Fat is an essential part of nutrient intake for our body, but it may cause weight gain if taken excessively. So, it is necessary to follow a low-fat diet plan to balance or improve weight. But, before starting your diet, you must learn what it is and the benefits it can provide you.
We mentioned all the aspects in this article that can help you lose or maintain your weight. You'll also learn about the foods that are low in fat and what factors decide this. Whether you are a beginner or have some prior experience, these things are helpful to you.
What Is a Low-Fat Diet?
It is a diet in which you consume meals that are low in fat but rich in other nutrients. These are the unhealthy fats and cholesterol that play a role in gaining weight and having heart or gallbladder diseases.
A low-fat diet for gallbladder is necessary because your body can't digest fats with this disease. However, cholesterol is dangerous for persons with heart disease. So, having a low-cholesterol diet plan can allow you to improve your heart health.
The diet is effective with less cholesterol and high fiber content, as soluble fiber helps in reducing the cholesterol levels in your body. Some experts reveal that we usually intake 40 to 77 grams of fat in our daily 2000 calorie intake.
But only restricting fat can't help you lose weight if you are eating high carbs in your meal. So, it is necessary to control your carb intake when you are on a low-fat diet.
7-Day Low Fat Diet Plan
As this diet is mainly used to lose weight, it may also provide other benefits. It is a sample diet plan to help you understand it better.
Day1
- You can eat egg toast with ½ cup of fruit for breakfast.
- Take ½ cup loaded black bean nacho soup with ½ cup green salad.
- For dinner, you can have 1 cup of steamed green beans and 1 corn muffin
Day 2
- For breakfast, you can eat 1 cup of low-fat yogurt and 1 cup of cereal
- Eat tuna salad with boiled egg for lunch
- Dinner can include a Quinoa bowl with charred shrimp
Day 3
- Breakfast can include ¾ cup of blueberries and 1 whole-grain bagel
- For lunch, you can have 1 cup mixed fruit cocktail with spinach wraps.
- Dinner can include 1 cup of sweet potato soup with 1 stuffed green bell pepper
Day 4
- For breakfast, you can eat 1 English muffin with ¾ cup fat-free milk
- For lunch, eat ½ apple with vegetable soup and spinach.
- Dinner can include ½ cup rice pilaf with 1 cup steamed broccoli
Day 5
- The breakfast can include ½ cup oats, 1 banana, and 1 buckwheat pancake.
- For lunch, eat a chicken salad sandwich
- Dinner may include cauliflower chicken fried rice
Day 6
- You can eat 2 whole-grain slices with 1 cup of blueberries
- For lunch, you can have ½ cup tuna salad with ½ cup vegetable.
- For dinner, have ½ cup cooked rice with a piece of turkey breast
Day 7
- Break can include egg toast with avocado slices and blueberries
- Eat homemade ramen for lunch
- For dinner, you can have grilled salmon with brown rice
Low-Fat Diet Foods To Eat
To achieve the weight loss goals and stick to your diet or meal plan, you need to know what foods can help you or not. So, here is a list of foods that you can eat as low-fat food.
- Fruits and vegetables: For a portion of sweet and low-fat food, there is nothing better than fresh or canned fruits. These are also loaded with antioxidants that can improve your overall health. However, there are some vegetables like sweet potatoes, cruciferous vegetables, or mushrooms that are helpful in this diet.
- Beans and Legumes: These are low in fat and have no cholesterol. Thus, these are best to add to your food list for your diet. Moreover, you'll get fiber, vitamin B and other essential nutrients your body needs.
- Dairy: You can include low-fat dairy foods like yogurt, milk, and cheese. Most of the cheeses are high in fat. So, always choose the cheese which is low in fat and can help you in your diet. However, you should avoid cream and all the sauces in dairy foods.
- Meat: For meat, you can choose chicken, turkey, fish, etc, to include in your diet plan.
Low-Fat Diet Foods To Avoid
Besides the foods you should eat in your diet, some foods are high in fat and thus not suitable for your diet. Here, we have provided a list of these foods to avoid them.
- Snacks made with hydrogenated oil
- High-fat baked items like biscuits, cookies, or pastries
- High-fat dairy products like cream, ice cream, and high-fat cheese
- Eggs, meat prices with fat, hot dogs, and bacon
- Butter and oils
- Fried vegetables
Low-Fat Diet Benefits
By limiting your fat intake, you can have many health benefits. Thus, you can improve your health with this diet with the following benefits.
- This diet doesn't provide a strict environment as you can eat high-fat foods but a smaller portion. All you need is to control your total fat intake.
- Studies reveal that this diet helps reduce weight and improve health conditions related to the heart and gallbladder.
- In this diet, your focus is on the saturated fats that can help reduce the risks of cardiovascular disease. Studies show that persons who reduce fat in their diet experience a reduction in cholesterol and LDL levels.
- The most common benefit of this diet is to lose weight and improve health. Weight gain can potentially promote other diseases, so Losing weight is a great experience in this diet.
Thus, a low-fat diet may prove helpful, but it also has some risks. If you are following this diet plan along with adequate carbs in your meal plan, it can work for you. However, if your meal plan includes foods high in carbs, you won't see better results with it.
Conclusion
A low-fat diet depends on the conditions like your calorie intake, meal plan, and health issues. You can consult a doctor before starting your diet to avoid any risks. Also, make sure to add adequate carbs to your low-fat meal.