Eat Fat to Burn Fat

Does eating fat make you burn fat?
…
Yes.

By that logic, will eating higher fats make you leaner?
…
No.

It’s often touted that you ‘eat fat to burn fat’ and this is true but not as people think usually.
It means that the fat you ingest, through food, is what your body will use as fuel, perhaps preferentially to carbohydrates depending on the makeup of your meals.
It does not mean that if you eat fat it spurs your body on to liberate body fat stores…unless of course, it needs to because it needs energy because it’s in a calorie deficit, if this isn’t the case then the extra fat you ate that isn’t fat gets stored as…drumroll…fat.

Now eating higher fat has a lot of merits. It can help people improve insulin sensitivity so they handle carbs better.
It also improves metabolic flexibility so that you get good at using fat for fuel too, where people are generally only good at using carbs. So then you get the best of both. Food preference and activity levels/nature of your chosen activities also play a role.
Many people also report more consistent energy levels and better hunger control eating more fat and fewer carbs. It’s very context-dependent.

The bottom line is that when someone tells you that eating fat burns fat, this is what they mean…although they probably don’t know that this is what they mean.

By Bodyfirst Nutritionist Brian Ó’HÁonghusa