Weight-Loss Low Fat Diet?

Weight-Loss
I'm not a fan of low fat diets. Healthy fats are necessary for processing nutrients in your body.

Your best bet is to eat a balanced diet in healthy quantities. You want to figure out a reasonable amount of calories to eat and make sure that you get enough complex carbs, lean protein, and healthy fats.
 
there is no such thing as a good low fat diet. fats should be 20-30% of your daily intake of calories. restricting fats is unhealthy...
 
This is where everyone gets their information wrong. I think people just quote what they want to hear and then what they hear elsewhere that sounds like something they would repeat.

1. Fae asked what a good low fat diet was - Jynus said there is no such thing, and that your diet should consist of 20-30% of your calorie intake. Well wouldn't you consider that LOW FAT? I mean 20-30% is the lowest percentage on your macro right???

If you eat 5 meals a day with 5 oz of chicken breast you are consuming roughly 1183 calories. If you are eating clean skinless breast then you have about 233 of those calories from fat. That is 20% fat intake. So you contradicted yourself when you said there is no such thing as a low fat diet.

Also Fae never mentioned restricting fat!

This kinda actually ties back to a post where I was told that I was "anti-fat" actually my daily intake is around 20% like you all say is great. However the proof is in the pudding. My fats are NOT crap fats and never will a single serving be over the 20% fat calories mark. A slow oxidizer can't expect to lose weight while munching on 100% fat items.
 
Oh sorry Fae! I forgot to give you a suggestion.

I can tell you that unless you live alone or shop for yourself it will be hard. if you live with your parents then take a tour of all the items in your house and make note of all the items that have more than 20% fat calories per serving. i.e. when you are looking at the label there are calories per serving and then calories from fat. Divide the calories from fat by the calories per serving. This will give you the percentage. Don't eat the things that are over that 20%. Eat good natural grains (rice, spelt, oatmeal, millit, etc) and whole wheat pasta. Eat lots of veggies and drink lots of water.
 
Oh sorry Fae! I forgot to give you a suggestion.

I can tell you that unless you live alone or shop for yourself it will be hard. if you live with your parents then take a tour of all the items in your house and make note of all the items that have more than 20% fat calories per serving. i.e. when you are looking at the label there are calories per serving and then calories from fat. Divide the calories from fat by the calories per serving. This will give you the percentage. Don't eat the things that are over that 20%. Eat good natural grains (rice, spelt, oatmeal, millit, etc) and whole wheat pasta. Eat lots of veggies and drink lots of water.

i think this might be hurtful advice. if you don't eat things that are over 20% you're missing out on all the proper fats to eat. namely olive oil (and other oils) almonds (and other nuts) and avocados to name a few. The bulk of your fats should be from these sources. They should not be ignored. The fats that end up in things in smaller portions more often than not end up being sat fats. like in red meats for example, very little of your daily intake of fats should be from sat fats. like 25% of less. The rest should be unsat sources. Fish oils are great, so a healthy intake of fish goes a long way for getting healthy unsat sources in.

also i think you're doing a disservice to my post. I would _not_ consider 20-30% to be low fat. show me _any_ low fat diet on the web and see if they come anywhere close to 20-30%. you'll be lucky to see 5%. low fat in media basically is code for as close to 0% as possible. And thats where I was talking about. If you don't believe me, then lets wait for the OP and see if he was asking for help on how to eat 20-30% of his calories in fats, or if he was looking for foods to try and eliminate as much fat as possible.......
 
This is where everyone gets their information wrong. I think people just quote what they want to hear and then what they hear elsewhere that sounds like something they would repeat.

1. Fae asked what a good low fat diet was - Jynus said there is no such thing, and that your diet should consist of 20-30% of your calorie intake. Well wouldn't you consider that LOW FAT? I mean 20-30% is the lowest percentage on your macro right???

