nothing too crazy. I noticed a difference in satiation but had to be careful with portion sizes. Times that I've stopped watching my fat intake, I don't feel my best anymore. I crave more junk, gain weight, and my skin breaks out. The way I measure it these days is having added fat in only one meal per day. So I still eat much lower fat than most MFP'ers would recommend, but a bit more than Dr. McDougall, Neal Barnard, and those other low fat vegan doctors.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    edited July 2019
    My recent experience may be relevant to this discussion.

    I previously was on a high protein/low fat diet (when I was lifting heavy to build muscle) and was burning a lot of cals doing additional cardio on a rower (10k meters daily), during which I constantly felt hungry.

    Daily cals consumed were about 2200-2400, daily cal burn was about 500-600 and macros were 40P/40C/20F. Weight dropped from 160 to 150 w/a drop in BF from 16% to 8% in 12 months..

    Got burned out doing this and stopped lifting & rowing daily for several months and regained the 10# in just 6 months, 1/2 the time it took to lose it.

    In order to reverse this trend, I started 16:8 IF, reduced cals consumed to about 1800 cals/day, resumed rowing about 5k meters/day which burns about 300 cals/day and switched to a high fat/lower protein diet with macros of 20P/40C/40F.

    Quickly lost 5# to my goal wt of 155 in just 1 month doing this and, now, despite only eating w/in 4-8 hr window and eating about 400-600 cals less per day than b4, I do NOT feel hungry during the 16-20 (usually 18) hr fasting period.

    The major difference is that I am consuming much more fat that I ever did b4, which as far as I can tell is the main reason I do not feel as hungry as I did b4.

    Not sure if this is THE reason that I don't feel hungry while fasting but it is the only thing that I can think of that explains it.
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
    I'm starting to find the same. A teaspoon of butter, PB, or full fat dressings, even a few nuts or a little cheese in dishes have been leaving me more satisfied lately. Yes I weigh them, just using teaspoon as an approximate of how much I add.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,213 Member
    sgt1372 wrote: »
    My recent experience may be relevant to this discussion.

    I previously was on a high protein/low fat diet (when I was lifting heavy to build muscle) and was burning a lot of cals doing additional cardio on a rower (10k meters daily), during which I constantly felt hungry.

    Daily cals consumed were about 2200-2400, daily cal burn was about 500-600 and macros were 40P/40C/20F. Weight dropped from 160 to 150 w/a drop in BF from 16% to 8% in 12 months..

    Got burned out doing this and stopped lifting & rowing daily for several months and regained the 10# in just 6 months, 1/2 the time it took to lose it.

    In order to reverse this trend, I started 16:8 IF, reduced cals consumed to about 1800 cals/day, resumed rowing about 5k meters/day which burns about 300 cals/day and switched to a high fat/lower protein diet with macros of 20P/40C/40F.

    Quickly lost 5# to my goal wt of 155 in just 1 month doing this and, now, despite only eating w/in 4-8 hr window and eating about 400-600 cals less per day than b4, I do NOT feel hungry during the 16-20 (usually 18) hr fasting period.

    The major difference is that I am consuming much more fat that I ever did b4, which as far as I can tell is the main reason I do not feel as hungry as I did b4.

    Not sure if this is THE reason that I don't feel hungry while fasting but it is the only thing that I can think of that explains it.

    I also just finished losing some weight I regained using a higher fat diet and found it came off easily (ie I was less hungry than I expected to be). I had been about 50C 20P 30F while losing originally and switched to 35C 20P 45F.

    Maybe it felt so much easier because of the fat or maybe it was something else.

    I’ve wondered whether homeostasis could have played a part, in that I spent quite a bit of time at a lower weight, then regained 15lbs over a short period of time.

    Or it was more fat in my diet. Who knows.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited July 2019
    sgt1372 wrote: »
    Not sure if this is THE reason that I don't feel hungry while fasting but it is the only thing that I can think of that explains it.

    I eat within an 8 hour window (often a 6 hour window) on most Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and don't feel hungry the rest of the day no matter what macros I eat -- I think it's because it's no big thing to eat your calories for the day within a particular period of time.

    Similarly, on other days I tend to eat the same cals, but around 6:30, noon, and 9, and I'm not hungry between meals then. That's the case regardless of carbs to fat percentage. I suspect the particular carbs I choose might matter for satiety (I think more fiber is helpful for me, and I personally find fruit, veg, and beans quite filling, as well as potatoes), but I don't think people in general need a special diet not to need to eat all the time.

    Individuals might find particular macros filling, but for me it's more about food choice than macros -- there are diets/meals of quite different macros that are equally filling for me. As I said above, I do like keeping a good amount of fat in my diet (30-40%), as I tend to feel more satisfied doing that, since fat is tasty and I can still have decent volume.
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