A Beginners Guide to Cutting Fat
Count fat, not calories. It seems so obvious, so sensible now, and yet it's a relatively new concept in the world of weight loss. It is a concept well worth paying attention to, however. That's because science has shown conclusively that to shed pounds and, incidentally, to prevent diseases of many kinds, fat is what you need to cut, not calories.
Ounce for ounce, dietary fat contains more than twice the calories and is more readily converted to body fat than either protein or carbohydrates. So when you count fat, you're automatically counting lots and lots of calories.
"One of the main benefits of a low-fat diet is the spontaneous reduction of caloric intake and weight loss," says registered dietitian James Kenney, Ph.D., nutrition research specialist at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Santa Monica, California.
Carbohydrates and proteins each have just four calories per gram, compared with nine calories per gram of fat. You don't have to be a mathematician to realize what this means to you, namely, that you can eat twice as many carbs and proteins as fat and still take in fewer calories. That, in combination with daily exercise, is the not-so-magic formula for lifelong weight-loss success.
You probably already know from firsthand experience that, unlike low-fat diets, low-calorie diets are not only potentially dangerous but simply don't work long-term. "That's because when you eat less, your body interprets this as starvation," explains Dean Ornish, M.D., who heads up the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, and wrote Eat More, Weigh Less. "So your body goes into a survival mode, which means your metabolism slows down and you burn calories less easily. It helps you survive if you are starving to death, but if you're trying to lose weight, that's the last thing you want to have happen," he says. "You'll lose weight at first, but as your metabolism slows more and more, you'll gradually stop losing."
Which is why switching to a low-fat diet means you can shed pounds without starving yourself. "If you change the type of food you eat--from high-fat meats, dairy products and processed foods, to low-fat carbohydrates and proteins, such as fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes--you don't really have to worry about the amount," notes Dr. Ornish. "Your metabolism won't slow down; in fact, it may even increase because it can burn protein and carbohydrate calories much more efficiently than fat calories."
The rewards of a low-fat diet are many, the experts agree. The best news of all: They can be yours pretty painlessly. "You do have to change your eating pattern permanently if you're going to keep your weight off," insists Steven Jonas, M.D., professor of preventive medicine at the School of Medicine, State University of New York at Stony Brook, and author of Take Control of Your Weight. "But lowering the fat in your diet is the easiest way to do it."
Figuring Out the Fat
Before you can begin to cut fat, you should have a fairly good idea of how much you're already consuming day to day. Take this quick quiz to find out. 1. How many ounces of meat, fish or poultry do you usually eat per day? (A 3-ounce serving includes one regular hamburger, 1/2 chicken breast, one pork chop, and so forth.) a. None b. 3 ounces or less c. 4 to 6 ounces d. 7 ounces or more 2. How much cheese do you eat per week? a. None b. Only low-fat cheese, such as low-fat ricotta or cottage cheese c. Whole-milk cheese 1 or 2 times a week d. Whole-milk cheese 3 or more times a week 3. What type of milk do you use? a. Only skim or 1 percent milk b. Skim or 1 percent milk, but others occasionally c. 2 percent or whole milk 4. How many egg yolks do you use per week? a. None and/or egg substitute b. 2 c. 3 or more 5. How often do you eat lunch meat, hot dogs, corned beef, spareribs, sausage, bacon or liver? a. Never b. About once a week c. 2 to 4 times a week d. 4 or more times a week 6. How often do you usually eat foods such as baked goods (cake, cookies, doughnuts, etc.) and ice cream? a. None b. Once a week c. 2 to 4 times a week d. 4 or more times a week 7. What's the main type of fat you use for cooking? a. None b. Safflower, sunflower, corn or soybean oil c. Olive or peanut oil, or margarine d. Shortening, butter or bacon drippings 8. How often do you eat snack foods such as chips, fries or party crackers? a. Never b. Once a week c. 2 to 4 times a week d. 4 or more times a week 9. What spread do you usually use on bread, vegetables and the like? a. None b. Soft (tub) or diet margarine c. Stick margarine d. Butter TO SCORE For each time you answered (a), give yourself 1 point. Each (b) gets 2 points, each (c) 3 points and each (d) 4 points. Now add up the numbers from each of your answers. If you score 15 or less, good for you! You're already following a low-fat diet. Anything higher than 18 can be considered high-fat, and the first step in your quest to cut fat from your diet is to switch as many of your (c) and (d) answers to (a) and (b). |
Getting Started
Now that you've determined that counting and trimming fat are tops on your weight-loss agenda, the question is: How exactly do you count fat? And how do you figure out how much is too much for you?
