Conventional wisdom tells us that if you want to lose fat, you should limit your fat consumption as much as possible. That’s why you see all the "low fat", "reduced fat" and "fat free" food on the shelves at the supermarket.

It’s a trap that’s easy to fall into. For years, we’ve been told that the only healthy way to eat is to cut out as much dietary fat as possible, to drink "skim" milk rather than "full cream", to eat "low fat" cheese rather than ordinary cheese. It has gotten so bad that I recently saw a note on a packet of marshmallows announcing that it was "fat free". Of course it is fat free: it’s just pure sugar!

We are unfortunately conditioned to feel guilty for not eating "lite" food and enjoying non lite, aka "normal" food. But here’s an interesting fact, even though there is an obesity crisis in the United States (where 70% of people over 25 are considered overweight) our consumption of dietary fat has never been lower!

Read that again: we are consuming less fat, but we are fatter than ever before.

Could it be that the conventional "wisdom" is actually wrong? Is it possible, that eating a low fat diet actually does the opposite to what you intend? In my opinion, focussing on extreme restriction of dietary fat will sabotage your efforts to get the shapely body you so desire.

Here’s why, in my opinion...

1. Low-fat diets are naturally higher in sugar.

Each gram of fat contains approximately 9 calories. Carbohydrates and Protein are about 4 calories per gram. If you restrict your fat consumption, you have to get your food from somewhere and sadly, many people more than make up for the fat that they have cut out by eating extra bread, pasta, fruit, sweets etc that, while low in fat, are high in sugar (carbs). Think about it, if you didn’t eat that cheese, would you eat potato chips?

While the body needs carbs for fuel, any extra is stored as body fat. Dietary fat often makes food taste better, as does sugar. Cut both out and you’re really going to find it difficult to not overindulge regularly.

2. Low-fat diets increase cravings and hunger pangs.

Consumption of dietary fat helps create the "full" feeling. Without it, it is easy to eat more carbs than your body needs. Eating extra carbs creates insulin spikes in your blood. The yoyo effect of rapidly rising and falling insulin levels has been proven to lower your energy and increase your appetite while putting your body into survival mode. In survival mode, your metabolism drops and your body hordes energy in the most efficient way – by storing it as fat. It’s the "perfect storm": you feel hungry even though you should be feeling satisfied. You can’t eat anything with fat, so you satisfy your cravings by eating another bagel. Well that’s going straight to your hips.

3. Low-fat diets decrease testosterone levels.

You are probably well aware that testosterone (also known as "growth hormone") plays a huge role in building lean muscle (that’s why it’s much easier for men, with naturally higher levels of testosterone to "bulk up" than women, who have comparatively low natural levels). Do you know that testosterone also has major fat burning effects?

Fat restricted diets inhibit the production of testosterone. That’s something you should be really worried about as falling testosterone production is a major cause of many of the problems that affect men later in life (such as fat gain, male pattern baldness, lower sex drive, etc).

4. Low-fat diets are unhealthy.

To put it plainly, your body requires dietary fat for it to function properly. Forget worrying about putting on body fat, if you don’t get enough dietary fat, your body will suffer right down to the cells that you are made up of. Wondering why you keep getting sick? Why you often find it hard to think properly? And why are you having such problems with your joints? They are some of the signs of fat deprivation. There are many more.

So what’s a good level? You should probably aim to get between 10-20% of your daily calorie intake from fat. I’m not suggesting you go and eat fried foods, heap every piece of bread with a mound of margarine. There are good and bad fat.

Very briefly, there are 3 types of fat:

• unsaturated (liquid at room temperature, such as olive oil, flaxseed oil, "fatty fish" like salmon or tuna, avocados, etc),

• saturated (solid at room temperature, such as butter, animal fat, etc), and

• trans fat (when vegetable oil is transformed into being a solid at room temperature).

Get most of your dietary fat from unsaturated. Try to limit consumption of saturated fat as much as possible. Stay completely away from trans fat. Trans fat is just evil. Look it up online and you will see there is much evidence that trans fat causes a whole host of problems like heart failure, clogged arteries, etc far beyond the other two fats.