A Simple Guide to Building Muscle & Losing Fat: Part 4

So far I've addressed protein and carbs, and now it's time to turn to the oft misunderstood and complex word of fats.

If you want a detailed description of dietary fats and the important role they play in muscle building, fat loss, hormone regulation, and general health, I recommend you check out the following 3 part series of articles by Casey Butt (a funny name I know, but the guy knows his stuff): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.  I'll be basing some of my recommendations for dietary fat on his research.

Many people today bear an irrational fear of fat (particularly animal sources of fat, and also animal sources of protein) for a number of reasons; in part because of a poorly executed and sorry excuse for legitimate scientific research known as the China Study (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6).

In short, dietary fat is not to be feared, but you should avoid overeating dietary fat (what I mean is, you should avoid overeating in general.  Remember?  People get fat and diseased by overeating.  Too much of anything can be a bad thing).

Casey Butt lays out what I feel to be a much better and rational understanding of the issue.

Without getting too detailed about the specifics, suffice it to say that consuming an adequate amount of dietary fat is crucial for maintaining a healthy hormonal balance; particularly in keeping testosterone levels elevated, improving one's mood, and maintaining all around proper brain function.

In respect to weight training, I want to emphasize the testosterone elevating effects of fat.  As a general guideline, it's advisable to get at least 30-35% of your average calorie consumption from dietary fats; consuming a greater amount than this does not seem to further elicit an increase in testosterone (that's not to say that consuming a greater % of dietary fat is not advisable).

Here's what Casey has to say about dietary fat and gaining muscle:

...my general advice for someone trying to get bigger and stronger is to get about 30% of daily calories from fat. Of this fat, half should be saturated fats from animal products and tropical oils, one-quarter should be the EFAs (with the ratio of LA to LNA being approximately 4:1), and the remaining quarter should be monounsaturates (egg yolks are a great source). Don't shy excessively away from meat, eggs, milk, cheese and coconut products. Organ meats, primarily liver (and desiccated liver products) should be consumed regularly. The proper balance of dietary fats and cholesterol will promote proper eicosanoid formation and optimum testosterone levels.

And here's what he has to say about dietary fat and weight loss:

If fat loss is the primary goal, 30% is still a wise percentage at which to set dietary fat calories. This is necessary to preserve testosterone levels, slow the digestion of meals and reduce the insulin response to ingested carbs and maintain high growth hormone levels. However, in this case the saturated long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) should be limited while omega-3 polyunsaturate consumption should be increased (i.e. fish oils and flax oil). Saturates, polyunsaturates and monounsaturates should be divided equally with each contributing about one-third of the total fat calories. A 1:1 ratio of LA to LNA should be consumed. If possible, most saturated fat intake should be in the form of SCFAs and MCFAs (i.e. coconut oil, palm oil and butter instead of margarine). Dietary cholesterol should not be unnecessarily restricted.

If these recommendations seem too cumbersome to adhere to, I feel your pain.  I generally don't worry about being as specific as Casey is.  I primarily focus on ensuring that I get dietary fat from a variety of saturated and essential fatty acid sources such as coconut oil, olive oil, fish oil, eggs, butter from grass-fed cows, and fats from fatty wild-caught fish like salmon, and fatty cuts of grass-fed beef (7, 8, 9, 10, & 11).

I also recommend that you strive to ensure you have a ratio of 1:1 for omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids in your diet.  Doing so is crucial for preventing undue levels of systemic inflammation, and eating healthy non-obese or diseased animals is a great way to do just that (12, 13, & 14).  The importance of this recommendation is further compounded by the fact that systemic inflammation has an inhibitory effect on you body's ability to properly respond to the acute inflammation induced by an intense weight training session (15).

I hope you've found this article illuminating.  In the next (and hopefully last) part of this series, I'll put all of the recommendations I've offered you thus far together into a comprehensive plan for fat loss and muscle building.