If you eat 5 meals a day with 5 oz of chicken breast you are consuming roughly 1183 calories. If you are eating clean skinless breast then you have about 233 of those calories from fat. That is 20% fat intake. So you contradicted yourself when you said there is no such thing as a low fat diet.

Also Fae never mentioned restricting fat!

This kinda actually ties back to a post where I was told that I was "anti-fat" actually my daily intake is around 20% like you all say is great. However the proof is in the pudding. My fats are NOT crap fats and never will a single serving be over the 20% fat calories mark. A slow oxidizer can't expect to lose weight while munching on 100% fat items.

i just reread this. I don't think you have a clue what you are talking about. I'm NOT talking about % fat per meal. I'm talking about % fat TOTAL in your full days worth of food. I could care less what the fat content of a portion of food is. it does not matter... what matters is your TOTAL calories consumed per day. If the OP is eating around 2000 calories a day, then 400-600 of those calories should come from fat sources. Meaning if he eat zero fat all day in his meals and snacks on 2 handfuls of high fat almonds to get 500 calories of fat then thats perfectly acceptable.
 
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Jynus,
I looked over your profile and those are impressive results. However I am curious as to your progress since June. Have you dropped more body fat? How many pounds of muscle have you gained? How much body fat did your originally lose? You say that you don't think I know what I am talking about, well where did you get all your information on how to lose the weight? Bodybuilding.com? Muscle and Fitness? The internet? I would not think it was the first two because at least those two shams of a site tell you that balancing out each meal is a must. The fact that you think it is perfectly acceptable to eat no fat throughout all your meals and then on the last meal have all your fat calories for the day in that one sitting tells me that you probably have not made much more progress since June. Maybe not as cut as you would like, maybe you haven't made the gains you would like.

I was not trying to do a disservice to your post. I blame this all on Karacooks that I am thought of as an asshole! I make a post in the "ADVANCED" section of this forum where it welcomes professionals and then I get chewed out, and she calls me "anti-fat" and now people jump to the gun thinking I am a butthole. I am being perfectly sincere and I want to help.

It seems like a lot of people just want someone to say "yes, it is okay that you had chocolate all week, and you can have some mayo with your sandwiches every day" If I say different or tell someone that eating peanut butter and drinking low fat (no such thing) milk is not going to help you LOSE WEIGHT then I get shunned and people think I am being an ass.

Jynus - Your results are impressive but most of these people on this forum or not a young already pretty fit male. They are extremely overweight and are looking to be in bikinis. These are people who want so bad to be on that beach in that bikini but just can't get there, even though they have already lost 75lbs. Or it's the people who have lost 100lbs but somehow gained back the 50. Now I never said that fats are not important and they are, the good ones. They must be limited in a WEIGHT LOSS diet!! Plain and simple. I am sure that people know this in the back of their brain because they are eating "healthy" but they are not getting the results they want.

Now these are some impressive results! I work smart not hard, and you for sure never catch me painting a house with a toothbrush!

6 months - 20% body fat to 4.5% and a figure competitor on the pro circuit. Worked out 4-5 days a week only for an hour. Ate 6 meals a day consisting of 5oz lean meat and 1 cup of complex carbs. Went out to eat throughout the whole 6 months at my safe places, and had all out cheat meals maybe once a month. The real restrictions only came three weeks before the competition.

Work smart not hard. Now I can already see someone saying "well it is different for everyone" Yeah! Like this way worked for me and eating peanut butter three times a day with a little chocolate once a day will help a super overweight person. I see some people's eating journals on here and wonder how they can think those foods are okay. That is why I want to help. I think it's ignorance.
 
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Also I should add that the before picture was the result of 5 YEARS of working very hard. Five years that look was a constant look no matter the hard work in the gym! Then in 6 months the results were there.
 
I also agree that 20%-30% fat is not a low fat diet.

I also agree that being picky about the amount of fat in each food and avoiding foods that are mostly fat just out of principle is wrong.

