Sunday, January 30, 2011

Get Slim: Fight Fat With Fat

The 80's cannot be forgotten. The music was good, the hair was big and the clothes were out of this world. For fats, it was an era best left forgotten. It was the time when fats first became notorious. All kinds of fat free foods became instant hits due to the saying that fats make you fat. It was only later that we realized that not all fats are bad and that fat free foods relied on sugar to make it palatable. Today, the fashion of that era still inspires and its music still delights us. And fats, though it has lived down some of its notoriety, is still fighting to clear its name; the good ones at least.

During the 80's when the sugars took the place of fat, people had a new kind of problem. Because sugar was used to cover up for the lack of fat in foods, blood sugar rose to sky high levels. Fats help in decreasing the rate of absorption of sugar in the bloodstream. It leads to blood sugar and insulin spikes which leads to hormonally induced hunger. Insulin regulation is one of the ways to manage fat gain because insulin spikes mean eating more to relieve hypoglycemia or low blood sugar symptoms.

When the fat component is 10% or less, a diet is considered very low fat. The usual recommendation for fat is 15 to 20% of the total daily caloric intake. Some people, in their zeal to lose fat can boast of not eating fat at all. These same people also complain of not losing body fat at all. When little amounts of good fats were again included in their meals, they gave positive results. This proves that good fats in appropriate amounts help jumpstart fat loss in people who don't get enough of it. Fat deficiency, though rare, slows down metabolic activity. Its effect to metabolic activity is the same as skipping meals.

There a lot of benefits that a little good fat in your diet gives. A very low fat diet, meaning less than 10% of total calorie intake, makes your body go into starvation mode. It promotes hormonally induced hunger is very difficult; almost impossible to resist and leads to bingeing. When your meal plans are low in fat, most likely, you are also low in essential fatty acids. These fats encourage fat burning and regulate energy which is important in your fat loss plan. Very low fat diets compromise testosterone levels. This hormone, which is responsible for the male's secondary sex characteristics, is also responsible for the development of muscles. This is the reason why most females, however hard they try will never get as muscular as males. They naturally have low testosterone levels.

Some people may still believe that fats are generally bad, but you should not think the same thing. Good fats help and bad ones don't. It doesn't mean that you can eat all the fats you want. You should always practice portion control. Good fats are still fat. Getting the right amounts is still a requisite for fat loss.

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Stamina 1215 Orbital Rowing Machine