Learn: For women especially, fats are probably one of the most important macronutrients. Fats play a huge role in overall health and not including enough in the diet can cause a loss of menstrual cycle, irregular hormones, etc. Fats help with:
Hormone regulation - keeping the thyroid happy and healthy
Vitamin and mineral absorption - fats help make sure that all the nutrients you are eating are getting absorbed and used by the body in the best way possible
Act as slow-burning fuel for super long aerobic workouts - cross country runners, cyclists, etc. this is key for you!
At minimum, people need at least 60g of fats daily. Anything less than 60g, thyroid function starts to decline, hormones become irregular, and overall function starts to decline.
Now fats can be either healthy or unhealthy. Fats found in processed foods are not necessarily the healthiest option. Foods such as: avocado, nuts, seeds, nut butters, olive oils, and dairy are great options!
Because there are more calories in fats than carbs and protein, we do not necessarily want to eat a ton of these prior to a workout. Fats will sit heavier in your stomach and not give you that quick energy you need in a higher intensity workout. Following a workout, the body is trying to recover so eating higher fats immediately following a workout forces the body to spend more time digesting than recovering. Does this mean not to eat fat at all after training? Of course not! I would just keep them minimal, maybe equivalent to a tablespoon or so of peanut butter.
Ideally, we want to vary our fat sources so we can make sure we get variety in omegas and not just 5T of peanut butter every day (guilty!). Processed foods also tend to have fats as well, although those are not necessarily the healthiest options.
Exercise 4: Go back to your journal entry and underline all the fats you ate over the course of the three days. Were they all from processed foods? Did you have a lot one day and none the next?