Your advice gives no weight to healthy vs. unhealthy fat.

For example: Olive oil is 100% fat. But it's a healthy fat and to drizzle a large salad with 1Tbsp of olive oil is a great way to get healthy fat into your diet. According to your advice, someone should avoid this olive oil because as an individual item, it's got too much fat in it. According to your advice, someone would be better off eating a low fat dressing loaded with processed chemicals and artificial texturizers to get to that 20% or less of fat per food item, than eating a healthy and natural fat like olive oil.

Another example: If one were to take your advice, they wouldn't eat salmon because a piece of salmon is around 35% fat. Except the fat in salmon is good healthy fat, and you'd be throwing away a valuable part of a good, healthy eating plan to avoid salmon.

I could go on with examples like this for ever: avocados, nuts and seeds, even, according to you, eggs should be avoided by someone wanting to lose weight, because an egg is over 50% of it's calories from fat.

Looking at each food individually is the wrong way to go about being healthy. You have to consider everything you eat as a larger part of the whole. Otherwise, you're making decisions based on skewed information.

That's exactly why I think (and agree with Jynus) that you don't know what you're talking about.
 
Wow. Just looking at those pictures alone, I'm going to have to side with Guess Who. Like she/he put it - the proof is in the pudding. And that girl sure gotta lotta pudding!

I will never understand why people won't be open-minded to the advice of others. Have you tried it before? No? Then how do you know it doesn't work?
 
You're exactly right in everything you said Kara. You are also right about what I say about those fats!

My advice does not give any weight to healthy and unhealthy fats because if you are trying to LOSE WEIGHT then you need to avoid the foods that are higher than the 20% ratio.

What you say about fats is right on the money for people are wanting to maintain and live a healthy lifestyle, but they will not lose the weight they want. An obese person will lose a certain amount due to pure shock, but they will not get to their end results.


Proof is in the pudding! You are not at your end result after how many years?

Also your rant about chemicals and processed foods, UM HAVE YOU seen the stuff that the people on this forum are eating???? I don't think they care much about the processed foods and chemicals.

Not very often do I eat the fat free condiments full of stuff like you say. The only time I do is in a recipe and I will use fat free sour cream, fat free Ranch and so forth. However, there are people who don't think they can do without the cheese on their sandwich or the ricotta cheese in their lasagna and for those people the fat free condiments should be used.

You know your use of the word "healthy" and how you eat healthy I believe is an excuse to hide behind and lie to yourself. I think when you look at yourself in the mirror and are not happy with what you see, you can then say well at least I am eating healthy and that has to count for something.

Red wine is healthy too. It has huge benefits and it's all natural! Is it okay for an alcoholic to drink it???? He is still and alcoholic. Is it okay for a bodybuilder to drink it?? No because it will be DETRIMENTAL to his results and he will not win guaranteed!
 
My advice does not give any weight to healthy and unhealthy fats because if you are trying to LOSE WEIGHT then you need to avoid the foods that are higher than the 20% ratio.
I disagree. And I disagree with your insistence that your way is the only way.

Proof is in the pudding! You are not at your end result after how many years?
You keep throwing this at me, completely ignoring the fact that I have told you repeatedly that I STOPPED LOSING WEIGHT BY CHOICE. I chose to take some time off and maintain my 80 lb loss. Not only that but I lost those 80 lbs by doing it exactly the way I described - not the way you described.

And fwiw, now that I've made the commitment to losing again, I'm down 2.3 lbs this week - eating the way I describe - including eating olive oil, avocados, and peanut butter as part of my plan.

Also your rant about chemicals and processed foods, UM HAVE YOU seen the stuff that the people on this forum are eating???? I don't think they care much about the processed foods and chemicals.
I don't rant. :) I state what I try to accomplish in my own life and how I think it's important. But unlike you, I don't say my way is the only way. I say it's the way I believe is best ... but not exclusive.

