Body Fat vs Dietary Fat

A common diet myth is that eating high fat foods causes you to gain weight.

While it’s true that eating too much of any macronutrient, including fat, makes you gain weight, consuming fat-rich foods as part of a healthy, balanced diet does not lead to weight gain.

Eating Fat is Not the Same as Becoming Fat!

Part of the reason people get confused and think that the fat they eat makes their body store fat is because we use the word interchangeably to describe both body fat and dietary fat.

Body Fat = Adipose Tissue

Dietary Fat = Macronutrient

BODY FAT/ADIPOSE TISSUE:

The fat that is stored by our bodies is more accurately called “adipose tissue.” Adipose tissue stores are made up of primary adipocytes or fat cells and are responsible, among other things, with storing excess energy for times when you’re not able to give your body

the energy it needs in a given day.

Body fat/adipose tissue is essential for survival. Anyone with a body fat percentage of 0% would not be alive.

When you cut your body fat level down to what’s called your “essential fat” – the fat needed to maintain a healthy and functioning body – complications arise.

DIETARY FAT/MACRONUTRIENT:

One crucial role of dietary fat is it's involvement in the absorption and transportation of fat-soluble vitamins. Fat-soluble vitamins, including vitamins A, D, E, and K, require the presence of dietary fat for optimal absorption and utilization in the body. These vitamins are vital for various functions such as vision, bone health, immune function, and blood clotting.

The fat you eat is dietary fat and is one of the three essential macronutrients your body can get energy from.

When we talk about calories, we’re actually talking about some combination of the three macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Each macronutrient contributes a certain numbers of calories to the total caloric content of the food.

Carbohydrate: 4 calories per gram

Protein: 4 calories per gram

Fat: 9 calories per gram

WHAT'S ACTUALLY MAKING YOU FAT?

Too many calories, Eating more calories than your body uses and needs

in a day causes you to gain weight.

Being in a caloric surplus causes you to gain weight.

The fat isn’t making you fat due to just being fat; it’s the extra calories from fat (as well as all the macronutrients) that is causing you to gain weight.

What this means is, if you are responsible with your diet, you can choose foods that contain fat, guilt-free. You just need to be smart about your caloric intake throughout the entire day.

Of course, quality matters. Consuming highly processed foods that are rich in fats, such as fast food, sugary baked goods, and fried foods, may increase your risk of weight gain

Ultimately, the only person who has any real influence on how you divide your nutrient intake/calorie limit is you.

A lot goes into planning, preparing, and following a diet. Trying to balance what you like to eat with what you should be eating to maintain a healthy weight and body composition can be tricky.

Don’t punish yourself with an extremely low-carbohydrate diet because it will probably be unsustainable.

But if you want to make improvements, we at manalifestyle.in know all the hacks that can help you make sustainable changes as per your food choices.

When you have a good idea of what your individual caloric needs are, which you can learn by knowing your BMR.

Understanding how fat and the other macronutrients make up these calories will only further ease the problems with designing a nutrient dense balanced diet. Focus on building a diet that you actually want to eat, keep it within a reasonable number of calories, add in more physical activity, and you’ll be closer to your weight goals than if

you simply just reach for packaging that promises “low fat” or “reduced fat” foods.