My Big 'Fat' Questions

Hey everyone,

I have a couple of questions concerning dietary fats. I am recovering from secondary hypogonadism (the kind you can actually recover from) and I am thus trying to get at least 30 percent of my total dietary calories from fat in order to optimize hormonal function. Lately I have been making a motivated push to increase my dietary fats, and this has mostly come from the most convenient forms – oils, avocado, et cetera.

My first concern is the following: I am afraid that, by increasing the amount of monounsaturates in my diet, my ratio of saturated fats is becoming too small. I’d like to be at a 1:1:1 ratio. What are some convenient sources of saturates that I can try to include in my diet? For the record, I used to eat four whole eggs every day, which provided me with a solidly-apportioned fat and cholesterol supply, but my stomach has of late been protesting this.

My second question regards polyunsaturated fats. I love flax oil and use about 1.5 tablespoons per day. However, most of the fat in flax oil is of the Omega-6 polyunsaturated variety. I have heard bad things about such fats and I am worried that my Omega-3/Omega-6 ratio is being skewed because of the amount of flax oil that I consume. What is the consensus on polyunsaturates around here?

Thank you in advance for your help,

  • Ken

Read the thread “my experience on the anabolic diet” for some info on a great eating plan for optimal hormaonal function. Listen to Disc Hoss and Il Cazzo. This diet really helped my strength and hormonal function.

Beef and pork are great sources of saturates. Coconut oil is also a very healthy form of saturates. hit up the unsalted butter too. But I’d say beef is your optimal source and It also has tons of other athlete-type benefits. skip all soy just in case.

-chris

Thanks!

Yes, (thankfully) I have a mild allergy to soy, so no soy lattes for me.

I’ll try to buy not-so-lean cuts of beef, and perhaps replace some of my olive oil with coconut oil.

Meats, eggs, butter, whole fat dairy, coconut etc… Remeber meats arent ONLY sat fats they also have MUFA’s and PUFA’s as well.

As for the flax, Id drop all or most of it and go with fish oil and or fatty fish in the diet. The conversion of Flax to the EPA/DHA is piss poor at best and yes your getting a heck of a whack of 6’s along with the other sources you get.