And the same thing about "I don't think they care" could be said about your fat "rant" ... except that people come here to be educated and informed. So maybe they aren't aware of what they're eating - either in fat content or processed food content. Maybe they don't care. But the fact that they're here asking indicates to me that they're open to learning.

I also am open to learning - but not from someone who says that his way is the only way and then tries to use false arguments (your weight loss hasn't progressed because you're not doing it the way I say is right) to sway me to your point of view.

You know your use of the word "healthy" and how you eat healthy I believe is an excuse to hide behind and lie to yourself. I think when you look at yourself in the mirror and are not happy with what you see, you can then say well at least I am eating healthy and that has to count for something.
Wow. You're just insulting and rude, aren't you. Buh-bye. I'm done with arguing with you. I'm blocking you now so I don't have to read your manipulative logic and false arguments.
 
Wow. Just looking at those pictures alone, I'm going to have to side with Guess Who. Like she/he put it - the proof is in the pudding. And that girl sure gotta lotta pudding!

I will never understand why people won't be open-minded to the advice of others. Have you tried it before? No? Then how do you know it doesn't work?

Perhaps, but the use of anecdotal evidence is what plagues the fitness world nowadays. If you want to side with them based purely on said evidence, fine, but some research and logic will prove much better tools.
 
Okay so what do you do think dieticians and nutritionists do?

Do you think when you go see one they ask you how would you like to eat to lose weight and when you say things that are totally contradicting to weight loss they say okay great then we will make this your plan??

When you go to a nutritionist and he/she says your body will lose weight by doing this and that, do you argue with him/her?

How about with a personal trainer, when he/she tells you to lose fat then you must do push-ups, are you going to say "I heard it's bad on your back so let's not do those" any good trainer would say "umm next"

Everyone wants to believe what is easiest for them to believe.

Oh and I know Kara blocked me, but if you had insituted a healthy lifestyle eating plan which should last throughout your life then you would have steadily lost weight even during your stressful time according to your theory. So how did you decide to quit losing weight? Took away some healthy items and added in non healthy items? The stopping at your choice tells me that you were being quite restrictive and then decided not to be anymore.

And who says "well my life just sucks right now so I am going to quit losing weight" unless 1. you are dieting instead of leading a healthy eating plan or 2. you are homeless or something and really have NO control over what you eat. Oh and your recipes - um holy moly some of those can't be considered healthy.
 
I really shouldn't get sucked into this, but I'm going to try to communicate logically.

Okay so what do you do think dieticians and nutritionists do?
Do you think when you go see one they ask you how would you like to eat to lose weight and when you say things that are totally contradicting to weight loss they say okay great then we will make this your plan??
When you go to a nutritionist and he/she says your body will lose weight by doing this and that, do you argue with him/her?
Your logic is still absolutist. A good nutritionist will work within a patient's/client's comfort zone to the best of her ability. A good nutritionist will also understand that there is more than one effective way.

Your way makes no allowances for not only personal taste, but for health issues that may require someone to have a different balance of carbs/fat.

How about with a personal trainer, when he/she tells you to lose fat then you must do push-ups, are you going to say "I heard it's bad on your back so let's not do those" any good trainer would say "umm next"
No, a good trainer would explore why their client felt pushups were bad for the back - or even why the client was resistant to doing pushups. A good trainer would then work with the client to find alternatives if pushups were really not an option.

if you had insituted a healthy lifestyle eating plan which should last throughout your life then you would have steadily lost weight even during your stressful time according to your theory.
Bullshit.

So how did you decide to quit losing weight? Took away some healthy items and added in non healthy items? The stopping at your choice tells me that you were being quite restrictive and then decided not to be anymore.
You know you really shouldn't assume - because it makes you look like a fool. I continued to eat healthily, I just ate more - adding in healthy foods to achieve my maintenance calorie level. Your absolutist philosophy doesn't allow for that mindset, however, so I don't expect you to understand that.

