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People new to the concept of Traditional Diet are usually shocked to see how much fat is consumed on a daily basis.
Mind you, this discussion does not include factory fats like transfats, interesterified fats, or rancid and usually genetically modified vegetable oils like corn, canola, and soy. These types of fats are cheap, industrially processed, were never consumed in ancestral cultures, and are in no way healthy!
Rather, the fats that are prominent in Traditional Diets are those lipids that have nourished long-lived, degenerative disease-free cultures for centuries: butter, ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil, lard, tallow, and cod liver oil.
The best part is that making these traditional fats a primary rather than a shunned part of the diet produces an easy weight loss experience that is maintained without starvation or periodic fasting rituals. It also avoids short term weight loss with a nasty rebound to weight gain that is even harder to take off than before such as what happens on the high carb DASH Diet.
Let’s examine some of the best scientific evidence that supports what our ancestors already knew: healthy fats don’t make you fat and that high-fat low carb is the easiest way to lose weight and keep it off.
Compelling research on this subject was conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health. The research was presented at the 2003 conference of the Association for the Study of Obesity.
Researchers divided 21 overweight volunteers into three different dietary groups. The first group was assigned to a low-fat, high carb diet, and the second group to a high-fat low carb diet. Both groups consumed 1500 calories per day for the women and 1800 calories per day for the men – definitely not a starvation diet.
Finally, the third group ate high fat low carb but was allowed an extra 300 calories per day.
It is important to note that the second and third groups eating high fat low carb ate a whopping 65% of their calories as fat with only 15% protein and approximately 20% carbs. The misguided USDA dietary guidelines recommend 45-65% carbs, double or even triple the amount of the study participants!
The researchers were able to keep tabs on what the participants were eating because all the food was prepared for the study so cheating or deviation from the meal plans was minimized as much as possible.
At the conclusion of the study, the people in the second group lost the most: 23 pounds. The first group eating low-fat, high carb lost the least – only 17 pounds.
The third group eating high fat, low carb along with the additional 300 calories lost 20 pounds – more than the low-fat group eating fewer calories!
If this study excites you, it should. What it suggests is that not only will a high-fat Traditional Diet help you lose weight, but you won’t have to starve yourself to do it.
Not all calories are created equal!
Also, fat is the most satiating of all the macronutrients and keeps blood sugar steady for long periods of time. Thus, a high-fat diet is the easiest to stay on because it reduces sugar cravings significantly and you don’t feel deprived and hungry all the time.
Want to High Fat Low Carb It? Do This
If you’ve never eaten high fat low carb before and want to try it for yourself to get off the dieting yo-yo ride for good, get to a healthy weight and just eat Real Food the way our ancestors did, try following the high fat low carb approach that authors Sally Fallon Morell and Dr. Mary Enig suggest in Eat Fat, Lose Fat.
Other high fat low carb options include the 21 Day Bone Broth Diet or the Zoe Harcombe Diet.
Follow a 2500 calorie a day meal plan for two weeks. You will likely lose weight slowly but surely doing this – continue beyond two weeks as necessary until your ideal weight is achieved.
The suggested macronutrient breakdown for the 2500 calorie high fat low carb plan is based on the Traditional Diets of our healthy ancestors: 10 percent protein, 30 percent carbohydrate, and 60 percent fat. Note that it’s not a keto diet or even Paleo.
This approach is not just theoretical to me as it is very close to what I have followed myself for over 13 years. Â It has successfully kept me at my college weight with no dieting or deprivation and only a moderate amount of working out (running too much can be counterproductive with free radical damage) even after three pregnancies and progression into middle age.
The 30% carbs can include or exclude grain-based foods. There are traditional cultures that ate them, and a few that did not. I choose to eat them as I feel better, have more energy and maintain my ideal weight more easily when I do. Wading through the smorgasbord of Traditional Foods to determine the mix that is best for you is very important.
If you find that you don’t lose or need a more stringent approach to get rid of those stubborn last few pounds, introduce a small amount of calorie restriction, but not enough to trigger binge eating – 2000 calories per day with the same macronutrient breakdown until you achieve your ideal weight.
Delicious, satisfying meal plans are outlined in Eat Fat, Lose Fat if you desire specific suggestions to keep you on track.
Otherwise, if you are already following an eating approach that is high fat low carb, you can track your macronutrient profile yourself to stay within the suggested framework.
Reach Weight Loss Goals Faster with Coconut Oil
To ensure that you reach your weight loss goals as quickly as possible, it is recommended that you consume coconut oil before each meal to serve as an appetite suppressant. This article on using coconut oil for weight loss outlines exactly how much coconut oil to take for your body weight and how to best take it for optimal appetite control purposes. Using bone broth for weight loss can help too.
In addition, a daily cod liver oil supplement, ideally that is fermented, is suggested to ensure adequate intake of the fat-soluble vitamins and omega 3 fats prized by ancestral societies. Here are the suggested dosages from Dr. David Levi, Naturopathic Physician.
Have you had success losing and/or maintaining your ideal weight with high fat low carb? Please share your experiences in the comments section.
