Have you ever thought that exercising with oxygen can make your utilization of nutrients and its conversion to energy rapid and more effective? In this article, we’ll go over the role of fat in the diet, different types of fats, daily fat requirements, and how supplemental oxygen can aid the utilization of fat as a viable energy source. 

Let’s dive in.

Do you think all of your weight loss concerns get resolved if you just cut fat from your diet?

Unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that! 

For years, fat was just a 4-letter word. Many of us tried to expel fats from our diets and changed to very low-fat eating plans. However, this change didn’t result in a healthier lifestyle, perhaps because of the cut-back on healthy and unhealthy fats.

Yes, we do. 

Fat has a crazy to-do list in regard to the functioning of the human body. Fat is one of the macronutrients (nutrients humans require in large amounts), along with protein and carbohydrates. In the first place, these complex molecules offer our body the slowest, most-efficient energy source, with nine calories per gram, compared to the other two macronutrients (4 calories per gram).

On top of that, this macronutrient is the fundamental building block of cell membranes in every single cell. Fat is essential for the absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins in the body, such as Vitamins A, D, E, and K – which are crucial for the health of bones, teeth, hair, skin, eyes, and more. Fats safeguard vital organs such as kidneys and gut from physical shock. Lastly, fats help in the regulation of cholesterol levels.

All of this is why dietary fat deprivation is harmful in a general sense. Following an ultra-low-fat dietary regimen can put you at risk of not reaping the benefits mentioned above. 

For example, a very low-fat diet can hinder the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, eventually leading to vitamin deficiencies and related adverse effects. Your body may not get the critical fatty acids it needs from an ultra-low-fat diet. 

Last but not least, if you don't consume enough fat, you'll also be missing out on the additional nutrients that foods with moderate and high-fat content have to offer.

Basically, fats can be divided into two groups: Saturated (the bad fat) and Unsaturated (the good fat). Most food items containing fat have a blend of different types of fat. For instance, butter contains 67% saturated fat and 33% unsaturated fat. In the case of canola oil, the saturated fat level (7%) is much lower than the unsaturated fat level (93%).

These are the so-called bad fats that should be consumed in small amounts. A diet with higher amounts of saturated fat and trans fat tends to raise the low-density lipoprotein (bad) cholesterol in your body. More on trans fat coming up. The 2005 Dietary Guidelines advocate keeping the intake of saturated fats to 10% or less of your total calorie consumption in a day, whereas the American Heart Association suggests limiting them to 5-6% of daily calorie intake.

In the United States, highly processed foods are the major sources of saturated fats in the diet. This includes pizza, meat products (sausages, bacon, beef, hamburger), cookies, fast food items, and snack foods. Restricted consumption of these ultra-processed foods helps reduce the intake of saturated fat, sugar, sodium, and trans fats.

What you consume in place of saturated fat also matters. Research has shown that substituting healthy unsaturated fat for saturated fat reduces the LDL (bad) cholesterol and improves the ratio of the total cholesterol content to the HDL (or good) cholesterol, which in fact, lowers the risk of heart attack, stroke, and atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

In addition, the intake of good fats helps your body prevent insulin resistance, an indicator of diabetes. 

But switching to carbohydrates instead of saturated fat might raise your chances of developing heart disease.

Research shows that these “good” fats improve blood cholesterol levels, reducing the danger of heart attack and stroke. Plant-based foods, such as vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and fish, are major sources of this type of fat. There are two subgroups:

Trans fat is considered to be an unhealthy unsaturated fat that is worse than saturated fat. This type of fat is naturally found in trace quantities in certain animal-based foods (e.g., milk, butter, cheese, meat products, etc.) and is not considered harmful.

However, artificial or hydrogenated trans fat, made by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil, negatively affects blood cholesterol levels as it increases LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels while reducing HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels. This alteration in the lipoprotein cholesterol profile leads to hypertension and raises the risk of heart disease, type-II diabetes, and stroke.

The American Heart Association advises keeping your daily trans fat intake, including naturally occurring trans fats, to less than 1% of your daily calorie intake. The Dietary Guidelines only advise consuming as little artificial trans fat as possible.

Let’s first take a look at the prominent sources of good fats.

Now it’s the time for the “bad” fats.

The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans no longer recommend a specific amount of fat intake. But, they insist that saturated fat consumption should not exceed 10% of daily caloric intake. That’s around 200 calories for a 2000-calorie diet.

All types of fats provide nine calories per gram, which makes it more energy dense than carbohydrates and proteins. So get your fats, but monitor your calorie intake.

Yes. 

Consumption of foods with fat is indeed a part of a healthy diet. However, more significant than the quantity of fat consumed is the type of fat consumed. The best approach is to replace unhealthy saturated fats with more beneficial unsaturated fats in addition to limiting saturated fat intake. 

Here are some strategies you can follow for improved wellness!

Paying attention to the nutrition facts label is the best way to keep an eye on the fats in your diet. You’ll find all the information you need to make informed decisions on your diet. The label displays the total fat content per serving, separated into saturated fat and trans fat. Labels may also show monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Look for food items that have less fat content as well as low saturated and trans fats. Remember that while claiming to be "trans-fat-free," a product may include up to 0.5 grams of trans fats per serving,

Try making some simple yet healthy swaps to replace foods higher in saturated fats with healthier choices.

Did you know fat is an essential dietary component designed to charge your exercise regimen? One gram of dietary (or pure) fat offers your body nine calories, and one pound of pure fat is around 4500 calories.

However, body fat is not considered pure fat as it contains protein and fluid along with fat. Hence, we can conclude that one pound of body fat amounts to around 3500 calories, a bit less than the caloric equivalent of pure fat. This higher calorie density of fat, in fact, the highest of all nutrients, makes fat the most effective energy source in our body.

The calories from fat mainly fuel low-to-moderate-intensity exercise and may be less accessible for high-intensity exercises. In the case of high-intensity exercise, although carbohydrate is the major energy source, the body requires fat to let it access the storage form of carbohydrates (or glycogen). However, the process of using fat as an energy source for exercise is quite complex. It consists of three key components:

As mentioned earlier, fats are comparatively less oxygen-efficient. This is because fats do not contain oxygen, and the body must supply a sufficient amount of oxygen by itself. When your body has plenty of oxygen, the burning of fats is not a big deal. But during exercise, or when your muscles are short of oxygen supply, you get 20% less energy per unit of oxygen when using fats as an energy source when compared to carbohydrates as an energy source.

So, is there any solution for a more efficient conversion of fat to energy during exercise?

Yes. 

When your body has enough oxygen, even during exercise, energy production from stored fat will be more effective. Here in this scenario, Exercise With Oxygen Therapy (EWOT) comes into play.

This technique lets you inhale 4x times more oxygen while you exercise. Integrating oxygen into your workout regimen enables your body to create an oxygen-enriched environment that enhances overall wellness.

Your heart effectively delivers oxygen to the healthy cells, and you’ll observe significant improvement in your energy levels, endurance, and mental performance.

On top of that, super-oxygenating your body increases fat metabolism by improving the cell’s enzymatic activity, making fat-burning an easier process.