Choosing a low-fat diet is another way to reduce weight. During the last few decades it has been shown that reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet is one of the best things you can do for your health.

You will significantly increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, certain types of cancer, and many other conditions when you consume fatty foods. Today, 66% of Americans are overweight or obese and the rate of obesity has more than doubled to 32%, with most of the increase occurred during the past 20 years.

The key to losing weight is: reducing the total calorie intake. And the easiest way to do that is to eat less fat. One gram of fat delivers
9 calories, which is more than twice as many as the same amount of
protein or carbohydrate. Also, our body likes fat. It’s easier to store calories from fat than from other sources.

Danish researchers found that those who reduced the amount of fat in their diets from 39% to 28% of total calories and increased their carbohydrates intake were able to lose an average of 9 pounds
in just 12 weeks. In addition, people who followed lower-fat diets were able to keep the weight off long after the study ended.

Another advantage of reducing fat from your diet is that it can increase your general sense of well-being, according to research. In a study of more than 550 women, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, found that when the women cut their daily fat intake in half – from 40% to 20% of total calories – they felt more vigorous, less anxious, and less depressed than they had when they were eating their former diets.

Heart Health
Fat in your diet often goes to your arteries. There is a direct link between the amount of fat in your diet and your risk for heart disease. This is particularly true of saturated fat. The dangerous type that clog your arteries, can we find mainly in meats, full-fat dairy products, and snack foods. Eating a diet low in saturated fat is the best way to lower this risk, according to research.

There is no need to go on an extreme low fat diet to get the benefits. Even reducing the amount of saturated fat in your diet just a little bit can lead to a reduction in cholesterol levels.

Cancer Protection
When you make the switch to a low fat diet, you get protection against many diseases, including cancer.
Researchers at the University of Benin in Nigeria found that when laboratory animals were fed high-fat diets, they began producing enzymes that led to cancerous changes in their colons in just
three weeks.

You can also apply in real live what works in the laboratory. In a study of 450 women, researchers in the department of epidemiology and public health at Yale University School of Medicine found that cutting just
10 grams of saturated fat a day – the equivalent of switching from two glasses of whole milk to the same amount of fat-free milk – could reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by 20%.

A low-fat diet is protective not only because of what it doesn’t contain but also because of what it does. The result of cutting back on fats is that you generally eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains
and legumes. all of which have been shown to keep us healthier, says Jo Ann Manson, MD, professor of women’s health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Good for the Eyes
Finally, eating a low-fat diet may also protect you against macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in older adults.
In a survey of more than 2000 people, researchers from the University of Wisconsin in Madison found that those who reported getting the most saturated fat increased the risk of getting macular degeneration by 80%.

Starting your Low-fat Diet
If you want to start reducing the amount of fat in your diet, to know where to begin is not always easy.
Firstly, you have to find out how much fat you’re actually getting each day. Ideally, you should get between 25% and 30% of your total calories from fat.

For example, suppose you normally get 2000 calories per day.
When you’re following a low-fat diet, no more than 600 of your total calories should come from fat. This will adds up to 67 gr of fat per day.

Don’t let lowering your fat intake to 30% discourage you! This is a reasonable amount of fat to go into your diet. According to Lalita Kaul, PhD, a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and professor of nutrition at the Medical School of Howard University
in Washington D.C. Eating low fat means: avoiding fried foods, forgoing rich, fatty restaurant meals for home-cooked fare, and searching for tasty low-fat recipes with which to replace some of your higher-fat favorites. Reach for a Lean Cuisine meal or a Lean Pocket when
you’re looking for at-home convenience.

Keeping track of your daily fat intake by reading food labels is probably the easiest way.
They are based on a 2000-calorie diet. So you can look at foods which are 30% or below.
Look for a spread that says “zero trans fat” on the label, to avoid partially hydrogenated oils.
Also avoid cookies and other baked goods and snack foods that contain trans fats.

Trans fats are now required to be listed on nutrition labels along with total and saturated fat.
If you are dining out or buy foods that don’t have labels, you can buy a nutrition reference guide in a bookstore or supermarket.

As mentioned before, the most dangerous type of fat to watch out for is saturated fat, which is found in animal foods like meat, butter, cheese and eggs, and some plant sources such as coconut oil, palm oil, tropical oils and cocoa butter.The same foods that are high in saturated fat are also high in cholesterol. So when you decrease one, you automatically decrease the other.

The American Heart Association recommends that we should get less than 7% of our total calories from saturated fat,partly by choosing fat free or low-fat milk and leaner cuts of meat, like sirloin or top round.

Enjoy the Good Fats in Moderation
Generally, you should reduce all kind of fats in your diet. Although monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat are not bad,you should eat them in moderation, because they contain as many calories as bad fats. They are found in vegetable and seed oils, such as olive,sesame,
and safflower oils, and in nuts and seeds. They have been shown to actually lower cholesterol and may help prevent it from sticking to artery walls.

The fat found in fish, omega-3 fatty acids, has been shown to reduce clotting and inflammation in the arteries, which can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
You don’t have to eat a lot of fish to get the benefits. When you’re following a low fat diet, having two fish meals a week will go a long way toward keeping your arteries in the swim.