does fat make you fat?

This one question is probably the one nutrition question that I've had the pleasure of answering the most over the past 26 years of my career and today I plan on answering it for the final time (NOT!). I can understand why some may think that fat would make you fat, I mean... it is fat right and you should gain more of what you eat right? well if that were the case then why don't we gain more muscle just by eating more protein (Isn't protein the building block of muscle)? although common sense would argue in it's defense the subject goes a little deeper... lets dive right in and investigate the question: "DOES FAT MAKE YOU FAT?" 

The idea that fat causes weight gain seems to come from that fact that fat has nine calories per gram while carbohydrates and protein have only four calories per gram. If you look at it that way then its easy to conclude that fat would be the main cause of weight gain. We've also been told since the early 70s that eating fat causes heart disease, In fact, this idea has been the cornerstone of mainstream nutrition recommendations. However, studies published in the past few decades prove that saturated fat is not as harmful as once thought.

There was a huge study published in 2010 and it looked at data from 347,747 individuals. They found absolutely no association between saturated fat consumption and the risk of heart disease. So now we have a new question... if fat isnt making us fat what is? In general there is one thing (that we have control over) that makes us fat and that one thing is... EATING TO MANY CALORIES. This one should be common knowledge by now. you eat more then your body requires at any one given time and your body stores the excess as fat. That goes for any thing that you eat... to many carbs = fat, to much protein = fat and to much fat = fat. So it's not just fat that we need to be concerned with.

So fat... you are officially off the hook for americas obesity problem but i got my eye on you!