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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
Would I able to use coconut butter instead?
Coconut butter should be fine too.
Sarah, Can you give us an idea how those percentages work out in real life? Maybe an example or two of a couple meals. I’m sure you don’t calculate your percentages at each meal….:) and I’d like to be able to get a real feel for how this looks on a plate. Thanks…
I’d love to read your thoughts on the book Trim Healthy Mama. It seems everywhere I go I’m seeing this book pop up.
I haven’t read it, but I do know that the plan recommends sugar alcohols like xylitol which are not a good idea. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/avoid-sugar-alcohol-for-better-gut-health/
Trim Healthy Mama’s is a great diet. I lost 30 pounds doing it. You don’t have to eat the sugar alcohols to make it work. You can do stevia, which is gentler on the body.
I lost 69 pounds following a HFLC diet. I live this lifestyle to control T2 diabetes without medication. My normal carbs for a day is 5 to 15 grams. I enjoy being healthy.
Question here: my family (my pregnant self, husband, and son) have been going strong on a WAP diet. My mother in law is moving in with us due to disability and other things. She has had a gastric bypaas about 6 years ago that instantly cured her diabetes that she struggled with all her life. Now her drs are saying that the diabetes “is coming back”. She has always been a low carb low fat (basically Atkins :P) diet, and her weight is coming back. I’d really like to help her with this diet, but she literally cannot consume that many calories per day due to her smaller organs…any ideas?
Dr Jason Fung advocates lchf and his specialty is eliminating type 2 diabetes. His website is intensive diet management. He could help Your mothers law.
I’m 20 years old, medium frame, 5’4″ and 140 pounds. I eat a nourishing traditional diet but have struggled with emotional eating…..all properly prepared real food but probably too many carbs. Emotional eating aside how long do you think it might take if I were to follow this diet to lose 20 pounds. And isn’t 2500 calories a lot for someone wanting to weigh 120 pounds? You’ve said that you lost weight when you started eating higher fat.
How long did it take you?
Thanks, Sarah:)
For me, it was just about having the baby weight come off. It took me a full 2 years after each pregnancy to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Probably because I nursed for 2+ years for each child … my body seemed to like to hold onto that last 10 lbs perhaps as a bit of an insurance policy for a nursing mother. But when I weaned (there wasn’t much nursing at the end either … not even every day so not a lot of calories needed for that end stage nursing) the weight came right off with no effort within a month or so eating exactly the same way. how it would work for you would depend on so many factors it is really difficult to say. You just have to stick with it and know that high fat low carb is the best way of all to lose and keep the weight off .. no guarantees of course. Just play the traditional diet probabilities and you will have your best shot at success.
This article was very helpful. Thanks!
I haven’t had much success in trying to add coconut oil to my diet. It gives me terrible diarrhea. I tried adding it slowly–just one teaspoon per day for a couple weeks and then increasing to 2. But when I get up to 3 teaspoons, I get diarrhea. Any suggestions?
Try taking herbal bitters along with it to help digest the fat better. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/bitters-invaluable-aid-to-fat-digestion/
I have been using Green Pastures Cod Liver And Butter Oil. Should I be taking the same dosage as the Green Pastures Cod Liver Oil. I have been taking 1/2 teaspoon during the summer months and 1 teaspoon during the winter months.
To make so much of your diet fats, how do you incorporate so much? I’d love any tips!! I already cook with coconut oil constantly. 🙂
There is raw milk and cream and butter (grass fed of course), raw cheeses, meat that still contains the fat (I cook bacon and keep the fat for future cooking especially potatoes or onion), nuts have fat but you want them prepared correctly. So basically slather everything in butter, ghee, or olive oil!! 😉 Also avocados have good fats and they go with practically everything!