Fat-Free Diet Exposed

First of all, there are two versions of this diet:

1. A diet that tries to eliminate all sources of fat.
   
   This diet is actually a very low fat diet. It would be nearly impossible to avoid eating any fat. This is, like any other macronutrient reduction diet, a bad idea. It takes the insanity of the low-fat diet to new extremes, producing even less positive effects and even more negative effects.
   
   Use this diet only if becoming fatter and weaker is your goal.
   
2. A diet that replaces many normal foods with fat-free varieties.
   
   This can be of value, depending on the foods so replaced and what you replace them with.
   
   An example of a bad replacement is fat-free (or low-fat) peanut butter. The manufacturer takes a very healthy oil (one that will actually help you keep the fat off your body) with one of the worst sugars you can possibly eat--maltodextrin. Fat-free yogurts with fruit flavors are also a disaster--read the labels!
   
   An example of a good replacement is plain fat-free yogurt. But, read the label to make absolutely sure it's plain and doesn't have junk added to it. There are some fancy names for sugar, so don't assume something listed is not sugar just because you have no clue what it actually is. Ditto for fat-free or reduced fat cottage cheese.

Where this diet fails

What matters is how many calories you consume, not how much fat. You can't escape the basic physics, here. It takes 3,500 calories to make a pound of fat--reduce calories, and you reduce fat. Increase calories, and you increase fat. It doesn't matter what kinds of calories those are--it takes 3,500 of them to make a pound of fat.

This diet doesn't address the calorie equation, but it does deprive your body of many important nutrients. And that means that while you are not losing the fat you want to lose (though you may be losing weight in the form of healthy tissue or just water), you are damaging your skin and creating other health problems for yourself.