Should We Really End the War on Fat?

By Keri Gans

The recent Time magazine cover story “Ending the War on Fat” by Bryan Walsh has the entire nutrition world talking: Could it be that everyone was wrong and that saturated fat is not the enemy, and the advice being given to avoid it for the last 30 years was not warranted? After all, instead of reducing heart disease, Americans simply got fatter.

It seems this all began in 1980 when the USDA issued its first dietary guidelines, and one of the key messages was to avoid cholesterol and fat of all sorts.  That same year the government announced the results of a $150 million study that encouraged Americans to eat less fat and cholesterol to reduce their risk of a heart attack, and the National Institutes of Health also jumped on the bandwagon, recommending that all Americans over the age of 2 reduce their fat intake.

However, over the last decade or so researchers began to state otherwise, concluding that there was no significant evidence that saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.  Most recently a meta-analysis that I blogged about in March reached the same conclusions, as well as revealing that the intake of polyunsaturated fats (the supposedly heart healthy ones) also had no effect on heart disease.

Science will still support that saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol levels, which are associated with higher rates of heart disease. However, it has now been found that saturated fat also raises levels of so-called "good" HDL cholesterol, therefore they cancel each other out. What is new is that scientists have discovered there are two kinds of LDL particles: small, dense ones and large, fluffy ones. The large ones seem to be mostly harmless, and fat seems to raise those, while carbs seems to have an effect on the damaging small ones.

So where does that leave us? As stated in the Time article, “The idea here was in part to cut calories, but Americans actually ended up eating more: 2,586 calories a day in 2010 compared with 2,109 a day in 1970.” I think that is exactly where the problem lies, plain and simple. We didn’t replace fat with fruits and veggies, but rather “fat-free” products and sugary carbs, not high-fiber ones. For some reason Americans believed that if it said “fat-free” on the label, than it was “calorie-free;" obviously that's not the case. Fat-free cream cheese on a bagel doesn’t make it a healthy choice.

Also, if you were to look at the size of portions served in restaurants over the last 30 years and the frequency of fast food dining, inevitably you will see that they both have grown tremendously. Perhaps that's another valid reason we are gaining weight, not solely because we thought to eliminate saturated fat from our diets. And by the way, there is lots of fat served at these establishments.

I won’t deny that saturated fat is no longer the evil once thought; I strongly advise all my patients to include fat with all meals throughout the day. Without some fat in a meal for satiety, most people will overeat. And yes, I like butter on my baked potato.  But let's not get carried away here. “Eat more fat” is not the correct message. One serving of butter on my potato is not the same as a stick. If only everyone could focus on eating a variety of whole foods that include fruits, veggies, 100-percent whole grains, dairy, and nuts, and watch their portion sizes, then I think positive change could really happen. And let’s not forget to exercise too.

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How your friends make you fat—the social network of weight

One of the big health news stories of 2007 was a study showing that your friends influence the size of your waist (and the rest of your body). Like any study, it raised as many questions as it answered, including whythis happens. A new study from Arizona State University looked into that question by testing three pathways by which friends might influence one another’s body size:

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1. Collaboration. Over time, you might start to share the ideas of the people close to you after talking with them about what the proper body size is. Then you might choose your food and exercise habits in order to reach that body size, whether that means eating more food to look like your plus-sized friends, or less food to look like your thin ones.
2. Peer pressure. You feel bullied into trying to look like your friends and family members. They make you feel bad about your body, so you go about eating and exercising to look like them.
3. Monkey see, monkey do. You change your habits to mirror those of your friends without necessarily thinking or talking about an ideal body weight. Alexandra Brewis Slade, PhD, one of the Arizona State researchers, gave an example of this pathway that most of us can relate to: You’re at a restaurant with friends and the waiter brings over the dessert menu. Everyone else decides not to order anything, so you pass, too, even though you were dying for a piece of chocolate mousse cake.

All three of these pathways are based on the idea that loved ones share social norms, the implicit cultural beliefs that make some things okay, others not.

To test which if any of these pathways affect weight, the researchers recruited 112 women between the ages of 18 and 45 years; half of them were overweight or obese. The researchers then contacted male and female friends, spouses, family members, and coworkers of these women, and ended up with 812 pairs. All of the people were asked about their weight and their feelings about and perceptions of body weight.

The results confirmed the 2007 study’s conclusion that if you have heavier friends, family members, and colleagues, it is more likely that you will be heavier, too. The stronger the relationship between the two people, the stronger the link between their weights. But only one of the pathways—number three—explained why people of the same size clustered together. The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health on May 9, 2011.

“I was surprised,” Dr. Brewis Slade told me during a phone interview. “I would have thought that pathway number two was the most powerful, since it’s really about your struggle to meet other people’s expectations, but it turns out it’s not the best explanation. The key message is that behavior and what people do together is important. So parents might want to go bicycling with their kids, go to a salad bar with kids, focus on what they do together.”

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There are, of course, many reasons why people gain weight, and the Arizona State study provides only one possibility. But it also provides another motivation for each of us to make healthy choices—they help not only our own waistlines, but those of our friends and family, too.

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Nutrient Timing for Optimizing Fat Loss

Nutrient timing is a valuable eating technique to assist you in your fat loss goals. The theory is that by eating certain foods or macronutrients in various quantities at particular times, you can maximize your fat loss. By putting your body in a better hormonal and metabolic state, you give yourself the best chance of being able to release fatty acids.

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How to Time Your Meals

Everyone’s diet is unique to their own body. The principles stay the same, but the quantities will change based on size and activity levels. I am going to outline a typical 5 meal/day approach to nutrient timing. So let’s look at our mealtimes:

9am

12pm

3pm

6pm

9pm

Five evenly spaced meals, eating every 3 hours. I prefer to work out first thing in the morning for many reasons, but the most important thing when it comes to picking a time, is that you make sure you work out, and do it consistently.

