Bella Adams
Fat or carbohydrates? Which should you rather do without if you want to lose weight? The answer is all info on the low-fat diet and slimming recipes!
Some swear by the renunciation of pasta, rice, bread, and sugar – others eliminate fats and oils from their diet.
The two popular diets low carb and low fat enjoy tens of thousands of fans and are constantly being developed and specified.
Early low-carb diets, such as Atkins’, really let the fat live high, but in the meantime, people have become a bit more moderate about it. Among the newer variants is the Paleo diet, which is based on the eating habits of our ancestors.
That is behind the Low Fat Diet
The principle of a low-fat diet is to reduce one’s daily fat consumption to about 30 – 60 g of fat. The starting point is the different calorific values of fat, proteins, and carbohydrates. 1 g fat contains 9 kilocalories – carbohydrates and proteins on the other hand only 4 calories!
This means that if you cut down on fat, you can eat more carbohydrates and proteins!
Strict low-fat diets only allow 10 percent fat a day – that can be pretty tough! But not-so-strict concepts are also promising, such as the Low Fat 30 diet.
Low carb versus low fat – which is better?
Scientists at Tulane University in New Orleans wanted to know more. For their study, they divided almost 150 overweight subjects, each weighing around 100 kilograms, into two groups. One group reduced its fat consumption to an agreed amount for one year, while the other banned carbohydrates from its plates.
Both groups were to consume no more than 1,400 calories a day. A sports program, which would certainly have increased the weight loss effect, was not imposed on the participants – only the two diets were compared.
The scales gave a clear verdict: the low-carb group lost more weight – an average of three and a half kilos more than the low-fat group.
The Low Carb probands could be pleased about on the average 5,3 kilos less weight and better Cholesterinwerte. The low-fat group, on the other hand, lost an average of only 1.8 kilos.
A low-fat diet has a more long-term effect
In the short term and without a sports program, the low-carb diet achieves better weight loss results than the low-fat diet. However, these successes could only be maintained by a very small number of test subjects – many low-carb subjects quickly regained their weight. The situation is different with a low-fat diet.
Particularly in combination with movement and a high protein portion in the food Low-Fat parliamentary allowance seem to be for many a promising method, in order to decrease on a long-term basis.
In addition: Low-Fat diets are often more balanced and healthier than Low Carb diets! A frequent problem with the renouncement of coal hydrates is that strengthened protein is set.
As a result, you often eat more meat, eggs, and dairy products like cottage cheese than is ultimately good. The problem is that these foods can also contain a lot of fat – often the case with cream yogurts or cottage cheese, for example. Too much animal fat can increase the risk of heart disease and atherosclerosis in the long run!
In addition: If we radically give up carbohydrates, we get cravings and a bad mood! This promotes the yo-yo effect.
Lose weight with a low-fat diet
So it’s better not to go on a radical crash diet in order to lose weight in the shortest possible time – the shed pounds tend to return quickly anyway when you return to your old habits.
- It is better to change your diet permanently – to a healthy and realistic diet for you.
- Do not condemn all fats! Pick the ones that have a lot to offer you – for example, avocados, hemp oil, or chia seeds. They have a variety of essential fatty acids that our bodies can’t produce on their own.
- Watch out for low-fat and light products! They contain less fat but are often full of sugar. It is best to always check the list of ingredients – in the case of yogurts, it is better to choose natural yogurt instead of fruit yogurt and then spice it up yourself with fruit. But here, too, pay attention to the fructose content.
