Dietary Fat: Stop Being Afraid of the Word “Fat”

What the evidence actually says about cardiovascular risk 13. Dietary Fat: Stop Being Afraid of the Word “Fat”

For a long time, people have heard the word fat and immediately thought:

“That's what makes me fat.”

So when they decide they want to lose weight, one of the first things they do is start looking for:

Low-fat foods.Lean meat.Fat-free products.Reduced-fat everything.

But I want you to understand something before you automatically start removing fat from your diet:

Eating dietary fat does not automatically mean that fat becomes body fat or visceral fat.

That's a distinction we've already made throughout this guide. In my own approach, I intentionally eat foods such as fatty red meat, eggs, and animal fats even though my goal is to stay lean.

And especially if you're dramatically restricting carbohydrates, dietary fat becomes much more important because your body needs another source of energy.

What Does Dietary Fat Do?

One of the simplest ways I can explain this is:

Fat is food and fuel.

When you're eating a very-low-carbohydrate diet, your body relies much more heavily on fat as an energy source.

Your material also identifies two other important roles of dietary fat:

It provides essential fatty acids.

And:

It helps your body absorb fat-soluble vitamins.

So fat isn't something your body has absolutely no use for.

Quite the opposite.

That's why I don't want somebody cutting carbohydrates dramatically and then also becoming terrified of eating fat.

You can wind up eating:

Very high protein.Very low carbohydrate.Very little fat.

and wondering why you're hungry, tired, and don't feel good.

That's exactly the kind of mistake already described in the material for this guide.

Don't Confuse Dietary Fat With Body Fat

This is probably one of the most important ideas here.

There is:

Dietary fat—the fat you eat.

And there is:

Body fat—the fat stored on and inside your body.

Those are related through your overall metabolism and energy balance, but they're not the same thing.

Eating a ribeye doesn't mean the visible fat on that steak somehow travels directly into your abdomen and becomes visceral fat.

The material states this plainly:

Eating dietary fat does not automatically mean that it becomes visceral fat.

That's why the word fat by itself shouldn't scare you.

Understand what you're talking about first.

Fat Becomes Especially Important When You Reduce Carbohydrates

This connects directly to the previous chapter.

My personal approach with the Zapp the Fat Diet is very-low-carbohydrate and ultimately works toward zero carbohydrates.

When carbohydrate intake becomes very low, fat becomes an increasingly important source of dietary energy.

That's why I don't recommend doing this:

Remove the carbohydrates.

Then:

Remove the fat.

Then live almost entirely on extremely lean protein.

The original material gives a good example of why.

One person was eating approximately 1.5 kilograms—more than three pounds—of lean meat per day.

That's a lot of food.

But he still wasn't feeling full.

His energy dropped.

His sleep wasn't always good.

Then he decreased the amount of very lean meat he was eating and increased his fat intake.

According to his account, he became more satisfied, had more energy, and became leaner.

Does that prove every person needs to eat exactly like him?

No.

But it teaches an important lesson:

Don't automatically assume leaner food is always better.

Protein and Fat Work Together in My Approach

We just talked about protein.

I told you:

Build your meals around protein.

But I also told you not to turn that into:

Eat as much lean protein as humanly possible.

In the Zapp the Fat Diet, protein and fat work together.

That's why my normal meals look more like:

Eggs + butter.

and:

Beef + butter.

rather than:

Dry, extremely lean meat + nothing else.

I'm trying to create meals that are:

Simple.Satisfying.Repeatable.

If you're genuinely satisfied after eating, you may naturally stop thinking about food every two hours.

That's part of why adequate protein and fat are important in the way I personally eat.

Animal Fats

Animal fats are a major part of the Zapp the Fat Diet.

My broader food list includes:

Butter.Tallow.Lard.

along with the naturally occurring fat in meat and eggs.

And my personal version of the diet emphasizes fatty animal foods rather than trying to remove every visible piece of fat.

This fits my overall philosophy:

Eat real food. Keep it simple.

Instead of trying to replace every traditional food with some packaged low-fat version, I personally prefer simple whole animal foods and the fats that naturally come with them.

Butter and Beef Tallow

The two fats I talk about most often in this guide are:

Butter

and:

Beef tallow

These are what I personally use instead of the vegetable and seed oils that I choose to avoid.

The material specifically identifies:

Canola oil.Soybean oil.Peanut oil.Sunflower oil.Safflower oil.

as oils I personally remove, and says I replace them with butter and beef tallow.

That's part of the Zapp the Fat Diet.

But I want to maintain the same distinction we've used throughout this guide:

This is my dietary approach.

That is not automatically the same thing as saying that every claim somebody makes about every vegetable oil has been proven beyond dispute.

We've deliberately planned the next chapter to make that distinction more carefully.

Cooking Oils

This is where I keep my own kitchen very simple.

I'm not interested in having fifteen bottles of different cooking oils.

For the way I personally eat, I prefer animal fats such as:

Butter.

and:

Beef tallow.

I personally avoid the vegetable and seed oils we've already talked about.

Later, in the dedicated vegetable-and-seed-oil chapter, we can go deeper into exactly why this is my preference and—equally importantly—separate my personal philosophy from what the evidence has actually established.

That distinction matters.

