The word fat has many meanings. Two of them are fat in the food we eat and fat that we put on our bodies as a result of eating too much bad nutrition and not enough exercise. It is unfortunate that the word fat is used to describe these two totally different meanings. Because the same word carries those meanings many of us tempt to believe that as a result of eating fat free food we will not gain fat on our bodies.
The truth is that eating fat does not necessarily mean that this fat will be put on our bodies as extra pounds. Fat has more calories per gram than many other ingredients. Eating a lot of fat means consuming much more energy than our body needs and extra energy means the body turning this energy into layers fat reserves. It is really the energy in the fat and not the fat itself that is fattening.
So don't think that just by avoiding fat you will avoid getting fat ? that is just not true. Fat free food is less tasty than food with fat. Many times in order to compensate for the lost of taste food companies add sugar and other ingredients to their products. Processed sugar is a very low quality source of energy. In fact the body can only use that energy for a very short time after it was consumed. Since most of us are not going to jog right after consuming sugar the body will have nothing to do with that extra energy but convert it to fat.
Sugar turns into fat in our body. Many people do not realize that or just ignore that fact. Consuming fat free food that is rich in sugar is not different than consuming food with a lot of fat or just consuming a lot fat and calories. The body is an amazing machine and it is very efficient. Energy that can not be used or is not needed is reserved for the future and the way in which the body reserves energy is by building extra layers of fat. So when we eat fatty food we actually just consume too much energy ? the reason we gain weight is not because we eat fat that sticks to out body but because that fat has too much energy and the excess energy is converted to layers of fat by our body. And when we eat fat free food that is rich in sugar our body will again have excess energy that can not be used and that will be converted to layers of fat too.
To conclude it is important to understand that fat free does not mean healthy or non fattening food. Always check the nutrition facts of the food you consume to determine that you are not consuming too many calories or too much sugar. It is better to have some fat in your food and less sugar than too much sugar and no fat at all. As always the best diet is one that preaches for moderation in the quantity of food and in its nutrition. Make sure your calories are consumed from nutritious ingredients and not from just sugar and fat.
What does the word fat mean really? Well, most people believe that it means just fat that adds to your weight. Not quite. Really, fat can be either the fat that is found naturally in foods or, yes, the fat that becomes excess weight because of unhealthy foods and lack of physical activity. Because most people think that, automatically, fat means the fat in our bodies that make us overweight, the idea of a fat free food is very tempting and can fool people into thinking that eating those foods will result in weight loss.
That's completely wrong though! Just because we eat fat does not mean we will be fat. The two are not the same at all. In fact, fat is a good thing to eat since it has lots of calories, which our bodies use as an energy source. So if you are an active individual, then eating fat is great since it will keep you energized.
But if you are not active, that's a different story all together. By not exercising, those calories are not used up so they are stored in your body, which is when fat can cause us to be overweight. So if you think about it, the fat in foods is not the so-called enemy; the real enemy is having excess calories that you do not use up.
Now that we have that cleared up, you will see that avoiding foods with fat will do nothing really. It won't make you skinnier or help you lose weight. And choosing fat free foods over regular food is just completely a bad idea. I'm sure you'll agree that most fat free foods taste horrible. Even still, food companies throw in excess sugar, artificial flavorings and preservatives that do just as much damage as fat, if not more. The sugar is especially harmful to your body since it is more likely than other ingredients to be stored as fat in your body since you are highly unlikely to exercise after eating something full of sugar. If you think about it, eating something fat free, that is more than likely to be full of sugar, is just as bad as eating something drenched in oil r even fried.
The human body is very resilient and very, very amazing. It knows which foods can be used as energy and will naturally store excess energy as fat to be used later. But that's the problem: if you only eat fat free foods or even foods really high in fat but do not exercise, your body will store all of it as fat within your body. That is just how the body works. So the best thing to do to counteract this is to exercise!
The other thing to do is to avoid fat free foods. They are usually full of sugar and just because it has that label "fat free", it does not mean, at all, that it is actually healthy for you. When you are food shopping, always check the nutritional label for all the ingredients and how much sugar is in that product.
The best solution is actually a combination of both of those. You should exercise regularly and eat healthy foods, preferably fresh produce and meat. Make sure you get your energy source from wholesome foods instead of fat free, sugar-filled garbage. That's one of the best way to lose weight!
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