Why Women Need To Eat More Fats To Be Healthy And Lose Weight

The health and fitness industry has preached low-fat diets for so long that now women are just accustomed to eating that way and find it hard to eat more out of fear of gaining weight. But, the truth is more fat in your diet actually helps stabilize your hunger and hormones leading you to feel fuller longer and eat less throughout the day. Not to mention healthy unsaturated fats are good for your organ and brain function.

Research no longer suggests you should eat a low-fat diet. Take a look at all the evidence for why you should add healthy fats back in.

Fat Helps You Feel Fuller Longer

Because carbohydrates are derived from sugars, and our bodies burn through sugars quickly, after you eat a carb-heavy meal it’s not uncommon to feel hungry shortly after. The same thing does not happen when you add healthy fats into the mix.

Fats have a lower insulin level than carbohydrates which means when you eat them your blood sugar stays level— rather than quickly spiking and crashing when eating an all-carb meal– leaving you feeling full and satiated for longer periods of time. Fats also aid in the absorption of carbohydrates allowing your body to use them more efficiently throughout the day so you don’t store them (as unwanted fat) later.

Low-Fat Diets Lead To Calorie Restriction And Weight Gain

Unlike what you’ve been told throughout the years by fitness professionals, counting calories and restricting your calories to lose weight, doesn’t actually work. And on top of that, it is a miserable way to live, having to track everything that goes into your mouth.

As mentioned above, if you’re eating a low-calorie diet– on top of trying to restrict calories– it will lead you to feel hungry. As a result, many people end up in a binge-restrict cycle. They binge because they can’t contain their hunger, then they restrict their calories again to make up for the binge, which leads to more binging.

Eating in this type of pattern can wreak havoc on your hormones, destroy your thyroid, mess with your insulin sensitivity, and even disrupt your leptin and ghrelin levels (the hormones that tell you when you’re hungry and full), which will eventually lead to the weight gain you were originally trying to avoid. Instead, eat a more well-balanced diet with fats to stay satiated throughout the day.

Your Brain Needs Fat

With 60% of your brain made up of fat and 25% of that being cholesterol fat in your diet is essential to a healthy brain. If you consume a low-fat diet you can often feel low energy and spacey throughout the day (brain fog). This is because the brain needs fat in the diet to maintain its normal function and have energy.

Myelin is a fatty layer of insulation that forms around brain cells and helps signals in your brain travel quickly and efficiently. Saturated fat is particularly crucial to myelin. If myelin breaks down, from not enough fat in the diet, the communication between your brain cells slows. By consuming a low-fat diet for extended periods of time you can experience cognitive decline.

Fat Aids In Heart Function

When you avoid fats and eat carbs instead your blood sugar spikes which can ultimately lead to cardiovascular disease. Eating mostly carbs causes inflammation in the heart that– when mixed with fat and cholesterol– hardens your arteries. Without the inflammation, the fats and cholesterol can do their job properly, and would not have the same negative impact.

Healthy cholesterol (HDL) also protects your heart. Be sure to eat heart-healthy fats such as grass-fed meat, olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds to reap the benefits.

Low-Fat Diets Wreak Your Hormones

Hormone health is essential for women to live a long, healthy, life. In order to function properly, women’s bodies need two major sex hormones: progesterone and estrogen. Progesterone is tougher to maintain as it declines with aging. This can lead to estrogen dominance. 

High-quality saturated fats aid in the production of progesterone while also helping your body absorb fat-soluble vitamins (Vitamins A, K, E, and D). Even if you’re not interested in having children any time soon, fertility plays a major role in the female body. When fertility drops you can experience acne, weight gain, hair loss, loss of energy, lack of libido, pale skin, and excess body hair.

The best sources of fat for women include high-quality dark chocolate (>70% cacao), coconut oil, grass-fed meat and butter, egg yolks, avocado and olive oil, salmon, sardines, and krill oil.