Its quiet amazing that in spite of lots of evidence to the contrary many people still think that eating low fat will help ensure dietary success. Today I am going to look at how eating low fat could derail many of your best efforts to shed the excess pounds.

1: Low fat diets taste horrific!

Have you ever tried eating turkey breast with steamed broccoli all on its own? Well if you wanted to do food torture on a person this is how you would do it! Low fat meals taste totally bland and insipid. Many people try to get around this by adding various herbs and spices to the meal which works up to a point……Nothing enhances flavour however like fat. How long can you stick to a diet that does not taste great?

2: Low fat diets leave you hungry sooner.

When you add fat to a meal it slows gastric emptying. This means food leaves your stomach at a slower rate. You will feel fuller for longer and feel greater satiety from the meal itself. This improves dietary compliance.

3: Low fat diets do not support healthy blood sugar regulation.

Due to the fact that food leaves the stomach more quickly if it’s low in fat this causes the blood sugar of an individual to elevate more rapidly after a meal. This spike in blood sugar is unfavourable if fat loss is your goal. What goes up must come down and large spikes of blood sugar stimulate the secretion of insulin which in turn causes the blood sugar to drop rapidly making you feel hungrier sooner.

4: Low fat diets cause extreme cravings

Low fat diets tend to exacerbate cravings – the nemesis of dieters everywhere. One of the reasons is that the poor blood sugar regulation stimulated by a low fat diet leads to sugar cravings. Ever seen a low fat dieter addicted to diet drinks? That’s this phenomenon at work. Also the body creates cravings when it does not get what it requires. Fats are nutritionally essential in the diet so if we try to reduce them significantly it will create cravings. Low fat diets lead to low serotonin production which leads to depression. Depressed people want to eat more.

So if dietary compliance is one of your biggest issues it may not in fact be your fault if you are on a low fat diet. All of the issues mentioned above make sticking to your plan very difficult. If a plan is right for your body you should achieve satiety, feel physically energised, feel mental clarity, feel emotionally well and not have cravings!

The nutritional plan that’s right for you is dependent on genetic factors and environmental ones not what’s trending now in the media.

For information on Nutrition and Lifestyle coaching contact me at info@clarerooney.com