Animal fat, a diet for life.

All the energy needed for the functioning of our body comes from 3 types of food:

Understanding the characteristics and examples of these types of foods is key to improving our quality of life, health, and sports performance.

Fats

Fat is the way in which animals (and consequently humans) store energy, that is, all excess energy ingested will be stored as fat in our body, whether ingested in the form of proteins, carbohydrates or in the form of fat itself, and the process of transforming fat into energy is natural to the body, but slower and more laborious than carbohydrates and proteins.

Fat has approximately twice as many calories per gram as carbohydrates and proteins, making it the most calorie-dense type of food.

Examples of high-fat foods:

Proteins

Proteins have the characteristics of being used to build and replace muscle fibers in animals. They are used by the body as needed and all their excess is transformed into carbohydrates and consumed, having lower levels of caloric density.

At the limit of lack of energy, the human body carries out the process of catabolizing the muscles and transforming them into energy. Just like musculature can only be built in the presence of proteins.

Examples of protein-rich foods:

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates have the characteristics of being the form of energy with the easiest access to our body, despite the reduced caloric density, all fat and protein are transformed into carbohydrates before being consumed and their presence is natural in the body regardless of the diet.

Examples of carbohydrate-rich foods:

Behavior of the body under energy stress.

When food provides more energy than is needed for immediate consumption, part of that energy is stored in the form of fat, which is nothing more than a natural reserve of the body.

When food provides less energy than is needed for immediate consumption, the body's defense mechanism is to burn the fat stored in the body and at the limit the muscles (catabolize) to have energy for vital functions.

Animals such as bears have this process occurring seasonally in their lives, in periods with greater food supply (summer) they accumulate fat to be burned later (for example in winter when they hibernate).

The Problem of Carbohydrate Consumption

The process of turning fat into energy is what makes you lose weight. But just like building muscle, your body will react to the training, to the stimulus.

People who don't use fat as an energy source make it very difficult for their body to process its own fat, becoming lazy and preferring the easy energy of carbohydrates.

The body is built to give preference to burning fat before muscle in the absence of energy, but the consumption of exaggerated carbohydrates can even make this order reverse.

Carbohydrates not only make the body lazy to process fat, but in general they are low-protein foods, even reducing muscle formation.

What we observe when walking on the streets are obese and flabby people, and these people, when trying to go on diets (if not stomach surgeries), end up feeling exaggerated hunger, nausive, and never able to lose weight. This is because their bodies are not able to process fat, there is almost no muscle to burn, and the calorie deficit leaves them under extreme energy stress.

The way to treat obesity is to establish a correct diet.

Before trying to lose weight, the first step is to get the body used to processing fat, prefer foods rich in fat and at the same time in protein, and increase their presence in meals, while decreasing carbohydrates, without entering a calorie deficit. This alone will generate a feeling of hunger to the body unable to process fat, and it has to be a slow and gradual process, the greater presence of proteins will help in the muscle formation of the person with the outdated diet.

With the body accustomed to the consumption of fat, fatty foods will become pleasurable and the feeling of hunger will decrease or cease, at that time a slight calorie deficit will work, and if combined with strength training, the results will be even more aggressive, as muscle building will help in the weight loss process.

Cardio training is the last step, and presents a risk to people with obesity or muscle lag, and should only be started after having made good progress in the previous stage.

The ideal is to be able to reach a point where there is the presence of strength and cardio exercises in the weekly routine, the main source of energy being fat, which will give the necessary proteins, and lower to a minimum level if not zero carbohydrates.

The recommendation is to feel your body, and the sensations of hunger and weakness, when you are lacking in carbohydrates prefer to consume them in the form of fruits or natural foods and avoid sugars and foods that do not spoil at all costs.

Olive oil and butter are especially effective at easily increasing calories from fats and reducing carbohydrates, and when you're confident about taking that step, go overboard with both by removing as many carbs as possible.

Even for athletes it is possible, without problems, to follow (and even highly recommended) this diet, only combining it with carbohydrates in the moments before and during training and competitions according to the feeling of weakness. Fat has even better results than carbohydrates in long races where energy consumption is higher and less intense.

The salt contained in food is not a problem, the replacement of mineral salts is necessary for the body and it is not uncommon for long-distance athletes to carry salt capsules, showing the importance of balancing mineral salts for the correct functioning of the body.

This type of diet has been shown to be effective against cancer, and the simplistic logic is that cancer cells are defective cells that reproduce, and the fact that they are defective implies that they will have difficulty feeding themselves in the most complex process the mitochondria, taking energy from fat, following this principle this diet starves cancer cells.

Remove all your prejudices against eggs, red meat, pork. No matter who you are or your lifestyle, only consume carbohydrates at the bare minimum, and that minimum is much lower than you might think.