Let’s start with the first meal right after our workout. This is by far the most important meal of the day. Your muscles are exhausted and depleted of fuel, and need the necessary food to start rebuilding. Your insulin sensitivity is at its highest after a workout, so our first meal of the day is an opportune time to ingest our largest portion of carbohydrates for the day.

Protein is the 2nd macronutrient that your muscles are starving for after your workout. Your muscles need protein to start the rebuilding process.

I like to try to get in .8- 1 times my lean body weight in protein a day, split evenly between my meals. A 170lb person with 150lbs of lean body weight would then get (1 x 150 = 150 grams of protein). Divide that by the number of meals (150 / 5 meals = about 30 grams of protein per meal).

I like to have a homemade protein shake immediately after my workout. It usually consists of protein (milk, greek yogurt, etc), a frozen banana,  some oatmeal, a handful of spinach, some ground flaxseed, and lemon-flavored fish oil.

Many hardcore dieters will argue against fruit post workout due to its fructose content, and while their arguments might have some validity to them when you’re trying to get to ultra low body fats, in the end, the most important thing is to get in your nutrients and eat good whole foods. You want a good nutrient dense diet, and loading up your shake with high GI processed sugars works against that goal.

I also add a tablespoon of cod liver oil to get in my daily intake of essential fatty acids (EFAs). This meal/shake is packed with vitamins, nutrients, minerals, protein, fiber, and EFAs. It will give your body everything it needs to start the rebuilding process.

If you do your workout first thing in the morning, I recommend that you start to taper your carbohydrate intake down during the next few meals. Remember, eat those carbs while your insulin sensitivity is at its highest. So, let’s look at those meals again and see what our macronutrient breakdown will look like.

TIME      FAT    CARB    PROTEIN        CALORIES

9am        13       60               30                 447

12pm       5        40               30                 325

3pm         9        30               30                 321

6pm         13       20               30                317

9pm        15        10                30                295

TOTAL     54      160           150               1705

Nutrient Timing Principles

As you can see, as the carbohydrates taper off into the evening, I start replacing the calories with fat – healthy fats. Your diet may need more carbohydrates or less depending on your workout intensity, but the idea of tapering off your carbohydrates throughout the day remains the same.

The numbers don’t have to be exact. Just be mindful that you’re tapering off throughout the day. To summarize the principles:

• Time your carbohydrate intake around your workout. This is when your insulin sensitivity is at its highest.
• Taper off your carbohydrates as the day progresses. Your insulin sensitivity is lowered as each meal containing carbohydrates is eaten.
• Little to no carbohydrates in your final meal of the day. Your liver glycogen stores should be full enough from the prior carbohydrate meals to fuel brain and nervous system function without having to break down protein through gluconeogenesis.
• As your carbohydrate intake is tapered off through the day, start replacing calories with healthy fats. Sources include nuts, seeds, avocado, natural fats from meat, eggs, dairy, flax oil, fish oil, etc.
• Taper off your calories throughout the day also. The majority of your calories should be eaten around your workout.

Give nutrient timing a try if you find your progress has stalled. You may just find that putting your body into an optimal fat burning environment is just what you need to get your fat loss going again.

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5 Tips For Timing Your Meals to Maximize Fat Loss

Your mother always told you that breakfast was the most important meal of the day -- but does it matter when you eat it? And what if your dinner time fluctuates wildly from day to day? Does meal timing actually matter? Yes! Eating at the appropriate times throughout the day will help maximize fat burning, avoid hormonal interference and keep hunger at bay. Here are five tips so you can time your meals to maximize your results.

Start Off on the Right Bite: There's a good reason why I tell patients to eat within one hour of rising. A study from 2005 found evidence that people who skip breakfast compensate later in the day with more refined carbohydrates and fats and fewer fruits and vegetables. Skipping breakfast was also associated with significantly higher fasting cholesterol and impaired insulin sensitivity post-meal.

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Eat Less But More Often: By eating smaller meals more frequently (i.e. approximately every three hours), you will help maintain a steady level of blood sugar throughout the day, which is important. Meal frequency may also have a positive impact on your body composition. One older study found that an increase in meal frequency lowered overall body mass in men and had a positive impact on energy levels through the day in both genders. Another study found that spreading out your food intake into many small meals keeps you fuller, longer during the day and also sustains fat oxidation (a.k.a the use of fat as fuel) at night.

Lunch Early: A study published in the International Journal of Obesity found that consuming meals earlier in the day was associated with faster and greater weight loss. Research scientists monitored the eating habits and weight loss success of 420 overweight Spanish participants on a 20-week diet program. Participants consumed about 40 per cent of their daily calories (roughly 550 to 570) at lunch. In the end, the group that ate lunch after 3 p.m. lost an average of 17 pounds compared with a 22 pounds in the early-lunch group. The late lunch eaters consumed fewer calories during breakfast and were more likely to skip breakfast than early eaters, which can cause it's own problems. The late lunch group also had lower insulin sensitivity, a risk factor for diabetes and weight gain in general.

Aim for the Same Dinner Time Daily: An older study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology manipulated "dinner time" for 22 obese and 24 healthy-weight individuals to determine whether eating behavior changed when standard mealtimes were altered. They found that the obese group ate more when they thought they were eating after their regular dinner hour than they did when they thought that they were eating earlier.

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Skip the Sugar, Not the Meal: Skipping a meal entirely causes a blood sugar imbalance and raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn has a host of negative consequences (from increasing belly fat to disrupting insulin receptors). So despite a busy schedule preparation truly is key when it comes to fat loss.

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