If you’re an avocado, cheese, and nut butter lover…
My condolences.
In the lens of weight loss, unsaturated fats can be just as detrimental as saturated and trans fats.
9 calories per gram. More than twice as many calories as its partner-in-crime, carbohydrates.
Are avocados, nuts, and olive oil healthy options?
Absolutely: brain function, hormone regulation, and heart health;
It’s pretty important stuff.
And c’mon, people are just nicer when they’re eating cheese and guacamole. But because something is healthy for you doesn’t mean it’s an all-you-can-eat affair.
If your goal is to lose weight, it doesn’t matter if you switch Crisco for olive oil or whole milk for almond milk, calorie count is king.
But How Much?
Trying to lose weight? Cut 500 calories out of your day. That should drop about 1 pound of body fat a week without restricting too much, making it more sustainable and achievable.
Any idea how many calories a large Hass avocado has?
Four hundred.
How about two tablespoons of olive oil?
Two-Fifty.
A single slice of cheese?
A hundred
The hard part with healthy fats is that these tend to be the foods we can’t portion all that well.
If the chips and guac hit the table, I’m on a chip count and totally disregard the green heaps of goodness that accompany it.
And two tablespoons? I don’t know what the hell a tablespoon of olive oil looks like. Aren’t we just supposed to coat the pan?
Weight loss portions
Luckily, we’ve got our handy-dandy, completely personalized measuring stick.
Your thumb.
Your thumb should give you a relatively close serving size for fats you could have in a meal. For most cases, it’s 1 or 2 thumb-sized portions of fat per meal.
Two slices of avocado, eight almonds, and *thumbs up* this much olive oil…
I can hear the rumblings now… I’m dangerously close to a mutiny with this one.
So before it gets too far, I’m not saying that you can’t have all your favorite fats.
Fats can be nutrient dense health bombs.
Just be aware they can be calorie bombs too.
Jesse
Ready to get started? Click HERE!
