The T-Factor diet requires no calorie counting. Vanderbilt University psychologist Dr. Martin Katahn created the low-fat diet plan in 1989. He introduced the diet's concept and eating plan in his book, ''The T-Factor Diet,'' which he revised and updated in 1994. Consult your doctor before you use this diet to lose weight.
Significance
T-Factor is shorthand for thermogenesis---heat produced from your body's metabolic processes. Decreasing the fat in your diet is one method of adjusting your metabolism by increasing the amount of energy that your body burns to create the fuel it needs, according to Dr. Katahn. Exercise also produces a thermal effect in your body. The foundation of the T-Factor diet is research that showed that the body stores 97 percent of your fat intake as body fat, but converts only 4 percent of carbohydrates to body fat, according to the Richmond Times.
Promise
The T-factor diet requires that you reduce your daily fat intake to 20 percent or less to initiate the thermal process that makes weight control effortless. You will not have to restrict calories from any other sources or food groups to lose weight.
Meals
The T-factor diet has a 3-week meal plan that you follow to reduce dietary fat. Each meal contains carefully selected low-fat foods that contain all the nutrients needed for an adequate nutrition. The diet program does not require dietary or multivitamin supplements. The total fat intake per day on this diet is 20 to 40 g for women and 30 to 60 g for men.
The Quick Melt phase recommends a low-calorie and low-fat diet with 1,000 to 1,300 calories daily for women and 1,500 to 1,800 for men. Both meal plans meet the recommended daily allowances or RDA for essential nutrients, according to the University of California.
Benefits
If you limit all fats to the diet's recommended levels, you consume only 400 calories in fat from all sources in a 2,000-calorie a day diet. Decreasing your saturated fat intake helps to lower cholesterol, which can reduce your risk for developing cardiovascular disease. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that on average, fat amounts to 40 percent of the calories in the American diet and recommends that you keep daily fat intake below 65 g.
Considerations
The University of Kentucky advises that extremely low-fat diets can reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer, but they also decrease your body's absorption of nutrients from minerals and fat-soluble vitamins. People on low-fat diets often are less satiated. The diet eliminates many choices within some food groups to achieve the fat restriction. Critics of this diet say that reducing fat without decreasing calorie intakes does not result in significant weight loss.
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