Nuts and Weight Loss: Do Nuts Make You Fat?

Nuts and weight loss; it reads like a paradox that doesn’t make sense. However, once you dig into the science. things are simple and clear.

It’s true that nuts are high in calories, but the key concept is not to gorge on them several times a day. Add a few nuts to your daily diet, substituting them for other foods. You won’t gain an ounce if you add 1 ounce of nuts at least five times a week and subtract a food of comparable calories, preferably one containing saturated fat like cheese or butter. Better yet, add nuts to a calorie-burning regimen of exercise and work off those babies!

The truth is that nuts and weight loss are not mutually exclusive. In fact, people who eat nuts in a balanced diet tend to be thinner than those who don’t, because nuts are so filling and they help people stick to a balanced diet.

In one Harvard study, people who ate 35 percent of their calories from healthy fats (the common recommendation is 25 to 30 percent of calories from fat) were three times more likely to see weight loss than dieters who restricted their fat intake to 20 percent. While 79 percent of the energy of nuts does come from fat, it’s also true that nuts are low in saturated fat and high in unsaturated fatty acids. Interestingly, saturated fat raises blood cholesterol levels about twice as much as polyunsaturated fats lower them.

So, don’t be afraid of nuts. Make them work for you!