Facts About Fat

Weight for weight, fats and oils are the highest calorie count.  Fats start at 210 calories per ounce for butter and margarine, increasing to 260 per once for lard and vegetable ghee that is used in Indian cuisine.  Fats have more than double the amount of calories than protein and carbohydrates, which is why their intake must be controlled on a weight loss programme.  It is not just the visible fats that are important, it’s the ones that we can’t see that sneak up on us to foil our diet, the “hidden” fats in foods. 

The obvious “visible” fats and oils include margarine and butter, olive oils and vegetable oils, cooking fats and spreading fat including the low-fat and very low-fat spreads.  The less obvious visible fats are cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, cream, peanut butter and dressings. 

Invisible fats are those within the food itself.  The invisible or “hidden” fat in whole milk dairy, high fat meats, such as, pepperoni, sausage, pastrami, spare ribs and hot dogs, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, pizza and fried foods.  It’s the amount of fat contained within these foods that gives them the high calorie value and the reason why they must be restricted in order to lose weight.

Remember for both invisible and visible fat, the total recommended daily intake is only 70g per day and that is for a person not trying to reduce their intake!

Visible Fats

Let’s talk about the “visible” fats first, because confusion is rife!  Don’t ever be fooled into thinking that oils, because they are liquid, have fewer calories than butter or margarine, they actually have more, as they are 100% fat.  Where as butter and margarine’s fat content is 82%.  Low-fat spreads usually have around 40-45% fat content and very low-fat spreads around 25%.

Remember that butter and margarine have the same fat and calorie value and that goes for soft margarine too.  Always check the labelling on the pack to make sure that you know exactly what you are buying.  Once you have get used to using a lot less fat, it’s surprising how you will be able to taste the true flavour of your food.  You may like your sandwiches without any spread, and prefer instead to dress your salad with a little olive oil.

Try some of the more unusual oils for cooking and dressing salads.  Sesame oil lends a lovely flavour to stir-fries.  Olive oil is wonderful for both cooking and salads (look out for some speciality types with added herbs and spices).  Walnut and hazelnut oils are perfect in dressings. The tendency is to use less of these speciality oils due to their strong flavours.

Now for the foods where we can’t see the fat.  These are even more difficult to control!  However, you can taste the fat.  That’s why we like biscuits, cakes, chocolate and pastries and no doubt why we have a weight problem!  So curb your desire to eat these foods if you want to be a successful slimmer.  For general guidance, you must keep on weighing and measuring.   It’s so important for this food group where extra calories can add up so quickly to ruin your efforts.  You will soon realise just how many unwanted calories you used to consume when you sloshed excess oil into a pan for stir-frying, when just a teaspoon or two will do!

To lose weight you must reduce your fat intake. If you follow your diet correctly, this will happen naturally.  You may even find you will feel fuller following your diet, as the high fat foods which made you fat are what we term ‘low volume’. You can eat quite a lot of biscuits for instance and not feel full.  However, with an average biscuit being 50 to 80 calories each you can easily consume the same amount of calories contained in a large dinner in just a few biscuits!

Ask yourself... since following your diets where have they you reduced your fat intake?

Fat Calories per 1oz

• Butter 226
• Dripping 253
• Ghee 257
• Lard 255
• Low fat Spread 111
• Margarine 210
• Oil 225
• Very Low Fat Spread 75
• Suet 255