We’re often told that losing or gaining weight is all about calories—eat less to lose weight, eat more to gain. But what’s even more important is what you’re eating and how it affects your body.
If you eat mostly empty calories (junk food) while in a calorie deficit, the scale might go down, but your body fat is most likely to stay high. The same goes for gaining weight—eating these empty calories won’t build more muscle, it’ll just add more fat. The quality of your food determines whether your body burns fat, builds muscle, or stores more fat. That’s why what you eat is just as important—if not more—than how much you eat when it comes to shaping your body and improving your health.
Let’s take fat for example – the type matters:
Healthy fats like MUFA’s (monounsaturated fatty acids), are in foods as avocados, various nuts, seeds and olive oil. A predominant fat in olive oil, is oleic acid. This MUFA has a greater oxidation rate than stearic acid, a SFA (saturated fat acid), foods as: red meat, pork, butter, hard cheese, lard, full fat dairy…. This means not only does it generate more energy, but it also reduces the want for more food intake as it has higher satiety. In other words, a fat that burns faster gives you more energy and can help you feel fuller for longer, so you may eat less later. In simple terms, if one type of fat gives you more energy than another, eating it can make you feel more satisfied and less hungry afterward.
Fat loss doesn’t just come from eating less, when the correct fats are eaten. A switch from saturated to monounsaturated fat appears to increase fat burning at a cellular level. A study that looked at fat use as energy showed that five hours post meal where the main fat was olive oil, subjects burned more fat for energy than subjects whose meal fat source was cream. In subjects with a large waist circumference (an indicator of insulin resistance), there was a significant increase in the thermic effect of food with the MUFA-rich meal versus the SFA-rich meal. The thermic effect of food is the amount of energy your body uses—that is, how many calories you burn—just to digest and metabolize that food, and it contributes to your overall metabolic rate.
Most interesting the amount of energy to process MUFA’s seems to be higher than that for saturated fat when moderate carbohydrates are eaten as in a balanced diet. This may be why studies have shown increased weight loss, but more specifically fat loss. As I have mentioned before it is not just what the scale says but your overall composition and health. Fat loss is important not necessarily weight loss, because the goal is to lose body fat, rather than bone, connective tissue and or muscle.
Studies show that the body burns more fat and uses more energy when eating monounsaturated fats compared to saturated fats. This has been proven in multiple studies. Most notable study was one for obese post-menopausal women, who often struggle to lose weight.
In one study, women ate meals with the same number of calories, but one meal had fat from olive oil and the other from cream. Those who ate the olive oil meal burned more fat for energy instead of storing it. In fact, their bodies used twice as much energy (5.1%) compared to those who ate the cream meal (2.5%).
Bottom line if you want to lose fat, your body needs to burn fat, and choosing the right foods can make that process more effective. Not sure where to start or how to plan your meals, contact me at DEEM Health + Fitness.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9312452/
Mikkie Nettles-Pollon, Certified Personal Trainer/Holistic & Sports Nutritionist
Not sure where to begin, contact me at info@deemhealth.ca
250-541 -0411.
www.deamhealth.ca
DEEM Health on Facebook/Instagram
