Diet & Fitness 

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Diets A-Z: Low fat

Everything you need to know about following a low fat diet

Celebrity follower
Rosemary Conley

The theory
Since fat contains more calories than carbohydrate or protein, limiting the fat in our diet is a simple way to promote weight loss.

The plan
All types of added fats, such as butter, full-fat dairy, margarine, mayonnaise, cream, sour cream, oils, and salad dressings, are reduced or eliminated. Foods high in fat, such as fried foods, snack foods, cheeses and meats, should be replaced with lower-fat versions or eaten in smaller portions.

Pros

• A high-fat diet, particularly of saturated and trans-fats from meat, full fat dairy and convenience foods, has been associated, not only with obesity, but also with heart disease and some types of cancer.
• The plan encourages the use of foods that are naturally low in fat, such as fruits and vegetables, which also contain healthy amounts of essential nutrients and fibre.

Cons

• There has been an explosion of foods - snack bars, biscuits, cakes, sweets and ice cream, to name a few - that are reduced in fat. However, the problem is that they almost always contain lots of sugar instead, and sugar leads to weight gain when eaten to excess. Those foods do not promote a healthy diet, even if they are low in fat.
• There is poor general awareness that fats are necessary in the diet. This is why moderate fat diets are fine, but some people will interpret this as low-fat (a much more common term) and cut out fat altogether, and this is unhealthy. We need healthy fats, such as omega-3s from oily fish, and omega-6s from nuts and seeds, for immune, cardiovascular and nerve health.

Duration
Indefinite.

Tips
Chat about it on the You can do it message board.

Checklist
Restaurants: Yes.
Alcohol: Varies.
Caffeine: Varies.
Need to buy special foods: Yes, the focus is on foods that are fat-free or low fat.
Family friendly: Yes.
OK for vegetarians: Yes.

The pros say
Fat is not the only culprit in the fight against obesity. It's important to remember that, fat-free foods still contain calories and can cause weight gain, if over-consumed.

There is confusion about what moderate and low fat mean. Most people eat around 35-37% of calories from fat, while Government recommendations are 30%. When experts recommend choosing foods with 5% fat they are talking about 5% of the weight of the food, so 5 grams of fat out of 100 grams of food product (and not 5% of calories). This 5% will however translate into around 25-30% of calories (because fat has more calories than other ingredients and also because some of the food weight will be water). None of this is a problem, except that people get confused and the messages should ideally be consistent. A traditional Eastern diet, such as the Japanese Diet is around 25% of calories from fat.

It is also important to recognise that some 'low-fat' gurus (who should reallly be called moderate-fat gurus) are also advocating other measures such as lots of exercise and good intakes of fibre in the diet, so fat is not the only thing to focus on.

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