Almond butter bad for fat loss? page

[PrimalHunter]

I began going primal in December, starting with baby steps and ramping up from there. Although I was far from fully primal at first, I had made significant cutbacks in grains and sugar.

I lost 15 pounds in the first month, even though I was in "muscle building mode" and eating a lot. People noticed, and I had to buy smaller pants. I became more primal over the next few months, and am now pretty much completely grain/sugar/legume free.

However, my fat loss came to a halt after the first month. I still have a lot of fat around my lower abs, maybe another 15 pounds to go. I have now switched from "muscle building mode" to "fat loss mode," and am revisiting my diet to see what changes I need to make.

I looked through some posts on almond butter, and found that my consumption (2 jars a week) was extremely high compared to what people are recommending. So I cut out almond butter last week. I also cut out Greek yogurt (though I wasn't eating much to begin with).

So, will cutting out almond butter make a big difference? I understand that the omega-6 content is harmful in some respects, but what specifically makes almond butter bad for fat loss?

[JoanieL]

While in general, calories are not a part of primal eating, I think if someone isn't losing or gaining or even maintaining the way that they want, they should at least glance at their caloric intake.

1 cup of almond butter has about 1580 calories. That's about the entire daily caloric need of an inactive 135 pound woman. I don't know the figures for men.

I don't know how big the jars are that you were eating, but I'm guessing you'd have to eat a coat closet full of brocolli to equal the same amount of calories.

I'm not advocating counting calories here, just trying to make a point about very concentrated fats. We are machines, but we are also emotional creatures who will seek out what we love. Eating anything you want just doesn't work for everyone. If you take in more fuel than you burn, you gain; if you take in less fuel than you burn, you lose.

As a comparison, olive oil has about the same calories as almond butter. Would you be comfortable consuming two jars a week of it?

Others may feel differently, but I don't wrestle bears, so I count of the calories while staying primal about 90/10.

[PrimalHunter]

I forgot that jars come in different sizes. These are 1 pound jars - 28 tablespoons, 5,320 calories. Geez, that sounds like a lot.

I had estimated my caloric intake at as much as 4,100 a day, while I held steady at 183 pounds. My new diet that I started last week has me eating 2,800 a day.

I definitely agree that calories are a big part of it. I was just wondering if there was something about almond butter or nuts in general that caused fat retention, aside from the caloric content.

It's funny that you mentioned olive oil. People at work made fun of me for drinking olive oil straight from the bottle as a snack. It was pretty disgusting. No way could I drink 2 pounds of it a week!

[RitaRose]

It's probably a combination of things. When you're that close to your goal weight, it's not easy, no matter how you're eating.

But the nut butters do have a lot of calories without the satiation of something like a steak. It's really easy to over indulge. Try eliminating it and see what happens.

[PrimalHunter]

Hi, Rita. I recognized you from the "Funny CW Moments" thread...I've read like 400 pages out of 522.

Yeah, come to think of it, I guess nut butters don't offer all that much satiation per calorie. Hmmm...so what causes satiation then? Maybe we could just eat pure "satiety molecules" for weight loss.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to give it up at least for a while, and see what happens.

[tfarny]

Yeah, 10,000 calories a week from almond butter just doesn't sound like a great idea for weight loss. Calories matter, you know!

[PrimalHunter]

Yeah, but that's the curse of the fat ectomorph, isn't it? You can't simultaneously stuff yourself to gain muscle and starve yourself to lose fat. So far I've been stuffing myself since going primal. I'll see how a moderate amount of caloric restriction works.

[ChocoTaco369]

So, will cutting out almond butter make a big difference? I understand that the omega-6 content is harmful in some respects, but what specifically makes almond butter bad for fat loss?

"Weight loss" is controlled in 99% of cases by one thing: calories. Is almond butter bad for losing fat? Well, it is scientific fact that your body will not burn stored body fat until dietary fat has been consumed as fuel.

Two tablespoons of almond butter contains 200 calories. Similarly, 3.2 pounds of lettuce contains 200 calories.

So the question is, how easy is it for you to eat two tablespoons of almond butter? And how easy is it for you to eat 3.2 pounds of lettuce? Chances are, it's super easy to overconsume almond butter, but you'd never be able to eat that much leafy greens.

You lost weight cutting out grains for two reasons: you lost a lot of water weight from decreased carbohydrate consumption (that was probably 50% of your weight loss and it wasn't "real weight"), and the other half was you are consuming less foods that promote poor satiety and are super easy to overeat (grains) for foods that are much more difficult to overeat and keep you full for many hours (meats, eggs, fruits and vegetables).

I'd strongly recommend avoiding nuts for fat loss. They are super calorically dense, very easy to overeat, they don't keep me very full and they have poor quality fats and proteins. Are they delicious? Yes, but if you're not going to carefully monitor your consumption, they should be limited. If you want to lose fat more efficiently, eat less calorically dense foods such as vegetables and leaner meats. I personally have great success with things like london broil, pork loin, 1% Friendship brand cottage cheese and eggs. They are very filling, high in top quality protein, difficult to overeat and very nutritious. I can maintain a caloric deficit without "feeling" like I'm taking in a deficit. Nut butters send me way over very fast.

[jammies]

Have you ever watched a video of primates eating nuts in the wild? They work their little arses off for a long time just to split open one nut! Even with all that effort, it is still calorically worth it for them.

So nuts are primal, but only in quantities that we could have obtained. No way, no how you could a whole jars worth of almond butter if you were doing it the old fashioned way

[solstice]

almond butter with apples was totally my downfall for awhile---too easy to over-consume!