Boost Calories with Olive Oil Shots?!
Question:
Dear Dr. Hyght…
Even Hot Girls Shoot Olive Oil!
Since I have a hard time getting in enough calories (all clean foods of course), I’ve been considering adding (extra virgin) olive oil shots, but when I read the label I saw that it has about 14 grams of saturated fat out of a total 90 grams of fat. Isn’t that a bit high, considering that olive oil is supposed to be healthy?
Should I worry about the saturated fat when it comes to using olive oil as a “calorie bonus”? I’m a 135′er, trying to hit 2600-2800 cals a day.
Thanks in advance! Best, Brian
Answer:
Brian, for starters, Dr Hyght sounds seems so formal. And since I wear flip-flops about 50% of the time, I don’t deserve that. So let’s go with Dr Clay or Dr C. That way I won’t feel like a fraud. 
Olive oil shots (recently made popular by Dante Trudell of Dogg Crapp fame) are a good way to boost calories for ectomorphs like yourself who are trying to gain weight. But I have an even BETTER idea!
But first, let’s get the calories and fat in olive oil squared away so we’re on the same page.
Olive Oil Nutritional Value
- Serving Size: 1 tablespoon (tbsp)
- Fat (total): 13.5 grams
- Saturated Fat: 1.9 grams
- Monounsaturated Fat: 9.9 grams
- Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.4 grams
- Calories: 120
To consume 90 grams of fat from Olive Oil you’d have to consume over 6 1/2 tbsp Olive
High Quality Liquid Fish Oil
Oil…which I do NOT recommend!! Partly because you’d be having almost 800 calories of oil all at once, and partly because you’d be pooping like an owl with a greased rectum. Talk about a “calorie bonus!”
As for the saturated fat content: only about 14% of the fat in olive oil is saturated fat, so that’s quite low. Besides, it’s WELL proven that olive oil is healthy, so even if it had 50% saturated fat, if it’s healthy, it’s healthy. And that brings me to my next point…
Saturated fat is NOT evil! In fact, it’s very much needed by the body for optimal functioning and performance. For example, saturated fat intake is correlated with testosterone production. Consuming too little saturated fat lowers testosterone production in men. So unless you wanna be Brittany instead of Brian, you need some saturated fat.
A Better Option that Olive Oil Shooters
You could make your ‘oil shooting’ FAR better nutritionally by consuming one tbsp Flax Oil for every tbsp of Olive Oil you shoot. An even BETTER option would be to consume liquid Fish Oil instead of flax oil, as fish oil has DHA/EPA in it.
Best,
Dr Clay
LOL.
Good post Clay, cheers.
fatty! j/k
Another thing that has proven very sucessful is to add heavy whipping cream to your protein shakes.
“an owl with a greased rectum” where do come up with this stuff? Oh yeah, now I remember you are from Alabama like me. Great idea with the Flax Oil. It even helps my joints feel better.
What about cooking with coconut oil?
That’s actually a great idea as well, especially if one is on a low carb diet – or trying to gain weight as mentioned here. If I recall, it has a pretty high melting point thus great for high-temp cooking.