Most diets fail because they ignore a fundamental truth about human biology: hunger always wins.

No amount of willpower can permanently override your body's demand for energy. But what if you could work with your body's hunger signals instead of fighting them?

This is where the ketogenic approach to fat consumption offers something revolutionary. Not just another diet, but a complete recalibration of how your body processes hunger and satisfaction.

The Zero-Carb Foundation

Before discussing fat's role, we must address the elephant in the room: carbohydrates.

Dr. Robert Cywes frames carbohydrate consumption through an addiction model. The goal isn't moderation. It's abstinence.

How much alcohol should an alcoholic drink? Zero. The same principle applies to carbohydrates for those seeking metabolic health.

The intentional goal for carbohydrate consumption should be zero. This doesn't mean you'll achieve absolute zero—incidental carbs exist in many foods—but your target should be elimination, not moderation.

This zero-carb foundation creates the metabolic environment where fat can work its magic.

Fat: The Misunderstood Macronutrient

For decades, dietary fat was demonized as the cause of obesity and heart disease. The evidence now points in a different direction.

Fat doesn't make you fat. In fact, consuming the right fats in the right way can be your most powerful tool for controlling hunger and achieving sustainable weight loss.

When you eliminate carbohydrates, your body needs alternative fuel sources. This is where dietary fat and body fat enter the picture.

Research shows that ketogenic diets suppress the increase in ghrelin (your hunger hormone) typically seen with weight loss. The result? Dramatically reduced hunger feelings even as you lose weight.

This isn't just subjective. It's biochemistry.

The Science of Satiety

When you consume fat on a ketogenic diet, several powerful mechanisms activate:

First, fat triggers the release of cholecystokinin (CCK) and other gut hormones that signal fullness to your brain.

Second, fat slows gastric emptying, keeping food in your stomach longer and extending the feeling of satisfaction.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the leptin/ghrelin ratio becomes more favorable for appetite suppression compared to high-carbohydrate meals.

This hormone balance creates what Dr. Cywes calls "chemical satiety"—feeling satisfied not because your stomach is physically full, but because your brain has received the proper chemical signals.

The result? You naturally eat less without feeling deprived.

Fat Fortification: The Practice

Fat fortification isn't about drinking oil or adding fat indiscriminately.

It's a strategic approach to meal composition that enhances satiety while supporting metabolic health.

Here's how to implement it:

Start with animal-based proteins as the foundation of your meals. Eggs, meat, fish, and poultry provide complete proteins with naturally occurring fats.

Then, strategically add natural fats to increase satiety. The key word is natural.

Saturated fats from natural sources like butter, lard, and animal products are more stable and less likely to undergo oxidation, making them safer for cooking at high temperatures compared to polyunsaturated fats in vegetable oils.

Dr. Cywes recommends these specific fat fortifiers:

Liquid fat fortifiers: butter, lard, tallow, high-fat mayonnaise, olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil.

Solid fat fortifiers: cheese, bacon, eggs, avocado, and pork rinds.

The distinction between liquid and solid matters because liquid fats enter your bloodstream more quickly, triggering satiety responses earlier in the meal.

The Protein Protection Principle

Fat fortification serves another crucial purpose beyond hunger control: protein protection.

When you consume protein without adequate fat, your body may convert some of that protein to glucose through gluconeogenesis. This can trigger insulin release—precisely what you're trying to avoid.

By consuming fat alongside protein, you help ensure that protein fulfills its intended purposes: tissue repair, enzyme production, and hormone synthesis.

Fat becomes the primary energy source, allowing protein to handle its structural and functional roles.

The Fat Fortification Mistake Most People Make

Many ketogenic dieters make a critical error: they consume fat indiscriminately.

Bulletproof coffee, fat bombs, and MCT oil supplements represent a fundamental misunderstanding of fat's role in a ketogenic diet.

Dr. Cywes is clear: "Don't put fat in what you drink."

These approaches may increase ketone levels, but they miss the point. The goal isn't to consume maximum fat. It's to consume enough fat to achieve satiety while allowing your body to access its own fat stores.

Fat fortification should enhance meals, not become meals themselves.

Sequential Eating: The Missing Link

Fat fortification works best within a sequential eating framework.

