From a practical standpoint, getting a proper serving size of fats throughout the day is key to changing body composition and feeling your best.
Fats can very helpful with weight loss or hinder and prevent someone from losing weight.
They help with weight loss because fats are important in slowing down the digestion of foods which helps with feeling satisfied.
However, fats are also very calorie dense and unlike lean protein, fruits and vegetables fats are much easier to overeat.
Are Fats Good or Bad for You?
With the Keto Diet being very trendy over the last few years a lot of people have gotten over the fear of fat after decades of the low-fat craze.
However, we have seen many clients coming to us struggling to lose weight who are over-consuming fats which are stopping them from getting results because they’ve heard that if you’re avoiding carbs you can’t overeat on fat.
We recommend moderating how much fat you consume through serving size.
This is another case of why we have this philosophy of no food is simply good or bad. Instead, know how to use food to get the results you want.
It is very common for new clients starting with us to be overeating on avocados, cooking oil, nuts, seeds, cheese and other “healthy” fats because they have the overly simplistic philosophy that healthy foods help you lose weight.
The key is to get the right serving of our healthy fats.
What are the Best Sources of Healthy Fats
- Nuts (just make sure they don’t have added oils or are roasted)
- Seeds (just make sure they don’t have added oils or are roasted)
- Cheese
- Avocado
- Coconut
- Fish oil
- Hummus
- Nut Butters (ie. peanut or almond butter)
- Oils (ie. coconut oil, olive oil, butter, flax seed oil)
- Many dressings and sauces (ie. salad dressing)
These cover what we refer to as healthy fats.
Sometimes you will be eating sources of fat that aren’t the “healthiest” versions, we would still recommend following the serving sizes outlined.
Again, I want to really stress this.
These are all healthy foods, but we need to make sure you get them in the proper serving size.
What is a Serving Size for Healthy Fats?
We recommend people use about the size of their thumb as rough serving size for healthy fats.
Males will typically need 6-12 servings of healthy fats in a day.
Females will typically need 3-6 servings of healthy fats in a day.
The nut butter, oils, and dressings are a lot more calorie dense which is why the serving size is a little smaller.
How to Make it Easier to Get Proper Serving Size of Healthy Fats
- Have nuts and seeds measured out ahead of time in servings sizes
- Keep a measuring spoon close to your cooking oils to make sure you’re getting a proper serving size
- Keep a measuring spoon in your bags of nuts or seeds
- If you have healthy fats that you find you overeat on (ie. cheese) measure out serving sizes ahead of time and put them into Ziplock bags to help you avoid over-eating
- At meals healthy fats often make multiple appearances, ie. cooking oil in the meat preparation, cheese, seeds and oil on the salad, oil on stir-frys, etc. Make sure you’re getting the proper serving size for the meal.
- Look out for “sneaky” sources of fats (ie. cream in your coffee, oil in a pan, salad dressing that you may not be counting)