And who says "well my life just sucks right now so I am going to quit losing weight"
And again you twist my words to try to prove your point. I said (and mind you this is the last time I'm going to say this because if you don't hear it now, you are obviously intentionally not paying attention) that I chose to stop losing because I needed the mental break to accept not being fat any more - to learn to live with a different point of view about myself. While that was going on, I was going through a lot of life changes that needed my attention to my emotional health and I felt that if I continued to lose weight, I would become unhealthy about it ... so I stopped. Intentionally.

Now, you obviously have never actually been fat, or you'd understand that.

Oh and your recipes - um holy moly some of those can't be considered healthy.
Oh and my recipes - yes, they are healthy. You are more than welcome to point out which ones you think aren't healthy. Oh, unless your'e talking about the Tuesday's With Dorie baking recipes which I totally agree aren't healthy foods - but treats and sweets can be a part of a balanced diet.

But then you don't understand what a balanced diet is, so I don't expect you to understand that either.
 
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As often happens, I find wisdom in the writings of .

And, finally, here’s a rather humorous example from my college days. At some point or another, during a nutrition class, a professor of mine had made the rather common statement that “As long as you don’t eat foods with more than 30% total fat calories, you will be fine” something to that effect. It seemed like a logical extension of trying to get total fat intake below 30%: make sure no individual food contains more than 30% fat calories and you should be safe. At some later date, I took him a cookie recipe of mine that contained approximately 20 calories/cookie and 1 gram of fat (the cookies were mostly air, with a little sugar and some chocolate chips). My professor bristled, because these cookies contained nearly 50% of calories from fat (9 calories out of a total 20). Well, yeah, but they still only contained 1 gram of fat/cookie. ONE GRAM. A cookie that was 200 calories and 30% fat (70 calories) would contain 8 grams of fat even though it’s below the magical 30% cutoff point. Yet he would have considered the second a better food choice based on just the percentage even though it had 10 times as many calories and 8 grams of fat vs. 1. Go figure.

I will note that he considers the industry definition of 'low fat' to be anything under 30% fat.

As to Guess Who's other comments...

How about with a personal trainer, when he/she tells you to lose fat then you must do push-ups, are you going to say "I heard it's bad on your back so let's not do those" any good trainer would say "umm next"

Is this a joke? Because if a personal trainer told me that I had to do push-ups to lose weight I'd laugh my ass off and then fire him because he'd be full of crap. If a nutritionist told me something I had doubts about I'd start doing some research on my own to see if their claims were credible or not. And ask a lot of questions.

As for deciding to maintain rather than lose weight - that's pretty simple. You up your calories to maintenance rather than eating at a deficit for a while. Getting the proper nutrients while at a deficit can require more planning than simply eating at maintenance. Although it does matter what kinds of food you get your calories from, the most important thing for weight loss (especially if you're not already ultra-lean and doing contest dieting type stuff) is how many calories you have. If I eat 3000 calories a day and only 10% of them are fat, I'm going to gain weight. If I eat 1500 calories a day and 40% of them are fat, I'll lose. As simple as that.

And to get on my soapbox a little... the low fat marketing fad outright drove me crazy. "Everything I eat is low fat, why am I not losing weight!!" ... Because to make it taste good they loaded it with sugar or HFCF and upped the calories. There's no magic sensor in your body that says "beep beep less than 20% of calories are fat, begin fat loss now!" You can't just eat as much as you want of 'healthy' or 'low fat' foods and expect to lose weight. Quantity counts too.
 
Okay can I start completely over????

You turn my words around. I first said that this works for slow oxidizers, which is what most obese people are. I also said that you can have those things and even I did. Like I said once a month or so I would have an all out munch and margarita fest. Hell about three weeks ago I had a total of 12 cupcakes and more drinks that I count along with creamy pasta.

