Debunking the Myth that Fat Makes You Fat – The Real Causes of Weight Gain

In a world where dietary advice is abundant yet often contradictory, one pervasive myth continues to mislead many: the belief that fat makes you fat. After decades of low-fat dieting trends and the vilification of fat sources, the truth about fat’s benefits and impact on our bodies is coming to light. Fat is not the enemy it has been made out to be or the primary culprit behind weight gain. Understanding the science behind dietary fats can transform our approach to nutrition and health. In this article, I’ll highlight the benefits and roles of fat in the body, debunk the myth that fat makes you fat, and explore the real causes of weight gain.

The Benefits and Roles of Fats in Your Body

Dietary fats have been vilified for decades, creating the myth that fat makes you fat. However, fats are essential for overall health and well-being, being crucial for the functioning of multiple body systems. Here are some of the key benefits and roles that fats have in your body:

• Energy Storage: Fat is the body’s primary way of storing energy. When you consume more calories than your body needs, the excess energy is stored as fat. This stored energy can be used during times when food intake is low.
• Protection and Insulation: Fat serves as a protective cushion for vital organs, helping to shield them from physical damage. It also acts as an insulator, helping to maintain body temperature by providing a layer of warmth.
• Cell Structure: Fat is a key component of cell membranes. Phospholipids, found in egg yolks, soybeans, meat, fish, nuts, and seeds, make up the bilayer of cell membranes, contributing to their structure and function.
• Hormone Production: Fat is essential for hormones, including steroid hormones like estrogen and testosterone. These hormones regulate a variety of bodily functions, including metabolism, immune response, and reproductive processes. Fats are involved in producing sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, and adrenal hormones like cortisol. Cholesterol, a type of fat, is a precursor for these hormones.
• Nutrient Absorption: Certain vitamins, such as vitamins A, D, E, and K, are fat-soluble, meaning they require fat to be absorbed and utilized by the body. Without adequate fat intake, these vitamins cannot be effectively absorbed.
• Brain Function: Fats are crucial for brain function and development. The brain is composed of about 60% fat and fatty acids, particularly omega-3 and omega-6. Omega-3s and omega-6s contribute to the development and maintenance of the nervous system and play a role in cognitive function and mental health, making them critical for brain health.
• Satiety and Taste: Fats contribute to the feeling of fullness (satiety) after eating, helping to regulate appetite. They also enhance the flavor and texture of food, making meals more enjoyable.
• Immune Function: Fatty acids help produce eicosanoids, signaling molecules that play a role in immunity and inflammation.
• Inflammation Control: Certain fats, like omega-3 fatty acids, have anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, arthritis, and certain cancers.

Debunking the Myth that Fat Makes You Fat

The myth that fat makes you fat has been perpetuated over decades. Here are some of the most relevant contributing factors to this narrative:

• Historical Dietary Guidelines: In the 1950s and 1960s, dietary guidelines began emphasizing low-fat diets based on the lipid hypothesis. The findings from this hypothesis linked saturated fats and beef to heart disease and were widely publicized, influencing public perception and policy. However, over the past decades, evidence has demonstrated that saturated fats play a relatively minor role in cardiovascular disease. Current findings show that “the idea that saturated fats cause heart disease was introduced based on weak, associational evidence,” numerous limitations and confounding factors….and involved “conflicts of interest.”
• Simplification of Nutritional Science: Early studies focused on single nutrients rather than whole dietary patterns. This led to the oversimplified notion that dietary fat directly translates to body fat, ignoring the complexities of how the body processes different types of food.
• Media and Marketing: Media coverage and advertising campaigns paid for by the food industry reinforced the idea that fat was the enemy. Slogans and health campaigns promoted low-fat diets as a way to lose weight and improve health.
• Educational Messages: As with the sunblock industry, schools, and campaigns led by health organizations and public health agencies highlighted the benefits of low-fat diets, embedding the idea in the public consciousness.

• Food Industry Influence: The food industry pushed this myth to capitalize on the low-fat trend by producing and marketing a wide range of low-fat and fat-free products. Currently, we have evidence showing that these products contain high levels of sugar, refined carbohydrates, and unhealthy ultra-processed vegetable oils that maintain palatability and cause weight gain.
• Misleading Food Labels: “Fat-Free” and “Low-Fat” labels on food products gave and continue to give the impression that these products are healthier and conducive to weight loss, even when containing unhealthy ingredients.
• Caloric Density: Calories from fat are more dense than calories from carbs or proteins (1 gram of fat equals 9 calories, whereas 1 gram of protein or 1 gram of carb equals 4 calories). This caloric density propagated the belief that fat makes you fat and is unhealthy but the causes of weight gain are diverse. Yes, caloric quantity affects your body composition but caloric quality matters more. For example, a 300-calorie cake is different than a 300-calorie avocado. The cake negatively influences your mood, energy, metabolism, hormones, digestion, and immune system.