Sequential eating means consuming foods in a specific order: vegetables first, followed by protein and fat.

This approach maximizes satiety signals and minimizes total consumption.

By the time you reach the calorie-dense portions of your meal, your satiety mechanisms are already activating.

When combined with fat fortification, sequential eating creates a powerful satiety response that naturally limits portion sizes without requiring willpower or calorie counting.

The Bridge to Intermittent Fasting

Fat fortification and the resulting satiety create a natural bridge to intermittent fasting.

When properly fat-fortified meals trigger strong satiety signals, you naturally extend the time between meals without hunger or discomfort.

This isn't forced fasting. It's the natural result of proper hunger signaling.

Your body seamlessly transitions from burning dietary fat to burning body fat, maintaining stable energy levels throughout.

As Dr. Cywes explains, "Fat fortifying your food allows you to feel full very quickly, eat sequentially, and allows intermittent fasting to be not an obligation but just something that you do automatically."

The Sustainable Weight Loss Formula

When you combine zero carbohydrate intention, fat fortification, sequential eating, and natural intermittent fasting, you create a sustainable weight loss formula.

This approach works because it aligns with your body's natural hunger and satiety mechanisms rather than fighting against them.

You're not counting calories or forcing yourself to eat less. You're creating the conditions where your body naturally regulates food intake at a level that supports fat loss.

The key insight: hunger is not a willpower problem. It's a biochemistry problem with a biochemical solution.

Beyond Weight Loss: The Metabolic Benefits

While weight loss often motivates people to adopt a ketogenic approach, the benefits extend far beyond shedding pounds.

Stable blood sugar, improved insulin sensitivity, reduced inflammation, enhanced cognitive function, and increased energy are common reports from those who embrace this lifestyle.

These benefits stem from the metabolic shift away from sugar burning toward fat burning—a shift that fat fortification helps facilitate and maintain.

Practical Implementation

To implement fat fortification effectively:

1. Make animal products the foundation of your meals.

2. Add natural fats to increase satiety—butter on vegetables, olive oil on salads, avocado with eggs.

3. Eat vegetables first, followed by protein and fat.

4. Listen to your body's satiety signals and stop eating when satisfied, not stuffed.

5. Allow natural spacing between meals without forcing yourself to fast.

6. Avoid liquid fat calories (bulletproof coffee, fat shakes) that bypass normal satiety mechanisms.

The goal isn't to eat as much fat as possible. It's to use fat strategically to control hunger while allowing your body to access its own fat stores.

The Emotional Component

Dr. Cywes emphasizes that addressing the physical aspects of hunger is only part of the equation. The emotional aspects of eating require separate attention.

Many people eat carbohydrates not for fuel but for emotional regulation—comfort, stress relief, boredom, celebration.

Fat fortification helps address physical hunger, but emotional eating requires developing new coping mechanisms.

As Dr. Cywes puts it, find ways "to deal with your emotional needs through what you do, not what you consume."

The Sustainable Transformation

Fat fortification isn't a temporary diet strategy. It's a fundamental shift in how you approach food and hunger.

When implemented correctly, it creates a sustainable path to metabolic health that doesn't require constant struggle against hunger.

Your body begins working with you rather than against you.

The freedom from constant hunger and cravings represents perhaps the most underappreciated benefit of this approach. Weight loss becomes the side effect of a properly functioning hunger regulation system.

This is the promise of fat fortification: not just looking better, but feeling better and achieving freedom from the constant battle with food that characterizes most dieting approaches.

Conclusion

Fat fortification represents a paradigm shift in our approach to hunger and weight management.

Instead of fighting hunger through willpower, it works with your body's natural satiety mechanisms to reduce hunger at its source.

By strategically incorporating natural fats into your meals, you create the conditions for effortless portion control, natural meal spacing, and sustainable fat loss.

The key is understanding that fat isn't the enemy. Used properly, it's your most powerful ally in achieving lasting metabolic health.

As Dr. Cywes summarizes: "Fat fortify your food. It induces the ability to eat much smaller amounts because you're eating to chemical satiety not fullness satiety and it prolongs intermittent fasting easily without being intentional. You put all of that together, that is a ketogenic lifestyle."