One of the first steps to real / effective weight loss, is managing and watching what you eat. With this in mind, you need to understand the different types of food that you ingest, and how they may impact your weight loss efforts. Today we focus on saturated fats.

Saturated fats are the really bad fats that are blamed for clogging arteries, causing heart attacks and strokes, and also occasionally associated with cancer (particularly colon and breast cancer).

Saturated fats can be found in red meat, poultry, whole dairy products (milk, yogurt, lard and butter). Saturated fats can be good in that it’s a powerful source of fuel. If you’re dieting, some saturated fats can also help to suppress your appetite for hours longer than other fats (hence why the Atkins diet has worked for some people). Food that’s fried in saturated fat tend to have a vastly superior, but this can obviously be deceptive.

By and large however, saturated fats are bad for you. Eat lots of saturated fats for several years and it will likely result in clogged blood vessels. Additionally, the more saturated fat you eat, the higher your bad cholesterol, and it also seems to lower your good cholesterol. If you think exercising can work off saturated fat, yes it’s possible, but you’ll need to do a LOT of exercising to reverse its effects.

Stay away from saturated fats as much as you can possibly can. If you want to lose weight or maintain your shape, staying away from saturated fat will need to be a key component of your overall plan.