Are you afraid of fats?

I enjoy all the fats...in moderation like everything else.

It's not eating fats that'll make you fat, it's eating too much calories that'll do it. However, being lax with your fat intake will certainly contribute to the latter.

I grew up during the US low fat craze. So, yes, I was "afraid" of fat for a long time. Whenever I'd reduce calories, I'd target fat (the whole 1 g of fat is 9 calories so it's the easiest place to cut thing was beat into our heads). Unfortunately carbs make me hungry, so eating a higher carb, lower fat diet was disastrous for me. I felt hungry all the time and couldn't stick with a deficit long enough, or cut low enough, to get where I wanted to be. Out of desperation I tried a low carb high fat diet. Brilliant! I was satisfied on fewer calories so I dropped all the weight I wanted to lose, plus some I had no idea I even could lose (for a total of 50lb loss), without changing activity levels and without going hungry. Needless to say, I don't fear fat anymore! I get about 60-70% of my calories from fat these days and have maintained a healthy weight for almost three years now. That said, I don't try to talk anyone out of what they are doing - if it is working, great; if not, they might ask for my advice... Or not, and that's okay too. You do you, let other people take care of themselves. I wasn't ready to try a different approach until I was ready. Had someone tried to talk me out of lower fat, higher fiber eating ten years ago I wouldn't have listened.

I did low fat in the 90's and lost weight, but it was not a sustainable way of eating for me. I was always hungry and felt deprived. I eventually gained all the weight back and then some. I was able to lose over 60 pounds this time and I rarely felt hungry and I don't feel deprived either . I mostly focus on getting enough protein and I just let fats and carbs fall wherever they fall. I eat foods i like and stick to my calorie goal. I have only been at maintenance for a couple of months, but I feel confident that I will be able to continue this WOE forever.

Only reason I choose lower fat items is because it also lowers the calories. Otherwise I try to get my daily fat macro goals in, even if I have to eat more fatty foods.

selina884 wrote: »

So, in the UK we are scared and pushed into believing that fats = weight gain and in order to lose weight, we must succumb to low fat options/keep our fat intake down.

Fats in general or saturated fat. I haven't really heard fats demonized since the '90s (except as part of a much broader set of recommendations like by the whole food plant-based folks). My understanding is that the recommendations to limit sat fat for health are still in place, and, yeah, I keep an eye on them, although it fits how I eat anyway.

I'd be kind of surprised if the UK is still all gung ho about low fat being always good and fat being always bad, but then I was surprised by the results of the Brexit vote too, so my being surprised isn't saying much.

I never fell into a belief that fat was bad, because I only dieted once before this time and it was in the early 2000s, and by then the low fat thing no longer seemed to be current advice in the US, at least not in the stuff I read in trying to understand how weight loss and nutrition worked.

If you know of people trying to lose weight by lowering fat (only) - would you try to educate them?

If they were interested in my opinion or asked my advice, sure. I wouldn't if they didn't ask for my opinion (and weren't making inaccurate claims on a message board for discussion of nutrition and dieting).