A friend and I got into discussion about nutrition when she commented that she’s going to start taking her Alli pills again to help her lose fat… In case you don’t know what it is, Alli pills make you sh*t out your fat intake.
My comment was that she just recently got on a healthy eating regime and I am afraid that if she dumps out all her fat, her body won’t think she’s taking in enough and will start storing MORE fat as a result. I told her that she should aim for 35% carbs, 35% protein, 30% fat to start.
Her response is that she doesn’t think eating fat contributes to her cause since she already has plenty on her body (she’s at around 35% body fat).
She claims that the body burns carbs, THEN protein, THEN fat. So the question is… why would she even need to consume fat if she’s looking to LOSE fat? Wouldn’t she avoid fat altogether and just have the body burn through her carbs, protein, and then eventually her body fat?
Can you guys help me clarify on how the body process carbs, protein, and fat and why she should or shouldn’t be eating fat?
Having a low-fat/reduced-fat (for me i consider this to be less than 25%) diet for me resulted in nothing except reduced energy, reduced aggression and my maxes/reps on my lifts dropped significantly within a month
in other words my testosterone fell sharply
on the other hand switching it up to 45-50% fat gives the opposite effect
Here is an interesting article from Charles Poliquin on why you need fat:
Fish oils, rich in the Omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent depression, stabilize the moods of maniac-depressives, and alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia.
University of California’s Johnsson Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA health.com
Fish oils is one of the few substances known to lower concentrations of triglycerides (fatty substances) that pose a cardiovascular risk, in the blood.
J Raloff Science News
Increasing the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids has direct effects on serotonin levels.
Andrew Stoll M.D.1999 Archives of General Psychiatry
Fish oils, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) help prevent heart disease, depression, and cancer.
Hans R. Larsen, Msc chE ““Fish Oils: The Essential Nutrients”” International Health News
Research has shown that supplementation with fish oils can markedly reduce interlukin-1beta production and results in a significant reduction in morning stiffness and the number of painful joints in rheumatoid arthritis patients.
Darlington, L Gail and Stone, Trevor W. Antioxidants and fatty acids in the amelioration of rheumatoid arthritis and related disorders. British Journal of Nutrition, Vol. 85, March 2001, pp.251-69. Oilofpisces.com
Several clinical trials have concluded that eating fish regularly or supplementing with fish oils can reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death by as much as 50%.
Bigger,J. Thomas and El-Sherif, Tarek. Polyunsaturated fatty acids and cardiovascular events: a fish tale. Circulation, Vol.103, February 6, 2001, pp623-25 (editorial). Oilofpisces.com
Researchers at Mayo Clinic report that supplementation with fish oils, EPA and DHA is highly effective in slowing down the progression of IgA nephropathy, a common kidney disease.
Donadio, James V.,et al. A controlled trial of fish oil in IgA nephropathy. New England Journal of Medicine, Vol 331 November 3, 1994, pp1194-99
Van Ypersele de Strihou, Charles. Fish oil for IgA nephropathy? New England Journal of Medicine, Vol 331, November 3, 1994, pp 1227-29 (editorial). Oilofpisces.com
Epidemiological studies have shown that populations with a high intake of fish oils have a lower incidence of inflammatory diseases such as asthma.
Dry J. and Vincent D. Effect of a Fish oil diet on asthma: results of a 1-year double bind study. Int Arch Allerguy Appl Immurol, Vol.95, 1991,pp.156-57. Oilofpisces.com
Researchers at The University of Tromso now report that fish oil supplementation lowers blood pressure significantly in people with hypertension and has no effect on glucose control even in people with mid diabetes.
Toft, Ingrid, et al. Effects of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on glucose homeostasis and blood pressure in essential hypertension. Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol 123, No 12, December 15, 1995, pp 911-18. Connor, William E. Diabetes, fish oil, and vascular disease. Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol 123, No 12, December 15, 1995, pp950-52. Oilofpisces.com.
Medical researchers in New Zealand provide convincing evidence that an increased consumption of fish oils helps reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer.
Norrish, A,E, et al. Prostate cancer risk and consumption of fish oils: A dietary biomaker-based case-control study. British Journal of Cancer, Vol. 81, No.7, December 1999, pp.1238-42"
If aything carbs are a non-essential macro nutrient.
A friend and I got into discussion about nutrition when she commented that she’s going to start taking her Alli pills again to help her lose fat… In case you don’t know what it is, Alli pills make you sh*t out your fat intake.
My comment was that she just recently got on a healthy eating regime and I am afraid that if she dumps out all her fat, her body won’t think she’s taking in enough and will start storing MORE fat as a result. I told her that she should aim for 35% carbs, 35% protein, 30% fat to start.
Her response is that she doesn’t think eating fat contributes to her cause since she already has plenty on her body (she’s at around 35% body fat).
She claims that the body burns carbs, THEN protein, THEN fat. So the question is… why would she even need to consume fat if she’s looking to LOSE fat? Wouldn’t she avoid fat altogether and just have the body burn through her carbs, protein, and then eventually her body fat?
Can you guys help me clarify on how the body process carbs, protein, and fat and why she should or shouldn’t be eating fat?
Thanks![/quote]
Short answer, they call them essential fatty acids for a reason, they are essential to human life and pretty much every single metabolic process there in and cannot be synthesized from other sources. She should leave the dangerous drugs at home and learn to read ingredient labels and think consciously about food, or better yet, eat food with no labels(whole, natural). If she’s set on reducing total fat intake, you should help her learn about the fats necessary for human growth and development so that she can continue to consume those.
Yea, just thinking about what she said makes no sense. If you body burned exclusively in the order: carbs, protein, fats, you would never burn a single molecule of fat because your body would eat itself by digesting all of the protein and you’d die.
So obviously that’s about a mile off. Also she’s mistaken (as mentioned before) that dietary fat and stored fat are the same. They are quite different in structure/function. For example, cholestorol is a lipid.
It is not stored as fat like she’s thinking though. Instead it is used to build cell membranes, hormones, and other functions unrelated to the stored fat she’s talking about. She needs dietary fat intake to perform many functions inside her body, and she needs to educate herself further on the subject.