Most of us have the old mindset that we need to get rid of fat to lose weight and get healthier. Though fat can lead to obesity, you should consider keeping “good fats” in your diet. These fats are vital for your body’s survival and are the brain’s building blocks, hormones, and nervous system.
As insane as it sounds, fat helps the body burn fat. Specifically, it would be best if you consumed fat to lose weight. People started to eat more sugar, processed food, and refined carbs instead. As a result, the entire world has more obese and less healthy.
However, the world is now waking up. Recent studies now show that fats, including saturated fats, are not as bad as initially thought. All types of healthy foods that include fat belong to the “superfood” scene. Doctors and nutritionists have given fats a bad rep for a long time, but not all fats are bad. You need to know the difference.
Naturally occurring fats are very helpful in balancing hormones, which help deal with stress, regulate body temperature, promote sleep, and help the body use A, D, E, and K fat-soluble vitamins. Low-fat diets can have drawbacks. The fats you eat make up most of your cells, so a low or no-fat diet makes your cell walls rigid and doesn’t allow for nutrients to pass through and feed your cells.
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Healthy High-Fat Foods
Avocados
The avocado is different from most fruits. As most fruits mostly contain carbs, avocados are filled with fats. They have about 75%-79% fat, by calories, making them even higher in fat than most foods that contain meat or dairy. It’s rich and creamy, unlike butter, which makes it a pleasant food to eat all on its own.
Avocados come with healthy monounsaturated fats that contain oleic acid, which can help quiet feelings of hunger. They’re a fantastic source of fiber, and it has been shown that they can lower triglycerides and LDL cholesterol while it raises HDL cholesterol, which is the good one.
Although they are very much high in fat and calories, a study has shown that people who eat avocados weigh less and are leaner than those who don’t. They are also an excellent source of potassium and fiber and have been shown to have significant benefits for cardiovascular health.
Dark Chocolate
It is one of those rare health foods that taste incredible. It is high in fat, with around 65% of calories. Dark chocolate consists of 11% fiber and contains more than 50% of the RDA for manganese, copper, magnesium, and iron. It is also filled with antioxidants so much that it is one of the highest-scoring foods tested, even outranking blueberries.
Dark chocolate contains the highest amount of pure cocoa butter; an excellent saturated fat source called stearic acid. As dark chocolate takes more time to metabolize, it reduces your appetite and helps you lose weight. The antioxidants that dark chocolates contain are potent and can lower blood pressure while promoting the oxidation of LDL cholesterol present in the blood.
It is a fact that people who consume dark chocolate five times per week are less prone to die from heart disease than people who don’t eat dark chocolate. Other studies have shown that dark chocolate can improve brain function and protect your skin from overexposure to sunlight. Dark chocolate is rich in fat but also loaded with nutrients and antioxidants. It is instrumental in improving cardiovascular health.
Coconut and Coconut Oil
Saturated fat is abundant in coconuts, but more than half of that comes from lauric acid, a unique medium-chain triglyceride that gets rid of bacteria, improves cholesterol readings, and, as a research, can increase the energy expenditure in humans by as much as 5 percent. Coconut oil contains medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) which are the healthiest type of saturated fats, helping you lose weight while keeping you healthy. Other fats are kept in the body’s cells, but the MCFAs in the oil go directly to the liver, converted into energy immediately.
Coconut fats are different from most other fats and are comprised mainly of medium-chain fatty acids. Studies have shown that types of fats can have benefits for people with Alzheimer’s. Therefore when you eat coconut and coconut oil, your body uses the food immediately for life rather than storing it as body fat.
The metabolization of these fatty acids acts differently. They go directly to the liver, from where they may be turned into ketone bodies. Coconuts are high in medium-chain fatty acids, which are utilized differently. They help to reduce appetite, increase fat burning, and provide numerous health benefits.
Nuts
Even when two groups of participants consumed the same amount of calories, the group with more calories from almonds lost the most weight. People who consume almonds have been shown to lose weight. Nuts are filled with healthy fats, vitamin E, protein, and magnesium, among the best plant-based protein sources. We can see from studies that nuts have several health benefits.
Nuts are tremendously healthy. They are loaded with healthy fiber and fats and are an excellent source of protein while being plant-based. Nuts are rich in vitamin E and loaded with magnesium; most of us do not get enough magnesium. People who consume nuts are healthier and have a decreased risk of various diseases, including obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
Healthy nuts consist of almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, and numerous others. All nuts are excellent sources of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and omega-3 fats, just in varying amounts. If you’re looking to slim down, read our beginner’s guide to the best nuts for weight loss.
Whole Eggs
Whole eggs are considered unhealthy due to the yolks are high in cholesterol and fat. One egg contains 210 mg of cholesterol which makes 72% of the recommended daily intake. Besides, 61% of the calories in whole eggs are from fat. Eggs are nutrient-dense and satisfying, mostly because of their high protein content for belly burning.
Dietary studies have often found that when people eat an egg every morning, they tend to lose twice as much weight as those who eat their breakfast containing carbs. Also, they are rich in B6, B12, A, D, E, and K, choline, calcium, iron, phosphorus, folate lutein, zinc, and Omega 3 fatty acids. Eggs come under weight-loss-friendly food. They are fulfilling and very high in protein, the essential nutrient for weight loss.
Despite eggs being high in fat, people who replace a grain-based breakfast with eggs end up eating fewer calories and losing weight. The best eggs are omega-3 enriched or pastured eggs. Whole eggs are considered to be one of the most nutritious foods on the planet.
Conclusion
You should consume the right amount of fat to influence your body to burn fat. So, you need to consume healthy fats rather than unhealthy ones. Many fats can promote weight gain rather than weight loss. The best foods to eat are ones containing unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These fats also benefit the body in other ways like lowering cholesterol, and protecting against build-up in the arteries while increasing brain function.
For a long time, low-fat diets were thought to be the healthiest. Fats were painted as an unhealthy food choice and thought to make us fat. But, get this; we need to eat fat to lose weight. We have shared what you need to know about adding fat to your diet.