No diet promotes trans fat as a weight loss tool. Trans fat, sometimes hidden in snack foods and commercial baked goods, may sabotage your weight loss efforts on a low-calorie diet. A low-carbohydrate diet doesn't limit the amount of trans fat you eat, but consuming more than 2 g could jeopardize your heart health.
Trans Fat
Trans fat is a man-made fat created in a process that turns liquid vegetable oil into a solid fat, such as margarine or shortening. A healthy diet includes 44 g to 78 g of fat daily, but no more than 2 g of trans fat. A tablespoon of shortening contains 3 g of trans fat. By law, nutrition labels must tell you if a food items contains 0.5 g or more trans fat per serving.
Trans Fat and Weight Loss
Most weight-loss plans, healthy or not, recommend limiting fat because of its calorie density. A gram of trans fat contains 9 calories and a tablespoon about 100. Gram for gram, trans fat provides more than twice as many calories as carbohydrates or protein. If you follow a low-carbohydrate weight loss diet such as Atkins, you do not count calories, including those in trans fat. But, to protect against cardiovascular disease, include healthier fats such as olive oil and canola oil.
Sources of Trans Fat
Food that may contain high amounts of trans fat include include chocolate and other candy bars, pound cake, potato chips, doughnuts, fried potatoes and onion rings. Most of these foods also contain more calories and carbohydrates than you could easily include on any weight loss diet. A glazed cruller, for instance, contains 169 calories and 24.4 g of carbohydrates as well as 4.5 g of trans fat. Even if you ate a doughnut cooked in trans fat-free oil, you'd still ad 7.5 g of fat to your diet.
Healthy Weight Loss
You do not need any trans fat to maintain good health, so you could safely eliminate all trans fat on a weight loss diet. To lose weight without sacrificing nutrition, moderate the amount of refined carbohydrates, fat and protein in your diet. Restrict the amount of sugar-added foods --- regular soda and cookies, for instance --- in your diet but add complex carbohydrates such as those found in fruit, vegetable and whole grains. Add fiber to your diet because it helps you feel full faster and stay full longer than foods that contain little or no fiber. High-fiber foods include oatmeal, bananas, whole wheat pasta, kidney beans and broccoli.
References
- MayoClinic.com; Healthy Diet: End the Guesswork With These Nutrition Guidelines; February 2011
- Brigham and Women's Hospital; Understanding Trans Fat; April 7 2011
- Cleveland Clinic; Heart and Vascular Health and Prevention; How Foods Affect Triglycerides
- MayoClinic.com; Fat -- Overview; Aug. 2, 2009
- United States Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database
- American Heart Association; Diet, Lifestyle Changes Can Significantly Reduce Triglyceride; April 18 2011
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