A good place to start is by taking a cold, hard look at just how much fat you're currently eating. And a good way to do that is by taking the simple quiz, "Figuring Out the Fat," on page 20.
If you're already eating a low-fat diet, congratulations! If you're like most Americans, however, you face a few alterations in your daily diet. Perhaps the word diet in this context requires a little explanation. We're not taking about something you do short-term to drop a few unwanted pounds. This "diet" is something you're going to embrace and live with for the rest of your life (which, incidentally, should be considerably longer once you make these changes).
So, how much fat cutting are we talking about here? Several nutritional authorities recommend that you lower your fat intake so that it accounts for no more than 30 percent of the total calories you take in each day. We advise, for the sake of your weight-loss program and your health, even lower intakes--a maximum of 25 percent. But is there an easy way to tell when your fat intake is within the guidelines?
Fat Budget
How much fat is too much fat? Frustrated diet cynics would probably snap, "Any fat at all is too much." The fact of the matter is that you need some fat in your daily diet. (Anyway, it's just about impossible to eliminate all the fat.) This chart will help you figure out how much fat you can safely eat in order to reach and maintain your perfect weight. To use the chart, find your current weight in the first column. The second column shows the number of calories you're probably eating every day to maintain that weight. What you want to memorize is the number in the third column that corresponds to your target weight in the first column. | Women | | Weight | Calorie
Intake | Fat Limit (g.) |
| 110 | 1,300 | 36 | | 120 | 1,400 | 39 | | 130 | 1,600 | 44 | | 140 | 1,700 | 47 | | 150 | 1,800 | 50 | | 160 | 1,900 | 53 | | 170 | 2,000 | 56 | | 180 | 2,200 | 61 |
| Men | | Weight | Calorie
Intake | Fat Limit (g.) | | 130 | 1,800 | 50 | | 140 | 2,000 | 56 | | 150 | 2,100 | 58 | | 160 | 2,200 | 61 | | 170 | 2,400 | 67 | | 180 | 2,500 | 69 | | 190 | 2,700 | 75 | | 200 | 2,800 | 78 |
|
The Easy Way to Keep Your Diet Lean
The old standard method was to get out your calculator to figure percentage of calories from fat for individual foods or your entire daily diet. For foods, you'd check the labels for total grams of fat per serving, then multiply that number by 9, divide by the total calories per serving, and multiply by 100. Whew! That's a lot of work when all you wanted was a handful of potato chips. But we have an easier way.
First, check the "Fat Budget" table, on page 23, for your magic number. That's the maximum number of grams of fat you should be eating daily to get no more than 25 percent of your calories from fat while you lose weight. Then, just count the grams of fat you eat each day and make sure the total doesn't exceed your magic number.
Let's take the example of a 140-pound woman who wants to get down to 120 pounds. The chart indicates that to maintain her weight, she's probably eating about 47 grams of fat (and about 1,700 calories) every day. But to reduce her weight to 120 pounds, she should bring her fat intake to no more than 40 grams of fat per day.
Keep in mind that these fat limits are approximate and that the chart is for sedentary people. If you exercise regularly and vigorously, you can afford a few more grams of fat (three grams for every extra 100 calories you burn). The chart doesn't account for age, either, and metabolism slows down with age. So it's particularly important for older people to step up their exercise and keep fat calories within these recommended ranges.
As for identifying the fat grams in a given serving, those numbers appear on just about all packaged foods. For fresh produce, meats, fish, and the like, you can refer to any fat-gram counter. (See the "Fat Finder's Guide," on page 28, to help you get started.)
