The Macronutrients and Fast Fat Loss, Part 1: You Have to Eat Fat to Burn Fat

With so many low-fat, no-fat, and fat substitute foods out in the markets today, an average person looking to lose some pounds might actually be convinced that fat in the diet is bad for them. In fact, this is very far from true. Including anywhere from 20%-35% of fat in the diet is actually optimal for fast fat loss, good health, and maintaining your ideal weight. Research has even shown that people living in Greece, France, Italy, and parts of the Middle East experience significantly less cases of heart disease related deaths than Americans, and their diets contain upwards of 40% fat!

Ok so now that I've raddled you a bit, let me say that although it is very necessary to include fat in your diet (especially for good health and fast fat loss) you do have to make sure that you are eating the right kinds of fats and in the right proportions.

But let's not make it too complicated. For fast fat loss, it is best if about one third of your fats come from saturated sources and the other two-thirds come from unsaturated sources. Now let's talk about the main sources of fats in your diet and how you can easily include them in your meals each day.

The first type is saturated fat. Now saturated fats are considered a big no-no according to most nutrition books and diet guides, but as long as you are getting your saturated fats from natural animal sources, you should be ok. To ensure that you are eating the most nutrient-dense saturated fat sources, stick to lean meats such as chicken breasts, extra lean ground turkey and beef, whole eggs, and some cheeses. Oh, and for fast fat loss, don't even think about going near that deep fryer! Deep frying foods in vegetable oils is a sure way to get loads of unnecessary saturated fats.

Let's now move on to unsaturated fats, better known as the "healthy fats." Unsaturated fats come in two types: polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. These fats, especially the monounsaturated, can help decrease LDL-cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and increase HDL-cholesterol (good cholesterol). To increase your polyunsaturated fats, eat foods such as almonds, fish, fish oil, sunflower oil, and walnuts. To make sure that you're getting more monounsaturated fats in your diet, try eating more peanuts, natural peanut butter, avocados, olives, and olive oil. In fact, olive oil should probably be your main source of cooking oil when cooking foods at low to medium temperatures.

This was a pretty quick summary of the fats and where to find good sources of each for effective and healthy weight loss. Hopefully you now have a better understanding of fats and how to include more in your diet for fast fat loss [http://simplefatlosshabits.com/]. Stay tuned for the second two parts of this series about protein and carbohydrates.

For more tips, advice, and lessons to help you improve your fat loss habits, check out my blog at [http://simplefatlosshabits.com/]