How bad are trans fats?

[RodrigueZz]

Inspired by my recent acquisition of some poultry products I swiped from work (Wendy's) that are intended to be deep fried but will be served baked when I get around to cooking them. The raw product has 0.1 grams of transfat though (600 mg of sodium too... so 1 or 2 a day will likely be my limit).

In your experience how bad are trans fats for lean gains? I am currently trying to transform my body so as to go from 140 lbs bf<10% to 150 lbs bf<10%. Will trans fat consumption make this goal impossible?

 

[Labtec70]

Hi Rodriguez

Tut...tut...on swiping from the Capitalist's profit yield.

Trans fats are very similar to saturated fats in chemical structures and negative effects on health (CAD) with increased consumption. In saturated fats I'm sure that the hydrogen bonds are together and in transfats they're on opposite sides. There's no actual RDA - I don't think - on transfats but together with saturated fats they shouldn't exceed 10% of caloric consumption. If you're going for fat-loss then this will be less than 5% I'd advise.

 

[Headholio]

Hi Rodriguez

Tut...tut...on swiping from the Capitalist's profit yield.

Trans fats are very similar to saturated fats in chemical structures and negative effects on health (CAD) with increased consumption. In saturated fats I'm sure that the hydrogen bonds are together and in transfats they're on opposite sides. There's no actual RDA - I don't think - on transfats but together with saturated fats they shouldn't exceed 10% of caloric consumption. If you're going for fat-loss then this will be less than 5% I'd advise.

To help a little with this definition

Saturated fats have no double bonds (a double bond is a site of unsaturation).
With a double bond the carbon chain can be on the same side of the DB (Cis configuration), or on opposite sides of the DB (Trans).

As far as I know, all unsaturated fats made by biological processes are cis fats. Trans fats are formed by chemical or heat alteration of fatty acids (partially hydrogenated fat for example).

Trans fats are bad. .1 grams is a very small amount however.

For example: you eat 3000 cal/day. 30% of which is fat. Thats about 900 calories of fat which is 100 grams of fat. so 1 gram of trans fat per day would be 1% of your total fat intake.

 

[rcxman]

It's more likely that you will store trans fats as bodyfat. It's even worse than saturated fats.
And yes, just 1 gram of trans fat is very small amount...

 

[RodrigueZz]

The breaded chicken breasts have 1/10th of a gram of trans fats - would this be enough to hinder my attempts to stay lean?

I am also worried about sodium. The grilled breasts i grabbed have 720 mg of sodium. To combat this i soak them for 24 hours prior to boiling them. Osmosis seems to get lots of it out, and changing the water halfway through helps me ensure conditions are suitable for osmosis. Would 2000 mg of sodium lead to watwr retention?

 

[Headholio]

The breaded chicken breasts have 1/10th of a gram of trans fats - would this be enough to hinder my attempts to stay lean?

No.