Eating Too Much Fat on Keto?

Have you ever been told that you have to consume a lot of fat in general, and include coconut and MCT oils, specifically, in order to do a keto diet the “right way" and get into ketosis to burn fat?

The truth is, in my practice and in those of my mentors, one of the most common reasons for people not losing weight on keto is adding lots of extra fat to foods, and eating more fat than they even have a taste for simply to fulfill whatever number a tracking app is telling them to get to.  A biggest mistake.  Not the tracking aspect, as that's something I teach and encourage my clients to do especially in the beginning as it can be helpful, but the overconsumption of fat based on some arbitrary number on an app. 

One reason for overconsuming fat is simply because some people aren't aware of which foods are primarily fat.

Ever thought this before or had this discussion with your doctor or nutrition coach?

Practitioner: "How much cheese are you eating throughout the day?"

You: "Oh....I didn't realize cheese is mostly fat.”

How about this one?  This is even a more common exchange:

Practitioner: “How much heavy cream are you using a day?”

You: “I only use a tablespoon or two in my coffee.”

Practitioner: “And how many cups of coffee are you having?”

You: *Eyes dart away as they count their total. “Oh. Um…I think I see the problem.”

To be successful on keto and lose fat, here's something you need to know: it’s easy to eat too much fat!  I know I know, fat bombs and fat snacks are all the rage nowadays in the keto and diet world.  And I know it’s great to be freed from the low-fat prison of rice cakes and skinless chicken breasts and finally delight in a juicy steak (yum) or roasted vegetables dotted with butter BUT just because you can enjoy a generous amount of fat on keto doesn’t mean you can eat an unlimited amount of it – especially if your main goal is losing body fat.

This is really important to remember: Keto is a fat-burning diet. You can burn the fat in your foods OR the fat stored in your body.  Your choice.  If you eat a bit too much dietary fat, your body won’t need to turn to its existing fat stores for fuel and burn it.  Sounds too simple but its true.  Even though fat is the preferred fuel and energy source on keto over carbohydrates, you STILL can consume too much of it.  As a general rule of thumb, if you are looking for accelerated fat loss, target fat grams at HALF of your protein target and carb grams at HALF of your protein target or less especially if you don't handle carbs very well.  For instance, if your protein target is 100 grams per day based on your IDEAL bodyweight, keep your fat grams to 50 or less and do the same for carbs. 

There you have it.  So going forward be aware of how much fat you are eating so you can avoid this very common keto pitfall that stands in the way of you getting the results you want.

Happy fat loss :)

Tyron

References

Keto Made Simple, Dr. Eric Westman, www.AdaptYourLifeAcademy.com, 2020.