Gain Weight - Saturated Fat Is Actually A Good Thing!
It used to be, especially back in the 80’s, that everyone was on a big “low fat diet” kick, even those attempting to gain weight and build muscle in the form of “lean mass”. Then, with resurrection of the ever popular Atkins Diet, preaching about going the entire opposite end, to in fact eat a low carb, high fat diet, things were slung in the opposite direction.
So, now, everyone is on the whole “fat is a good thing for you”……with one big exception, to avoid two types of fats, trans fats, which are formed from the processing of hydrogenated oils and frying with certain types of oils, and other “bad” fat to avoid being saturated fat, which is the type of fat found in most animal products, such as dairy, red meat, etc.
Well, this article is here to tell you that even saturated fats are needed from time to time, and could actually help you in your quest to not only gain weight and build muscle, but to burn body fat so that you can see all of your hard earned muscle mass.
In a study reported at the Budapest conference, 8 healthy, lean men and 6 obese men participated in a 45 minute weight training routine at a moderate intensity level, about 50% of their maximum heart rate. Three hours before the exercise session they ate a meal high in saturated fat, get this, the meal consisted of 95% saturated fat and 5% carbs (had to been a very tasty and exquisite meal!)
The huge discovery was that eating a lot of saturated fat completely suppressed alpha-adrenergic cell receptors, which raise the effects of fat releasing hormones, such as ephedrine, which help to use body fat as fuel, thus resulting in body fat being burned and more muscle mass being revealed.
This may be a case in praise of eating a high saturated fat meal, at least on certain days, to help spur losses in body fat and muscle weight gain, the lean kind.