This approach to counting fat has a way of encouraging some very healthy attitudes toward low-fat eating. For one thing, it correctly implies that it's more important to limit total fat intake than to fret about particular foods that contribute to that total. (Dieters often try to forbid themselves from having any high-fat fare, but if you're eating small amounts--an occasional pat of butter, a few slices of lean meat--it'll cost you just a few grams of fat.) And indulging in those once-in-a-while treats can help you avoid that poor-deprived-me mentality that can scuttle your diet.
Also, since high-fat foods can so quickly put you over your daily fat-gram quota, this approach automatically encourages you to choose more delicious low-fat alternatives. As a result, you'll inevitably end up eating extra fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other complex carbohydrates while keeping fat intake (and weight) down.
Bad Fat, Good Fat
Fat, fat, fat. All this talk about cutting fat might lead you to believe that a zero-fat diet is the healthiest one of all. Not really. Dietary fat serves several useful purposes. Dieters and nondieters alike need a minimum of 2 to 5 percent of their calories from fat for energy, to process vitamins A, D, E and K, and to avoid certain skin and liver disorders. Fat also provides that nice feeling of satiety that keeps you from overeating. So we're not saying you should shun fat altogether, just eat less of it. And stay away as much as possible from the most harmful varieties. The list below will help you separate the good guys from the baddies. Good: Monounsaturated oils (such as olive and canola) protect against heart disease. Polyunsaturated fats (corn and other vegetable oils) tend to reduce blood cholesterol levels. Bad: Hydrogenated fats (margarine, shortening and other solid and semisolid vegetable oils treated with hydrogen) clog coronary arteries. Worst of all: Saturated fats (butter and other animal fats, which are solid at room temperature) put you at high risk for heart disease and some types of cancers. Both the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association recommend that you limit saturated fat to under 10 percent of total calories. |
Take It Easy, Take It Slow
We've talked about how to reduce dietary fat in terms of numbers. But eating habits and food preferences can't be dictated by fat-gram charts and nutrition labels. We're human, after all, and we love the taste of chocolate bars and corn chips, cookie-dough ice cream and thick, juicy steaks. Can we realistically expect to swear off our favorites, no matter how strong our desire to be thin?
No, say the experts, nor do you need to. The key is to make dietary adjustments in stages. "I say it over and over again: When it comes to food and exercise, gradual change leads to permanent changes," says Dr. Jonas. "Cognitively, I may understand that reducing fat is a good idea, but I like the taste, and I know I can't do it instantly. Fine--you don't have to. Eating is a lifetime activity, and you have a better chance of making a permanent change if you don't try to do it all at once. Instead, make food substitutions on a gradual basis."
Let's say you've decided to eat less red meat. "Sit down and make a chart for the past week, counting up how many meat meals you ate out of 21," suggests Dr. Jonas. "Say that seven had meat as the main component. First, try cutting back to six meat meals a week, substituting chicken or fish or just vegetables for that seventh meal. Then go down to five, then four, then three. Remember, you don't have to be perfect. In fact, aim to not be perfect, because trying to be perfect just leads to guilt and frustration and quitting. But if you manage to drop from seven meat meals a week to three, you've already eliminated a large amount of fat."
Dr. Jonas knows this method works: He's done it successfully himself. "Fifteen years ago, I couldn't contemplate the idea of meatless meals," he confesses. "Now, many of mine are, but I got there gradually."
Making relatively simple adjustments in your food choices, then, is the way to go. It's also the way to stay at a weight you're happy with. "When you talk to people who've successfully lost weight and kept it off, this is how most of them did it," adds Dr. Jonas. "They didn't count calories, and they didn't walk around with diet menus. They simply learned what the high- and low-fat foods are and they significantly reduced the high-fat foods they ate. People lose weight and stay slim by making qualitative changes in their life."
