Why High Fat?

[Kawispice]

Ever since I have been a teenager, it has always been difficult for me to lose weight. A long time ago, when I was 14 years old, I came across a tiny booklet in my grocery store by a Dr Solomon, he has died now, and he wrote a year or two before Dr. Atkins published his first book, about a low fat, low carb diet. It was extremely restricted, I think maybe 15 types of food in all if you didn't count spices. This was the only diet that allowed me to lose weight up to that point.

Other "authorities" came on board with low carbs like the Macrobiotic diet etc but none of them were as strict as this man's and none of the diets worked so well for me either. A professor I knew lost all of his hair on the Macrobiotic diet and it grew back when he stopped it. I spent 4 decades looking for a diet that would allow me to control my weight, effectively, healthily and COMFORTABLY.

Finally, I tried the Atkins approach, no cheating, full adherance. I had great reluctance to try the Atkins approach because I could not understand the function of the high fat content of the diet. I can see fish oil etc needed by the body but not some of the meat fats etc. Now it seems to me that what the fat does for me is control my appetite. When I started the Induction phase I was very hungry for a couple of days and therefore I took Hoodia Gordonii (the kind that has the lab tested active ingredients) to control the hunger. After two days the Atkins high fat diet controlled my hunger completely. No hunger what so ever.... on about 1200 calories per day.

I would like to know is there any OTHER benefit to such a high fat diet besides appetite control?

(I am now on the sixth day of Induction and pretty comfy and happy with how it is going.)

[julirama723]

Re: Why High Fat?

The reason we eat so much fat is because WE ARE USING FAT FOR FUEL, not carbohydrates. It's sometimes a confusing idea, but let's put it this way. If you use gasoline to power your car and you're out of gas, do you give it a quart of oil? No, you give it gas! Fat is our fuel on this WOL, and when we eat, we need to eat fat to give us energy.

During those first few days of induction, our bodies switch from burning carbs to burning fat--this brings us into something called ketosis. A wonderful benefit of ketosis is appetite suppression. If we are burning fat, not only do we burn all of the fat we eat in a day, we also begin to burn the fat stored in our bodies. That's not to say we don't need protein or carbs--we get important vitamins, minerals, and amino acids from these foods. Our daily percentages should be 65% fat, 5% carbs, and 30% protein on induction.

Fat also gives that "satisfied" feeling to a meal. That's why many people get full so quickly--their food is more satisfying and they eat less to reach that point.

[LowCarbLara]

Re: Why High Fat?

Also, fat is the only macronutrient that doesn't stimulate the release of insulin and, without insulin, it is very difficult to store fat.

Think of a pre-diagnosis T1 diabetic (T1 cannot produce insulin) - one of the symptoms is weight-loss.

[Kawispice]

Re: Why High Fat?

That makes god sense. Thank you for the answers. Further question, if I may?

Am I understanding T1 correctly? The body does not produce insulin, therefore the blood sugar does not get processed by the body but is emmitted through urine etc and the person loses weight as a result. So then is it true that fat works in a similar way as T1?

(No one has diabetes in my family so I am just learning about how it works now.)

[LowCarbLara]

Re: Why High Fat?

You're partially correct. T1 diabetics cannot produce insulin but, unfortunately, the carbs are not eliminated (and cannot be stored inside the fat cells without insulin), so unless insulin is administered the patient will eventually slip into a coma and die. This is my very, very basic understanding of T1 diabetes anyway!

Basically, insulin is like a key which unlocks fat cells to let in dietary carbs and fat. Without enough of it, it's incredibly difficult to store fat. And, as fat is the only macronutrient that doesn't stimulate its release (unlike carbs and, to a much lesser extent, protein), if we eat a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet we will either maintain our weight or lose - depending on calories.

The appetite supression is also a nice plus - although I'm not 100% positive why that comes about when eating high fat (maybe it sends a signal to our bodies that there's an abundance of calories around us so we don't need to go face first into the bananas?).