Also my point about the personal trainer was an example. It seems that people ask "how can I lose weight" but then they don't want to hear the answers. No one knows the true meaning of moderation. It does not mean a little one or two days a week. It means "shit! I can't even remember the last time I had a slice of pizza. I think I may get some" Or man I have eaten so clean for a month straight that I deserve a treat meal (not an entire day)

I mean one person's journal on here has her eating peanut butter like three times a day? In her mind I am sure it's moderation and it keeps her sweet tooth under control, but did you eat that much peanut butter before you decided to lose weight?
 
Okay can I start completely over????

You turn my words around. I first said that this works for slow oxidizers, which is what most obese people are. I also said that you can have those things and even I did. Like I said once a month or so I would have an all out munch and margarita fest. Hell about three weeks ago I had a total of 12 cupcakes and more drinks that I count along with creamy pasta.

Also my point about the personal trainer was an example. It seems that people ask "how can I lose weight" but then they don't want to hear the answers. No one knows the true meaning of moderation. It does not mean a little one or two days a week. It means "shit! I can't even remember the last time I had a slice of pizza. I think I may get some" Or man I have eaten so clean for a month straight that I deserve a treat meal (not an entire day)

I mean one person's journal on here has her eating peanut butter like three times a day? In her mind I am sure it's moderation and it keeps her sweet tooth under control, but did you eat that much peanut butter before you decided to lose weight?

I think my point was that this seemed to be focusing on the percentage of fat - and that the percentage is a really lousy statistic. I'm not sure what a slow oxidizer is, I just think that it's dangerous to say '20% is good' when it means you'd eat the cookie with 200 calories and 8g of fat instead of the 45 calorie, 1g of fat cookie. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to realize that having the second cookie for your splurge would help more with weight loss.

Also, I'm a little confused about the peanut butter thing. I've considered having chocolate three times a day for my sweet tooth - one unsweetened chocolate chip with every meal. I haven't actually done this, but it gets back to my point - having chocolate 'three times a day' in the form of three chocolate chips is probably better for weight loss & health than having a Hostess Cupcake three times a week. I'm not sure why exactly a little a few times a week isn't moderation, but a bunch after a month is. Three slices of pizza over a month of time is still three slices of pizza whether you binge it or break it up - unless maybe you're trying for ketosis or something.

I'm not trying to twist words - I'm just saying to look at some other perspectives. There are a host of things that play into weight loss - calories in vs calories out is still the most important - that it's good to consider all of them, instead of basing it just on a single number. Especially if that number is a percentage. The article I linked before is actually very good reading as to the pitfalls of this.

As to the OPs request - if you're looking for low fat as in less than 30% then there are definitely things you can do. Fruits and veggies are low in fat and good in fiber (which is important if you're going low fat for your cholesterol). Protein shakes can be a good way to get your protein intake met without adding extra fat. Skinless chicken breasts are your friend. Lentils & beans are also good options. Watch out for processed foods which include unknown additives - not to mention restaurants which have who knows what in them. Also, I've seen the following ratio of fats suggested - 1:2:1 for Saturated, Mono-unsaturated, Poly-unsaturated. Mono-unsaturated being the 'healthiest' fat.
 
I think my point was that this seemed to be focusing on the percentage of fat - and that the percentage is a really lousy statistic. I'm not sure what a slow oxidizer is, I just think that it's dangerous to say '20% is good' when it means you'd eat the cookie with 200 calories and 8g of fat instead of the 45 calorie, 1g of fat cookie. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to realize that having the second cookie for your splurge would help more with weight loss.
I'm not sure why exactly a little a few times a week isn't moderation, but a bunch after a month is. Three slices of pizza over a month of time is still three slices of pizza whether you binge it or break it up

Yes, exactly, thanks. Both of these things are also where I'm coming from.

I think focusing on fat per food instead of per overall meal or overall day is a bad precedent to set.
 
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