The Four Healthy Foods Keeping You Fat

All of these foods are healthy, but...

There is a lot of misunderstanding on what is a healthy food and an unhealthy food. Well before I hopefully make things a little clearer for you, let's start by muddying the waters a bit. ALL FOODS ARE HEALTHY. Donuts, Beans, Tomatoes, Chicken, Double Bacon Cheeseburgers, Broccoli, Cookies, Whole wheat bread, White Bread, Cucumbers, Rice, Milk. All good! What really matters here is the frequency and amount. Donuts are great! Lots of carbs and fat sure, but eaten responsibly in moderation and you're good! They might even give you some endorphins and boost your mood which is excellent for health. Over consumption of donuts is bad. Chicken Broccoli and Rice (The bodybuilding staple) is great! But if that's all you eat, you will become nutrient deficient.

There are four over consumed labeled as 'healthy' foods that are wonderful for you, but are easy to over consume and lead to unhealthy fat gain. In this blog post we're going to look at what four foods I'm talking about, how to consume them in healthy amounts and how to substitute them and make them even better. We will also summarize at the end of this post how to tell if you're getting enough of them (Spoiler alert, it's quite easy). So let's talk about the FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE FATOPOLYPSE

The Avocado is filled with great amounts of healthy omega fatty acids, fiber, carbs. Very high calorie

THE AVOCADO

You see this one all the time, person new to healthy eating and fitness and suddenly its avocado toast, avocado in the smoothie, avocado on the side of your lunch salad. Before you know it you've eaten 500 calories (a big mac's worth) of avocado. The average avocado has about 250 calories and 22 grams of fat! Mind you these are great healthy omega fats, but the overconsumption of healthy fats will still make you fat.

How do we eat avocado more responsibly? This is going to depend strictly on your goals and the rest of your diet. If you're in a weight gain phase, especially if you struggle to eat enough, avocado might be a great choice to get the calories up! I usually recommend in a fat loss phase to stay away from avocado. It's simply too high calorie for most people, especially if you struggle with hunger while dieting down. I would then opt for more vegetables instead, broccoli, carrots and maybe even a piece of fruit like an apple. These will help keep you more full due, as it takes almost 3 apples to equal one avocado calorie for calorie.

One of the best sources of protein comes with a serious trade off. High fat content

WHOLE EGGS

Whole eggs, specifically the white portion, have basically the best amino acid profile of all natural protein sources. Better than beef and chicken! They are also packed with tons of nutrients (specifically in the yolk) and healthy fats. But the average egg has almost as much fat in it and it does protein! The average large egg is about 70 calories, 50 of which come from the fatty yolk alone. Don't panic, yolks are good for you! But especially in a fat loss phase, they could be contributing to your plateau. Let's make it better.

Egg's are usually a simple fix. Use more egg white, and less whole egg! A strategy I employ myself during fat loss phases is to remove a couple whole egg and replace with equivalent egg white. I recommend if possibly buying egg white in the carton to reduce waste. This significantly reduces calories from fat while keeping protein the same or higher. When I scramble my eggs, I will do 2 whole eggs, 2 egg white. This keeps some of that yolky flavor while reducing overall calories.

Nuts have great fiber, good carbs, healthy fats and some protein. Lots of calories in a small serving.

NUTS

Peanuts, Cashews, Almonds. This applies to them all. Nuts are a nutritious powerhouse but the calorie trade off here makes it one of the worst offenders. The average 1/3 of a cup of nuts has about 250 calories. 1/3 of a cup is less than you could fit in a handful and I see it all the time. "Oh I just had a couple handfuls of nuts for a snack". Well you just had 500 calories or more of nuts that wont keep you full! So what do we do?

During fat loss phases I would again recommend just removing them from the diet. You can come back to them later if you're maintaining or gaining. One great substitute if you love the salty bite size snacky nature of nuts is seasoned dehydrated edamame beans. Same snacky profile and even a bit of nutty flavor for way less calorie. Still high protein, high fiber as well! Another great one is a low calorie reduced fat popcorn.

Great healthy fat, but only one small tablespoon equaling nearly 100 calories!

OLIVE OIL

We use it to coat our pans, flavor meats, and make dressings and sauces. Olive oil consumption MUST BE REDUCED during fat loss phases. This one is pretty much non-negotiable. You simply can't be adding it to smoothies, soaking your food in it and expect to drop fat. It's so calorie dense that a mere tablespoon is about 100 calories and it will do almost nothing to keep you full and satiated meaning you'll be more likely to overeat.

One real life client example is when asked about olive oil use for cooking, I uncovered that the client was cooking his eggs in olive oil. I asked how much, and made gestures with my hand, dime sized, quarter sized? He then motioned with his hand that he was tipping the bottle over and just dumping it into the pan! Mind you this client has been struggling with fat loss! Well there's a huge contributing factor right there! 3 Whole Eggs, plus probably 300+ calories of olive oil in the morning.

So what do we do? I always recommend for coating a pan to use an olive oil spray, about 10 calories per 1 second spray and its enough to coat a small pan. Or top the bottle with a clean paper towel or cloth, tip it to get some on the cloth and then wipe the pan to add a small coating to your pan. As far as sauces, dressings, cooking and smoothies. I would avoid adding olive oil completely.

CONCLUSION

There are other culprits out there, but these are probably the four most common I see with real life clients. The amount of omega 6 and 9 fatty acids these foods provide, even in small amounts will likely exceed your recommended daily intake and overconsumption will only lead to stagnation in your weight loss journey. There is something to be said about omega 3 fatty acids, which mostly occur in fish products, but we'll save that for another post.

The main take away here is that even the most healthy foods can still be abused and consumed to unhealthy levels. Variety is the spice of life, all foods can be healthy when consumed responsibly in the appropriate dosages. So get out there and eat a donut, just don't eat only donuts!