Fats That Fill You Up

This week we’ve come to our final macronutrient: fats. Fats play a huge role in our diet by helping us digest food, feel satisfied after meals, and prevent certain health conditions. However, since fats are more concentrated in the energy they provide us (fats have 9 kcal/gram versus 4 kcal/gram in carbs and protein), lots of people feel like cutting out fat can be the key to losing weight. In reality, including healthy fats in your diet is one of the best ways to ensure you feel full after a meal and avoid adding extra empty calories that can cause excess weight gain. So instead of cutting out fats due to high calorie content, focus on the types of fats you’re eating instead of the calories.

The Good

Before we talk about what types of fats to eat more of, let’s talk briefly about why consuming fat is so important for our bodies. As we mentioned above, fats help increase our feeling of fullness after a meal by staying in our digestive system for longer than protein or carbohydrates alone. Furthermore, while in our digestive system fats help us digest other nutrients as well. In fact, there are 4 vitamins that our bodies cannot fully digest without fat. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are all considered our “fat soluble” nutrients, meaning they use fat in order to be used by our bodies. These vitamins aid in our eyesight, growth, blood clotting, reproduction, and more. So every time we choose to incorporate healthy fats into our diet we can know that we are not only choosing something that will keep us full and satisfied throughout the day, but we are choosing foods that will help our bodies process all of the nutrients they need to reach their fullest potential. 

The Bad

When it comes to making decisions about what types of fats to eat, there are 3 different types of fats you will come across: saturated, unsaturated, and trans fats. Excess amounts of saturated and trans fats are what contribute to higher cholesterol and triglyceride levels, which can lead to blood clots and heart disease. Trans fats and saturated fats are found in things like fried and processed foods, dairy products, and red meat. A good rule of thumb is to remember that saturated fat tends to be solid at room temperature (i.e. butter, cheese, fat trimmings on meat, etc.). You can also figure out what foods have saturated or trans fats by looking at the back of the nutrition facts label. 

But just as we say every week here on the blog, all foods can fit into a healthy diet. So although consuming foods high in these fats regularly should be avoided, and trans fats should be cut out entirely if possible, you can include foods in moderation by limiting your saturated fat intake to 10-15% (about 15-20g) of your calorie intake each day.

The Choices

When trying to make healthy choices about the types of fats you eat, focus on unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats do the reverse of just about everything saturated and trans fats do. Instead of leading to heart disease, unsaturated fats help prevent heart disease by lowering our triglyceride and cholesterol levels. Healthy fats like these can be found in cooking oils (olive, avocado, etc.), nuts, fish, beans, and avocados. Including 1-2 tablespoons of these types of unsaturated fats with every meal will add lots of flavor to your foods and help keep your heart functioning properly. 

All in all, fats are a huge part of helping you create balanced and satisfying meals. This can look different to everyone and at times may feel difficult to navigate out on your own. That’s where we can come in. To figure out what this can look like for you and create goals that fit your lifestyle, check out our website nutrition502.com and schedule an appointment with us today!