The above elements combined have created a strong and lasting belief that fat consumption leads directly to weight gain. Fortunately, this myth has been challenged and debunked by the latest nutritional research.

Real Causes of Weight Gain

After debunking the myth fat makes you fat, t’s important to understand the multifaceted set of factors that play a role in excess body fat. Here are some of the key causes of weight gain:

Lifestyle Factors

• Diet: The most prevalent contributors to weight gain are processed foods, sugary beverages, vegetable oils, sugar, and fast foods.
• Physical Inactivity: Sedentary lifestyles, including long hours spent sitting at work or engaging in screen time, reduce overall calorie expenditure.
• Portion Sizes: Portion sizes have increased tremendously since the 1980s in restaurants and at home, leading to higher caloric intake.
• Sleep Patterns: Insufficient sleep has been shown to disrupt hormones, dysregulating hunger and appetite and leading to overeating.

Environmental Factors

• Food Environment: Easy access to unhealthy foods and limited availability of fresh, nutritious options contribute to poor dietary choices.
• Marketing and Advertising: Aggressive marketing of unhealthy foods, especially to children, has influenced eating habits for decades.
• Toxins: Toxins are another cause of weight gain by disrupting the body’s natural processes and affecting metabolic processes. Slowed burning calorie rates make it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it. Plus, some toxins are lipophilic and stored in fat cells, leading to increased body fat. Other toxins, endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), can interfere with hormones like insulin, estrogen, and thyroid hormones, dysregulating metabolism, appetite, and fat storage. This is why cleansing is an essential practice.

Socioeconomic Factors

• Income Level: Lower-income individuals may have less access to healthy food options and opportunities for physical activity.
• Education: Lower levels of education are often associated with a poorer understanding of nutrition and health.
• Work Demands: Long work hours and multiple jobs can lead to reliance on convenience foods and reduced time for exercise.

Psychological Factors

• Stress: Chronic stress can cause weight gain. It can disrupt hormones and sleep and trigger emotional eating and unhealthy behaviors such as skipping meals, overeating, or consuming high-calorie, comfort foods.
• Mental Health: Conditions like depression and anxiety can contribute to weight gain through altered eating patterns and reduced motivation for physical activity.

Biological Factors

• Metabolism: A slower metabolic rate burns fewer calories at rest, which can lead to weight gain if calorie intake exceeds calories burned.
• Gut Microbiota: Emerging research suggests that your microbiome plays a role in weight regulation since it affects metabolic health.
• Hormones: Hormonal imbalances, particularly involving insulin, cortisol, thyroid hormones, and leptin, can contribute to weight gain. For instance, high levels of cortisol (stress hormone) can lead to increased fat storage, especially around the abdomen.
• Medical Conditions: Certain medical conditions, such as hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and Cushing’s syndrome, can lead to weight gain due to their effects on hormones and metabolism.
• Medications: Some medications, including antidepressants, antipsychotics, and corticosteroids, can cause weight gain as a side effect by altering appetite, metabolism, or fat storage.

Fat and Fat Loss

Fat doesn’t make you fat. On the contrary, there are several benefits of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet for weight management and metabolic health. Here is some data:

• National Institutes of Health Study: This research found that individuals consuming a diet higher in fat and lower in carbohydrates burned an additional 100 calories per day compared to those on a lower-fat diet, despite consuming the same number of total calories. This difference could result in a weight loss of about 10 pounds per year. Additionally, the study noted that higher fat consumption suppressed hunger and cravings by affecting brain activity.
• Journal of the American Medical Association: A study published in this journal reported that a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet was more effective for fat loss and maintaining weight loss over time compared to other diets.
• Science Daily Study: This study concluded that individuals on high-fat diets experienced faster metabolisms than those on low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets, suggesting that the macronutrient composition of a diet can significantly impact metabolic rate and energy expenditure.

Fat consumption can help you to burn more calories and feel less hungry. Keep in mind that the above research does not necessarily mean that carbs are bad. Simple carbs (pasta, white flour products, sweets, baked goods, potato chips, french fries, etc.) are the ones to stay away from since they raise blood sugar, spike insulin levels, and slow down your metabolism, leading to fat storage.

Conclusion

The myth that fat makes you fat has been propagated for over sixty years. Fortunately, nutritional science and information revealing conflicts of interest have debunked that narrative. The quality of fats and overall dietary patterns are more important for health and weight management. Healthy fats play essential roles in our bodies, from supporting cell structure and nutrient absorption to being crucial for brain health and immunity. The real factors contributing to weight gain are excessive caloric intake, poor dietary choices, high toxicity, a sedentary lifestyle, an unhealthy gut, and poor stress management. Now that you understand the benefits and roles of fat, you can make informed decisions. Let go of outdated misconceptions, stop being afraid of eating fats, and support your health and fitness goals! 

To a Fitter Healthier You,

Adriana Albritton

The Fitness Wellness Mentor