The Truth About ‘Low Fat’ Foods

If you’re on a fat loss diet, one category of foods that you’ve very likely come across before and likely have included in your regular diet is a food that has been claimed to be ‘low fat’.

And by ‘low fat’, we aren’t referring to foods that are naturally low in fat such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, we’re referring to foods that come in a package that are labeled as ‘low fat’.

Basically, they are snack foods that are marketed to the dieter. If you’re trying to lose body fat, it would only make sense to eat ‘low fat’ foods, right? This is precisely what the clever marketers are trying to get you to believe.

But before you rush off to add all these ‘low fat’ foods into your meal plan, let’s take a quick look at a few of the very important points that you should be realizing about these foods.

Low Fat Does Not Mean Low Calorie

The very first thing that you must realize is that a food that’s labelled as being low fat does not necessarily mean that it’s going to be low in calories. While it’s true that fat is the most calorie dense nutrient at nine calories per gram, if there is a load of sugar added to that low fat food to enhance its taste, which there often is, then chances are you could be looking at more calories in that low fat food than there are in comparable foods that aren’t low fat.

So before you automatically purchase the low fat variety thinking it’s the smartest thing to do, check out the total calorie count.

At the end of the day, your total calorie intake is what will determine whether you lose body fat or not, so if you want to see success, you must get calorie counts under control.

Low Fat Does Not Mean Nutritious

The second thing to note about ‘low fat’ foods is that just because they’re low fat it does not mean they will be healthy.

Again, if they are enriched with plenty of sugar rather than nutrient dense ingredients, you’re virtually filling your body with empty calories.

Since you do require so many different nutrients on a daily basis, if you’re essentially wasting calories on these nutrient void foods, you’re going to run a deficit.

And, if you are missing some of the key nutrients that the body needs, you may start to suffer from a less than optimal metabolism as the thyroid gland doesn’t function as it should.

This will then make long-term weight loss that much harder, so yet another reason to avoid the ‘low fat’ foods.

Low Fat Often Causes Extreme Hunger

Finally, the last reason why you must consider avoiding ‘low fat’ foods is because if they are high in sugar and have hardly any fat content, this can actually cause a rapid blood sugar spike followed by crash, which will leave you hungrier than ever.

Fat in foods does tend to promote feelings of satiety, so as soon as you remove all the fat, you’re going to be facing the chance of increased hunger.

So before you rush out to purchase the latest ‘low fat’ item to hit your grocer’s shelves, make sure you keep these points in mind. If it’s naturally low in fat than chances are it’s a great part of a healthy diet but if it’s been made to be low fat, you may want to think twice about it.