Study Finds How to Eat Saturated Fats and Still Lose Weight

Nutritionists and medical professionals alike have long-since warned about the dangers of artery-clogging saturated fats, found in many common meat and dairy products. However, a new study has found a way to have your cake and eat it too.

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland published a study this week in the scientific journal Nature Communications that investigated how different types of fat are used and stored within the body, depending on a subject's overall health and fitness levels. And what they found was just five hours of exercise per week can lead to weight loss, even when consuming saturated fats.

To come up with their findings, the team took two groups of men; one group being described as "super healthy" athletes and the other with Type 2 diabetes who did little to no exercise. For the study, both groups "swapped" exercise regimes for eight weeks, with the healthy group going from at least nine-and-a-half hours of exercise a week to none. Meanwhile, the Type 2 diabetic group began endurance training for five hours per week.

Before and after the swap, the participants received injections with small amounts of different kinds of fats, and then underwent MRI scans to see how the fat functioned inside their muscle cells.

After beginning endurance training, the Type 2 diabetics were found to have lost weight and improved insulin sensitivity; as well as lowering their overall cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting glucose levels. As such, the findings suggest that in athletes, saturated fat is burned as energy, whereas saturated fat is stored in the body when it comes to subjects leading a sedentary lifestyle.

Professor Dana Dawson, Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine at Aberdeen who led the study, told Aberdeen Live that study also concludes that saturated fat is the "preferred source of energy" when used for intense physical activity in athletes.

"We discovered that athletes store and utilize saturated fat intensely for high performance physical activity and conversely in people with Type 2 diabetes, we observed predominantly storage," Dawson explained. "We also showed in people with Type 2 diabetes that endurance exercise training increased the storage and utilization of saturated fat in their skeletal muscle cells to the extent that they became similar to the deconditioned athletes after eight weeks of training."

Dawson noted that the important takeaway of the study is that it rules out a "one size fits all" approach to cardio-metabolic health, in terms of how efficiently the body can use different fats as fuel.

"These results are completely novel and highlight how keeping fit and active improves metabolism of saturated fat as a direct benefit of exercise," she added.

So go ahead and reach for the bacon—just make sure to get a 5K in after.