Why you may gain weight on a low fat diet

When it comes to losing weight, a lot of people turn to a low fat diet thinking that is the best route to go (not to mention the fact that for the past few decades we've been told that this is what we should do, but fortunately that's changing) . However there really is no reason to go on a low fat diet, or an all meat diet, or any other fad diet that is out there. Losing weight is about eating balanced nutrition. Fad diets will only create weight loss for a short period of time if at all. It typically just leads to yo-yoing, and most gain all their weight back or more.

The first thing you want to be doing is paying attention to your nutrition and portion sizes even when you don’t have weight to lose. This helps you maintain your weight, and prevention is always better than trying to fix something. You may be here because you do have some weight to lose, or perhaps you want to eat healthier, exercise more, and just become healthier in general. Here are a few tips that will help you make sure that you have an understanding why you may have put on weight in the past, and how to go about putting the right nutrition into your body.

Understand Why You May Be Gaining Weight While on a Low Fat Diet

What have you been doing or not been doing that could have led to the weight gain? Are you exercising enough? Are you eating properly? Are you taking any new medications? Do you suffer from hypothyroidism? These are all things that can lead to gaining weight. Understanding where you weight gain is coming from will help you establish a plan for both your nutrition and exercise that will work best for you, and help you rule out any other factors.

A big part of why low fat diets often backfire is because fat is a macronutrient our bodies need. Not only is it crucial for many cellular process, it's also what makes up the majority of our brain, so when we starve our bodies of something it wants, it will send us signals telling us to keep eating until we get the nutrient it's looking for.

If we're dead-set on avoiding fat, but our body keeps telling us we're still hungry for 'something' (the fat we're not eating), often you'll end up over-eating all of those other foods, causing weight gain.

Add on top of this the unhealthy fats that have invaded our food system (like margarine, soy oil, canola oil, and others) that can cause disrupted signals in our body, and we have a recipe for disaster.

Here are some tips to avoid some of these common pitfalls.

Do's and Don'ts of Balanced Nutrition

Don’ts

1. Fast Food. Everyone knows that eating fast food is bad for you. Most fast food meals contain more than a thousand calories, which would consist of half or more of your total calorie intake for a day. Fast food is also a huge culprit for low-quality food (and low quality fat), which basically means it will likely have very little nutrients, which is what your body is looking for when it tells you it's hungry. So eating foods low in nutrients will not help to quell the signals your body creates telling you it needs food.
2. Fried Foods and Desserts. Fried foods are another source of poor quality fats, the fats that are used to do the frying become damaged by the high-heat and are not healthy for you to be taking in to your body. When it comes to desserts, a small amount occasionally is perfectly fine, but if you're eating a large dessert after dinner everyday, you may need to examine why that is.
3. Avoiding one particular macronutrient. Going too low-fat or low-carb isn't going to work for most people in the long-term. Our bodies need all of the macronutrients (carbs, fat, and protein) in order to function well, so when you try to restrict any one for too long your body will rebel. A better plan is to make sure your intake of all foods is balanced. (My favorite way of re-learning how to do this is by using this system)

Dos

1. Keeping a journal. If you’re not entirely sure where you’re going wrong, you can figure this out by keeping a journal of everything you eat. It may seem tedious at first, but I promise it makes a difference. In fact, I created my very own trackers and a video on how to use them that may be helpful for you.
2. Eat balanced meals. Overtime you eat a meal make sure it's balanced with good protein, vegetables, healthy fat (like olive oils, avocado, or coconut), and some kind of carb such as sweet potatoes or fruit.
3. Sleep 7-8 Hours Every Night. This will help to keep your hormone ghrelin at optimal levels and helps your body reset. There is a lot of info about sleep deprivation and weight-gain...Google it ;)
4. Utilize a Total Nutrition Shake for a Snack or Meal Replacement. High quality total nutrition shakes can provide you all of your daily nutritional, and make a great snack or meal replacement when used in a recipe to meet your caloric needs. Shakeology is a high quality nutrition shake that has been known to increase your energy, make you feel healthier, as well as improve digestion and regularity. Plus Shakeology comes in six different flavors and tastes amazing (it's my favorite by far). I've got 101 Recipes you can choose from too.
5. Cut out the unhealthy foods. I mentioned this above but it's worth repeating  Junk in = junk out. With that said find replacements for those foods that really do satisfy you. Check out some of these healthy snack ideas.

So no fad diet needed. You will be able to achieve a healthy weight by focusing on creating a healthy balanced nutrition plan that you enjoy.