Everything You Need To Know About Dietary Fats

You are what you eat, right? We’ve heard that for years. And if we want to get lean, and shed body fat, then we should probably avoid eating fats, right? WRONG! You need dietary fats for a variety of reasons – Let’s learn why!

Health
You skin, hair, organs, brain, and just about every cell in your body requires fats in order to function properly. This isn’t to say you should gorge yourself with fried fatty foods which will block your blood vessels and greatly increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. But it is to say that you should choose foods like fish, almonds, and omega-3s to ensure you’re getting the fats your body needs to function.

Energy
Every gram of fat contains 9 calories, more than twice as many as you enjoy from proteins or carbs, which contain 4 calories per gram. Once they are in the body, fats are broken down, at which point they release free fatty acids and glycerol. The glycerol is then converted into glucose, which takes place in the liver, and delivers energy to your body for your disposal.

Immune Function
You can’t train if you’re sick. And if your immune function gets too low, you become at high risk for disease and other ailments. Fats can actually boost your immune system in a very big way. Anytime a toxin is released in your body, either as a result of internal stressors or external forces, the body dilutes these toxins using fat tissue. Then, the substances are removed from the body in hair growth, urination, excretion, or other forms. In other words, fat removes the bad things from your body. This may explain why people in a pre-contest dieting phase are often sick, and some overweight people always seem healthy!

Sources of fat
You’ll find fats in most foods you eat, they’re hard to avoid. You want to try to center your diet around vitamins A, D, E, and K, as they are fat-soluble vitamins. If it comes from a drive thru, you should avoid it. But if the fats come from fish or other lean meats, or healthy dairy, then you should add it to your plate and enjoy some of the many benefits.




It should be clear to you now that you need to have fats in your diet. You can hit the weights, enjoy cardio, and eat a variety of protein and carbohydrate sources – but you mustn’t neglect the very important fats.