Have you been told in keto or LCHF groups to cut fat? Especially if you aren’t losing weight?
This is becoming more and more common, but this advice could be detrimental to long-term weight loss…and health.
Firstly, LCHF is short for low carb, HIGH fat. It is called ‘high’ fat for a reason. Keto is the lower carb version of LCHF, so is also ‘high’ fat.
So why are people in keto or LCHF groups telling people to cut fat? There are a ton of low-carb, low-fat diets out there, so why identify with a high-fat diet and then tell people trying to do that diet to cut fat?
Secondly, cutting fat can prevent us from getting into a permanent fat-burning state, it can prevent us from healing, and can leave us undernourished.
Part of the reason why so many women, in particular, fail to lose weight initially is because of starvation stress from years of dieting. The body thinks it keeps going into famine, and has to slow the thyroid and metabolism. One of the best ways to keep our metabolism slow is to continue depriving the body of what it needs.
The argument is often that your body will burn the fat you eat instead of your body fat. Well, guess what? Thinking of it like that completely ignores the fact that we don’t just use fat for fuel, we also need the nutrients we get from fat. And fat is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet.
The key to long-term, sustainable weight loss is to heal the body, particularly starvation stress. Will it take longer to get a result? Probably, but the result will be long term, not just a temporary fix that reverses as soon as you go back to a normal level of fat.
If you would like to learn more about overcoming starvation stress, check out the 12-week program.