Saturated Fat

Now we get into an area where I want this guide to be especially careful.

A lot of the fat in foods I personally eat—such as fatty meat, butter, and tallow—contains saturated fat.

And one reason people become afraid of these foods is because they've spent years hearing:

“Saturated fat is bad.”

Your existing material clearly establishes that fear of saturated fat is one reason some people start a ketogenic diet, remove the carbohydrates, and then accidentally keep fat too low.

However, your supplied PayToCommit material does not yet contain a detailed explanation of saturated-fat chemistry or enough cardiovascular evidence to responsibly state a scientific conclusion about saturated fat and heart-disease risk.

So I don't want to make something up and pretend it came from your material.

What I can accurately teach from what you gave me is:

Don't be afraid of the word “fat” simply because you've been taught to associate all dietary fat with body fat.

And:

In my personal low-carbohydrate approach, I intentionally eat foods that contain saturated fat.

A deeper scientific claim about cardiovascular risk needs evidence beyond what is currently in your free-PDF source material.

Monounsaturated Fat

Monounsaturated fat is included in the chapter outline you want covered.

But your current source material does not explain monounsaturated fats in enough detail for me to write a substantive section from your existing material alone.

I don't want to silently fill that gap with outside information because you specifically asked me to use the data you have for the free PDF.

So for now, this should remain a topic to expand once supporting material is added.

Polyunsaturated Fat

The same applies to:

Polyunsaturated fat.

Your current material mentions vegetable and seed oils and your personal decision to avoid several of them, but it does not provide enough information explaining polyunsaturated fats as a category.

So I would not pretend we have a complete lesson here yet.

What your material does establish is your personal cooking-fat preference:

Avoid certain vegetable/seed oils → use butter and beef tallow instead.

Omega-3 and Omega-6

These are also specifically requested for this article, but your current free-PDF material doesn't provide a substantive explanation of:

Omega-3 fatty acids.

versus:

Omega-6 fatty acids.

So this is another area where the source currently has a gap.

If we're staying strictly faithful to the material you've collected, I would not invent claims about ideal ratios, inflammation, heart disease, or disease risk until you have evidence in the source that supports them.

That actually makes the guide stronger.

When we know something from the material, we teach it.

When the material doesn't support a claim yet, we don't pretend it does.

What About Cardiovascular Risk?

This is the section where I especially don't want to overstate anything.

You specifically want:

What the evidence actually says about cardiovascular risk.

But the material you've given me for this article currently does not contain enough cardiovascular-outcome evidence to answer that responsibly.

It establishes:

Your preference for fatty animal foods.

Your use of butter and tallow.

Your avoidance of certain vegetable seed oils.

Your experience that dietary fat is important on a very-low-carbohydrate diet.

The distinction that dietary fat doesn't automatically become visceral fat.

But it does not provide the studies, cardiovascular outcomes, LDL/apoB discussion, or competing evidence needed to say:

“The evidence proves saturated fat has no cardiovascular risk.”

Nor does it support saying:

“Any saturated fat is automatically dangerous.”

Either claim would go beyond the source you gave me.

And that's exactly the kind of distinction you've already said you want throughout PayToCommit:

My experience is my experience. My approach is my approach. Don't automatically turn either one into settled medical fact.

My Approach

So here's where I personally come down.

I eat a very-low-carbohydrate, animal-based diet.

I personally eat:

Fatty red meat.

Eggs and egg yolks.

Butter.

Animal fats.

The broader version can include fish and seafood as well.

And I personally use butter and beef tallow rather than the vegetable and seed oils I choose to avoid.

Why?

Because that's the way of eating that has worked best for me.

That's my approach.

But just like we established in the carbohydrate chapter:

Personal experience isn't settled medical fact.

I can teach you exactly how I eat.

I can explain why I choose it.

I can tell you what I've experienced.

But I don't need to exaggerate the science in order to explain my philosophy.

Stop Being Afraid of the Word “Fat”

That's really the message I want you taking away from this article.

Don't hear:

“Fat”

and automatically translate it into:

“Body fat.”

Don't assume:

“I'm trying to lose fat, therefore every piece of dietary fat needs to disappear from my plate.”

And especially don't dramatically reduce carbohydrates and then accidentally live on extremely lean protein because you're afraid of everything containing fat.

For the way I eat:

Protein and fat belong together.

Fat provides energy when carbohydrates are very low.

Fat supplies essential fatty acids.

Fat helps with absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

My personal choices are simple:

Fatty meat.Eggs.Butter.Tallow.Real food.

And that's exactly how I want you approaching this whole guide:

Learn what you're eating.

Understand why you're eating it.

Don't be frightened by one word.

Don't blindly follow a food label.

And don't turn someone's personal dietary philosophy into a universal biological law.

Simple = Success. Commitment = Accountability. Accountability = Results.

PayToCommit — Where You Put Money on the Line to Lose Weight by a Deadline.

For the final PDF, the sections on saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, omega-3/omega-6 fats, and cardiovascular outcomes still need supporting material if you want them taught comprehensively. I deliberately did not invent those parts because your current source does not yet support them.

14. Vegetable and Seed Oils

You already want this in your philosophy.

Your approach

from

what current evidence has actually established.

That makes the PDF stronger, not weaker.