We’ve all heard a lot about fats, but remember that many of the points you will read here will not provide a balanced diet outside of sports. These are geared to provide your body with the foundation of producing higher amounts of energy and therefore endurance. When it comes to fat, there is much to learn as well. What Is Fat? Fat is a product that you ingest when you eat foods. While there is not just one food group that it comes from, there are many things that you need to realize contain higher amounts of fat.
Fat comes from anything that is from animals. This type of fat is called
saturated fat and is the worst of the two types. This would include:
· Meats of all types; even lean meats will have some levels of fat in
them.
· Eggs have a high fat amount of fat.
· Milk, even low fat milk, still contains a good amount of fat.
· Cheese too may be low fat, but will still contain a good amount of
fat.
Unsaturated fats are fats that come from vegetable products of all types
in varying amounts. Your oils are high producers of fat.
Unsaturated fats are the better, healthier type of fat to have within your
body.
How Much To Consume
When it comes to how much fat you should be consuming, it is not as
complex as that of your carbohydrate or your protein calories.
You should not consume more than 25 to 30 percent of your calories in
fat. Generally speaking, this is not hard to do, unless you are used to
eating deep fried products or those that are covered with saturated butters
and sauces.
Sorry, but the body needs to be regulated here!
Fat in the Body
Your body does need some fat though. Have you heard of those diets in
which people will cut out nearly all the fat in their diet?
Let’s look back at our team playing theory.
You need to consume a balanced diet of products, ones that will incorporate
various amounts of fats to balance your needs.
Your body only needs a small amount of fat though, to help with several
functions. From a sports nutrition stand point, fat is used to burn as energy.
Remember when we said that our bodies will first burn carbohydrates
and then will resort to proteins?
Fat is next on the list of energy sources when there is not enough carbohydrates
or glycogen available to burn.
So, why not load up on the amounts of fat that your body consumes as it
seems to be a fundamental part of energy and fuel? There are many
reasons for not doing so.
The main reason that you do not need to eat excess amounts of fat is
because of how unhealthy it is to the rest of your body.
Too much fat in your body can cause a number of health problems starting
with heart disease, the number one killer in the United States. It can
also lead to cancers, complications of other conditions and just an overall
unhealthy lifestyle.
If you are consuming too much fat, you are probably not getting the right
amount of carbohydrates that you need.
Even more so, when we talked about carbohydrates, we told you that
carbohydrates are easily burned by the body for energy. When it comes
to burning fat, it is harder for the body to do.
Therefore, fat should not be consumed in order to burn as energy for the
body.
Where Fats Are Used
There are three main times in which fat will be used to burn energy in
your body or will be needed for you to have on hand for that reason.
1. If you are participating in extreme or intense exercise, your body
will need more energy to burn than you have stored in glycogen or
in carbohydrates readily available. It will then turn to stored fat for
help in providing you with the energy that you need.
2. When your body is at rest or you are just doing low to moderate
amounts of work, your body will then primarily use fat to burn as
fuel. During this time, just small amounts of fat will actually be
burned, though.
3. If you continue to exercise for long periods of time, such as when
you do during a marathon, a long endurance race of any type, your
body then needs to tap into fat stores to help it to power through
all of these needs.
When it comes to fat and sports nutrition, it is something that you really
do need to monitor. Consuming a lot of fatty foods, especially those that
are made from saturated fats, will put your health at risk.
As far as sports nutrition goes, too much fat can cause your performance
to slip. The body does not perform as well as it does with carbohydrates
or even by burning protein when you are consuming fats. ->Read More
