| Unlike a few years ago, you now live on low-fat foods----lots of baked potatoes (but no butter!), pasta, fruit, veggies and fat-free cookies. You even refuse a piece of your own birthday cake.
So how come you've gained 10 pounds?
If this scenario sounds familiar, you aren't alone. Researchers from the National Center for Health Statistics studied the eating habits of 8, 260 adult Americans between 1988 and 2002. They found that Americans have significantly reduce their fat intake but still packed on extra pounds in recent years.
In fact, a national health and nutrition survey of over 8,000 American adults concludes that one-third of the population is overweight.
So where are those extra pounds coming from? Unfortunately, it's not some mysterious fat-producing ray from outer space. There's a common-sense explanation: Many of us jumped on the low-fat diet bandwagon and quit counting calories. We mistakenly believed that if it's low-fat, it can't make us fat. Wrong say the experts.
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Don't cut fat and maintain your weight. Here's more surprising fat news: Reducing fat might not be as "heart smart" as it sounds. Tufts University scientists recently put 11 middle-aged men and women volunteers on a variety of average, reduced and low-fat diets.
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| Don't forget about counting calories. Eat more calories than you need---whether from fat or carbohydrates--and the body will store them as fat. And eating excess calories is just what Americans are doing.
According to a National Institutes of Health study, by 1990 the average American was consuming hundreds more calories a day than he was consuming 10 years ago.
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In fact, the investigatiors concluded, cutting fat without losing weight actually increased triglyceride levels and decreased high density lipoproteins (HDLs) ---the "good" cholesterol that helps protect against heart disease.
Eat fat for a healthier body. So while excess fat isn't healthy, fat isn't a dirty word. Without some fat in our diets, our bodies couldn't make nerve cells and hormones or absorb the fat soluble vitamins (including A, D, E and K).
Certain fats, like olive oil and the omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon, may help prevent heart disease. And most people say a little fat simply makes food taste, look and smell more appetizing.
Determine your ideal weight. Just how much fat---and how many calories---should you eat to reach and maintain a healthy weight?
Since one answer won't work for everybody, you'll have to do a little figuring to find out how much fat and how many calories you can have. First, you need to determine your ideal weight.
Dr. Richard Freeman, vice-chairman of medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, has developed a simple formula.

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