Originally Posted by doreen T

What does this have to do with calories and eating fat? Well, when you're wasting fat, you're wasting the potential energy (ie the calories) that it would otherwise provide. Lets look at a sample day's intake:

• 20g carbs (80 calories)
  120g protein (480 calories)
  120g fat (1080 calories)
  total calories = 1660, and 65% of that is fat calories.

However, research shows that by the process of wasting fatty acids, as I described above .. the actual caloric contribution of dietary fat, in the absence of insulin is only about half, or roughly 5 calories per gram. Given that knowledge, lets have another look at the sample day's intake:

• 20g carbs (80 calories)
  120g protein (480 calories)
  120g fat (approx. 600 calories)
  total calories = 1180, of which 51% comes from fat.

There is plenty of evidence to show that consistently eating below a certain caloric level will result in the slowing of the metabolic rate, as an adaptive "survival" mecanism. The body thinks it's starving, so it turns the thermostat down to conserve fuel. Your engines will run on less and less. In other words the less you eat on a continual basis, the less you will NEED on a permanent basis. This will only work against you in the long run, making it increasingly difficult to lose fat weight, and also making it easier to GAIN fat if you return to a carbohydrate & insulin-based way of eating. So eat up, and especially eat FAT