Why Eat Fat to Lose Fat?
I need to lose belly fat. The keto diet restricts carbohydrates so that, in theory, the body burns body fat instead of carbohydrates for energy.
So, if I follow the diet recommendations and consume dietary fat (mostly “good” fats) why doesn’t my body use that fat leaving my belly fat alone? It doesn’t make sense!
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Hi - someone can correct me if I’m wrong on this., but your body DOES use that fat first. after it uses up the energy from fat you consume, it will switch over to your reserved fat stores. at the end of the day, you still need to run on a deficit to lose weight, the advantage keto gives you is once your body is “fat adapted”, it will be looking for fat to burn, as oppose to if your body is use to burning carbs, it will always be looking for that ‘quick’ carb energy.
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From Kenneth Bridges, original poster.
The ketogenic diet is promoted as a low-carb high fat diet. I get it that by restricting carbs which the body converts to glucose, the body looks elsewhere for energy and “breaks down fat in the liver” (or belly fat?). However, if one consumes a high fat diet then it surely uses those readily available fats rather than stored (belly) fat. There is a lack of logic here.
Nevertheless, I'll give it a go.
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this is sort of long, but even if you only give it the first 10 minutes or so, I think it does a good job explaining the sciencey side... https://youtu.be/sBw2rdwBfZE
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Kenneth Bridges
Your logic is not flawed at all!!! Sometimes i get a little annoyed with the advice i see handed out to people. It is important to consume enough fat to make yourself feel full and satisfied, this is why the diet works, because you arent left starving. You dont however have to be popping fat bombs and drinking olive oil. Your body is used to using glucose for energy, when you switch to burning fats, ofcourse you will go through the food eaten first before your body begins to tap into your fat stores. It takes a little bit of time for the body to switch from a glucose energy source to a fat one because your body will have to go through the glycogen thats stored in your liver. It takes a different amount of time for everyone to get into ketosis, it took me about a week though. You may experience alot of water loss, which could easily lead to electrolyte imbalances. This leads to the classic "keto flu" symptoms, so make sure you are drinking your water and getting salt.
I have lost over 70lbs. And i hate to break it you, the belly fat may not be what you lose first. How and where our body burns fat is largely genetic and also age related, my gut is definitely smaller, but my poor butt has shrunk much to my husbands disappointment! Gotta start doing those squats!
There seems to be so much misinformation about eating this way. Please check out Dr.Fung