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Sources and More Information
2003 Conference of the Association for the Study of Obesity
Eat Fat, Lose Fat
How Vegetable Oils Make Us Fat
Doctor’s Orders: Your Family Needs Cod Liver Oil
When Coconut Oil May Not Be Right for You
MCT Oil: The Coconut Oil Dregs
Cod Liver Oil: Myths and Truths of an Ancient Superfood
Cod Liver Oil 101 (plus Video How-to)
How to Best Swallow Cod Liver Oil
Is this the same as a ketogenic diet?
No, a ketogenic diet doesn’t include any grain based carbs at all. This approach can include grains if they work for you.
I am currently pregnant. Do the same micronutrient guidelines apply?
My family and I had been attempting the GAPS diet but struggled to maintain it longer than a year. My daughter was not thriving on it. Also, after I finding out I was expecting, I have not had the motivation to continue. Fatigue and cravings have been difficult to deal with. I have put on more weight than I am comfortable with and am looking for a way to stay healthy, have more energy, and stop the excessive increase.
We are currently just trying to eat a whole foods organic diet.
Thanks Sarah, I have lost weight on a low carb real food diet but still have a few last stubborn pounds to go. I’ll try the coconut oil tip.
I would like to try this but am wondering if good results can be had without coconut oil? I am one of those that breaks out with coconut oil and use butter and lard mostly. Thanks!
I’m a fan of Weston Price & high fat/ low carb. However, I think you might appreciate knowing that this article has some confusing errors:
Paragraph 7/8 describes the three groups as:
-The first group was assigned to a lowfat, high carb diet, and
-the second group to a high fat low carb diet.
-the third group ate high fat low carb but was allowed an extra 300 calories per day.
Later, you describe groups as:
– first and third groups eating high fat low carb ate a whopping 65% of their calories as fat with only 15% protein and approximately 20% carbs. (ACCORDING TO YOUR EARLIER DESCRIPTIONS, SHOULDN’T YOU SAY THE 2ND AND 3RD GROUPS?)
Later, you also say:
-At the conclusion of the study, the people in the first group lost the most: 23 pounds. (ISN’T THIS THE 2ND GROUP?)
The second group eating lowfat, high carb lost the least – only 17 pounds. (ISN’T THIS THE FIRST GROUP??)
Sorry- I don’t mean to be anal about this, but I thought you’d like to know that I had to read this article a few times to make sure I wasn’t crazy. 🙂
Thanks for this … will fix those typos 🙂
Thank you so much for this article. I have wondered how you maintain your slender figure. I’m going to give the Eat Fat Lose Fat a try. I love that it does include whole grains.
Sorry,but I got a little lost reading this. In the beginning, the first group ate low fat and high carb. Second group ate high fat, low carb. Third group ate high fat, low carb plus 300 extra calories. But, when the results of the study are given, you switch the groups around. First group became the high fat, low carb group. I think the results would be much more impressive if these proofreading errors were fixed. I hope this helps.
Yes, those typos are fixed now. Sorry about that 🙂
I think you got mixed up in the results. The”:first group” that was listed in this article was the high carb group….yet you said they lost the most weight, 23 lbs, then you said the high carb group lost the least 17 lbs….contradictory….
Yes, that was a typo. It’s fixed now 🙂
Last summer I began to eat traditional foods, eating high quality animal fats in much larger quantity than ever before, reducing my carbs to a small amount. Prior to that, I had spent my 58 years carefully watching every calorie and certainly eating low fat.
For the first couple of months I lost weight, (7 pounds), which made me thinner than I wanted to be and frankly I was a little scared. I was eating so much butter, eggs, meat, meat fat, cheese, and milk and still losing weight.
Then finally I stabilized. A couple of months after that my appetite increased greatly, and I had very strong cravings for things like chili made with organ meat, stews, and cheese. I tried to “control” myself, but the appetite was so strong. I started to gain weight and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Then I searched through Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride’s FAQs. There I found my answer under, of all things, “osteoporosis”. She explained that all GAPS patients have osteoporosis (and I certainly qualify, after my lifetime of high sugar, refined flour, and plenty of meds). She goes on to say that as you begin to eat a healthy diet, your bones rebuild themselves and become heavier. You will weigh more. THIS IS SUCCESS.
It’s not easy to watch my weight go up, although I know I’m getting healthier and it does seem to have stabilized. I look “thin” to the outside world, but I’ve been so trained to want those boy-like hips and thighs that are idealized these days. They’re just not mine, and I’m choosing health.
And to bring this down to a tragic reality, my father died of bone cancer, after a lifetime of enforced thinness, where he ate lots of sweets but carefully controlled his calorie intake. Yes, he was fashionably gaunt, but he died a horrible death in his mid sixties.
With a traditional diet, you can really have it all. The only thing you may not have is the glamour of an emaciated body. Glamour is a strong addiction.
My goodness. that was a powerful post..
This sounds really good, but I want to say that I have noticed a number of the “real food/traditional food” bloggers ARE overweight.
A traditional diet isn’t a guarantee of your ideal weight … just the easiest and fastest route as well as the best way to maintain. There are other factors that come into play like hormonal issues that may have been caused by factors completely out of your control when you were a child.
Don’t knock it until you try it for yourself though 🙂