Saturated Fats

[Scott Stevenson]

Scott,

I'm curious whether your opinions on saturated fat have changed since you wrote FT. My understanding of what is said in the program is that the jury is (was) still out on whether they cause health problems or not.

I'm asking because I'm trying to stick to the nutrition scheme of low carb pre-workout and high carb post-workout, but in order to eat sufficient calories this way I'm eating lots of saturated fat from things like ground beef, cheese, eggs, and milk, on the order of around 40-50g a day (especially on non-training days). In the past I've basically had to pound the carbs all day to meet calorie goals.

I cover this in my BYOBB Coach book.

Context is everything here, as well as one's genetic proclivities, of course, when it comes to how fat intake (amount, source and kind) affects cardiovascular risk.

You're shooting in the dark without some idea of your own current CVD risk and how that tracks with body fat, glycemic control, etc.

Replacing saturated fat food sources with omega-3 rich sources and using more monounsaturated sources would be my thought here, generally speaking. You can also go with more grass-fed vs. grain fed meat sources.

As far as your diet, I'm not sure how you've set it up, but I'd put in more carbs (peri-WO) to increase kcal vs. sat. fat sources on non-training days.

You're really asking for generalizations here, it seems, when what's most important is your particular situation (CVD risk, changes with diet and body comp, and the specifics of your dietary strategy, as well.)

-S