Healthy Fats: You Have To Eat Fat To Burn Fat, But Only The Good Fats Work

Healthy fats, also referred to as “good fats” or “quality fats,” are making their comeback, playing a key part of a balanced paleo/primal weight loss program. And when you think healthy fats, think coconut, avocado, and omega-3 fats (not french fries, cheese fondue, and ice cream)!

For much of the 20th Century, governments around the world issued dietary guidelines warning people about consuming fat, encouraging low-fat diets while demonizing most household cooking fats.

Now, decades later and in light of today’s obesity epidemic, an ever-growing body of research and evidence points to the fact that the good fats (laid out by Harvard Medical School here) can actually aid weight loss and lower heart disease risk.

Most recently, the UK’s National Obesity Forum and Public Health Collaboration organization of doctors and health practitioners released a report on healthy fats, finding in short:

  • Eating Fat Does Not Make You Fat – your body must use fat as fuel to burn fat
  • Calorie Counting Doesn’t Work – your body doesn’t treat all types of calories the same
  • You Cannot Outrun A Poor Diet – nutrition matters more than exercise in weight loss
  • Saturated Fat Does Not Cause Heart Disease – if anything it can help you lose weight and reduce overall disease risks over time

These reasons are why eating a portion of good fats at each meal is a pillar of the paleo diet. Fats primarily come as foods and as cooking oils that you can use as salad dressing, sauce, or to cook your foods in. Different fats take on different chemical properties when heated and you never want to burn a fat past its smoking point, so that’s important to know too. For a more exhaustive guide of the chemical properties of different types of fats on a molecular level and how different fats cook differently, which explains why some forms of fat are so much better for you than others, read this guide.

In short:

The best “good fats” include avocados, coconuts, olives, cashews, walnuts, other treenuts, and the fat content of high omega-3 seafoods like salmon and sardines.

The best “good oils” include ghee, grass-fed butter for those who tolerate dairy, coconut oil, olive oil when consumed uncooked, some animal fats from high quality sources, and MCT oil.

Medium chain triglycerides, or MCTs for short, are a potent coconut oil extract. They are effectively isolating its most potent fatty acid chains (C8 and C10) to help burn more fat and stave off cravings. Coconut oil and MCT oil are both great for slightly different purposes – you can learn more here. We blend MCT into your morning magic Bulletproof Coffee to enable you to stay in ketosis and be full of ketone energy while intermittent fasting a few hours longer each morning. This allows your body to stay in its natural fat burning mode longer, which it enters into while you sleep each night.

Several books have been written about the role of good fats in a modern paleo diet and the nutrition science behind it. But while on retreat, we encourage you to sit back and relax while we take care of the cooking and portioning the proper protein, fat, and carb ratios for you. Phew!