What is a low fat diet?

[FiftynFooked]

My blood pressure has crept up to the elevated category and the NHS website recommends a low fat diet alongside regular exercise. I can't work out whether that means eating low fat alternatives eg skimmed milk, fat free yoghurts or to carry on eating full fat but keep it to, say, less than 40g of fat per day?

Low fat foods seem to have very much gone out of fashion due to the high sugar content and I do prefer higher fat alternatives but I don't want to do anything that might detrimentally affect my health!

Yea, I don't think that's quite up to date.

I recommend Peter Attia's book Outlive as a general guide to being healthy. His podcasts are also very good.

If you're overweight, try to reduce your calorie intake to lose the excess.

But what's probably more effective is exercise. If you currently do nothing, start walking. If you walk, try running or cycling. Lifting weights can also be very useful.

My advice would be to drastically reduce UPF, refined carbs and, above all, SUGAR.

The Sugar Solution is a good read.

And exercise. Especially HIIT and working out with weights. I don't know your fitness level, but Growingannanas is excellent for HIIT.

Also look at Lucy Wyndham Read for fitness training if you're a beginner, Heather Robertson and/or Rebecca Louise if you feel a bit more energetic, and aim for Caroline Girvan if you're serious about getting fit.

Thank you! I am very overweight and this has finally given me the push to stick to a diet.

I am relatively fit, I swim a couple of times a week and do a couple of yoga classes but my cardio fitness has definitely dropped after major surgery earlier in the year. Not a fan of full on tabata style HIIT but I've actually developed my own kettlebell HIIT routine that I'll be starting tomorrow.

I eat pretty healthily during the weekend but weekends are my downfall. We've got into the habit of having a takeaway every weekend and I'll have a drink. So I'm doing sober October and will be avoiding takeaways for the foreseeable. I'm also tracking my calories and sticking to 1350 a day.

Low fat was based on flawed science that eating fat must make you fat.

There have been studies that show, if you don't consume more calories than your bodily needs - so between your BMR and TDEE, fat is not the problem.

It's sugar, carbs and UPFs that are the problem. Carbs trigger an insulin response. Your body doesn't lose fat when insulin in released. UPFs don't trigger the same hormone response to being full because your body doesn't process it as 'food' and it doesn't respond in the same way.

Watch The Magic Pill on YouTube and listen to Dr Jason Fung's Obesity Code podcasts - esp the energy exchange one and the uPF podcasts by Dr's Chris and Xand van Tullekan.

You don't need to be in a calorie deficit (eg consume fewer calories than you use) to lose weight. You just need to make sure you're eating the right sort of food. And you don't need to feel hungry either

If 'low fat ' was the answer, we'd be seeing a massive drop in weight given the abundance of low fat foods on the market. And that's not the case. Quite the opposite in fact.

I think its technically less than 50g of fat a day

I find it hard to stick to that, I dont tend to eat 'low fat foods', I dont believe in low fat. I gained a huge amount of weight in the 80s and 90s doing 'low fat' and really regret being sucked into the low fat mantra

However, they do say to protect your gall bladder you should eat low fat so I am in a bind as I dont want that problem but cant eat low fat!

"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants"

Plus a fair bit - around 25% - of lean protein: fish, chicken, eggs.

Plus enough EVOO to dress your salads and cook your protein.

Small servings of complex carbs and dairy (mostly full-fat Greek yoghurt)

But above all stay clear of UPF, refined carbs and SUGAR.

Dr. Becky Gillaspy has lots of short videos on YouTube which are succinct and informative.

I'm on a low fat diet due to medical issues. I cut all visible fat off meat, eat lower fat cheese, occasionally, and fat free yogurt and milk.

Believe me low fat, and reduced carb diets aren't the easiest to stick to.

I have to do a low fat diet. For anything that's packaged you want the green category of things. This means all fat will be less than 3% and sat fat less than 1.5% per 100g.

This means that i no longer have any truly unhealthy food, and the healthy fats like oily fish, eggs, cheese, butter, peanut butter, hummus, nuts seeds, olives etc., are eaten sparingly. It is restrictive, can be hard to find something when out.

It was hard at first and if it hadn't been required medically i doubt i would have managed, but I lost nearly 2 stone straight away and do feel better for it overall so it's how i eat now.

Don't know why i said butter was healthy, i just meant to include it with those things basically i have almost no butter though.

Butter is healthy.

If 'low fat ' was the answer, we'd be seeing a massive drop in weight given the abundance of low fat foods on the market. And that's not the case. Quite the opposite in fact

Well not quite, as the people who are overweight are unlikely to be eating a low fat diet.

You don't get fat eating unprocessed low fat foods (eg fruit, veg, meat, eggs, pulses, fish, some dairy).

But I agree with your other point that it's sugar, UPF and processed carbs that are the main problem. Many of these foods are also high in fat, ie fast food, biscuits/cakes and many sandwiches/pasties etc. That's what's causing people to be overweight.

A healthy diet would be one that is sensible portions of mostly unprocessed ingredients and this would also likely be reasonably low fat.

As others said, it's not fat per se, it's UPFs, sugar and white carbs which you need to cut. Focus on a range of fruit and veg, protein, wholegrains, lots of water.

I went on a low fat diet in 1980s when they were all the rage. Low fat meant nothing over 5% fat. It's actually quite sensible. You can afford to use good butter, cheese and oil in your cooking if the bulk of your food is lean protein, veg, wholegrains etc.

But as others have said, avoiding ultra-processed foods, especially refined wheat flour and sugar would be a great start towards eating more healthily.