Breakfast (lunch and dinner) of Champions
What do you serve a beefy football player to get the best game out of him? Would you believe . . . bagels? Orange juice? Apples? Yes, insists Dean Kleinschmidt, president of the Professional Athletic Trainers Society and head athletic trainer for the New Orleans Saints professional football team, who's been on a mission to gradually switch players from a high-fat to a high-carbohydrate diet. And it's been working. The majority of NFL teams are now getting most of their calories from pasta, grains, fruits and veggies rather than fatty foods. Before, explains Kleinschmidt, "players thought they had to eat pounds and pounds of meat." But now a typical pregame meal includes a choice of fresh fruits and fruit juices; pasta and a couple of low-fat, meatless sauces; pancakes; wheat toast; scrambled eggs; and bagels. What's more, he adds, "every day a produce man delivers crates of fresh fruit, like apples, oranges and bananas, to the practice field, all free for the players." He was understandably delighted when a 1993 survey of NFL athletic trainers by the Produce for Better Health Foundation revealed that a pro football player eats, on average, six servings of fruit and vegetables a day, compared with the typical American, who consumes just half that number (five a day is considered ideal). "So," says Kleinschmidt, "here's the couch potato, watching football on TV on Sunday, eating only three servings of produce a day and looking at these guys who eat six!" Kleinschmidt hopes that now that football players know the value of a carbohydrate-rich, low-fat diet, the rest of us will soon follow suit. |
Losing Your Fat Tooth
All this talk about cutting fat still give you the willies? ("I love the way fat tastes! I'll never be able to give it up!") Then you may be surprised to hear that lots of people just like you have happily and painlessly lost their fat tooth. A four-year study of more than 2,000 women at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle reveals that women who limited their fat intake to around 25 percent of calories lost their taste for fat in six months or less. By the end of the study, say the women, they actually found fatty foods unpleasant to eat.
Dr. Jonas has a similar story to tell, and an explanation. "Now I find that although I still like the taste of chocolate, I can't eat too much of it at one sitting, because later that evening or the next morning I'll wake up with an uncomfortable feeling," he says. "And while I still enjoy the flavor of steak, I know what a large portion of fatty meat does to me. I feel uncomfortable a few hours later, probably due to all the fat lying undigested in my stomach. As a result, it's actually caused my taste for fat to change."
The 80-Calorie Lotto
Need proof that fat calories don't fill you up nearly as much as calories that come from carbohydrates or protein? There are approximately 80 calories in just 2 teaspoons of margarine or oil--pure fat. Check out the list below to see what else 80 calories can buy you. |
| 6 ounces skim milk 2 cups snap beans 1/2 cup oatmeal 15 ounces tomato juice 1 slice of light bread 4 egg whites 3 ounces striped bass 11/2 cups air-popped popcorn 2 cups broccoli 1 medium apple 1/2 cup corn grits | 4 prunes 3 ounces lobster 2 pieces gefilte fish 1/2 cup three-bean salad 3 tomatoes 1 cup blackberries 6 dill pickles 1 1/2 cups watermelon 1/2 cup wild rice 4 ounces frogs' legs 4 cups iceberg lettuce with 1 tablespoon fat-free salad dressing |
Dr. Ornish, whose very low fat program has produced in his patients actual reversal of heart disease and long-term weight loss, takes what is probably the most radical approach of all to taming your fat tooth. He believes that until you stop eating high-fat foods, your craving for them will never go away.
"Ironically," says Dr. Ornish, "it's easier to make big changes than small ones. If you continue eating some meat or other fatty foods, you never really lose your taste for them--you feel more deprived eating smaller portions of them than if you didn't eat them at all. But if you gave them up completely, your palate would adjust accordingly. For example, if you stop putting salt on your food, initially it will seem like it needs more salt, but then after a few weeks it'll taste fine and eventually the salted foods you used to eat will seem too salty."
No one here is insisting that you slash your dietary fat to the 10 percent level that Dr. Ornish recommends for his heart-disease patients, nor that you quit all of your high-fat favorites cold turkey. Simply retrain your taste buds to love fat less. How? Try substituting low- and nonfat foods, like nonfat frozen yogurt, low-fat salad dressings and leaner meats for your old fatty favorites. That way, you'll feel less deprived, and it's likelier your new eating habits will stick.
Fat Finder's Guide
To find out how many grams of fat are in the specific foods you eat every day, check the labels, or pick up one of the many handy paperback books listing fat-gram counts. This handy guide will get you started. |
| Breads and
Bread Products
Breads | Italian | 1 slice | 0 | | Pita | 1 | 0.6 | | Cracked-wheat | 1 slice | 0.9
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