She Lost 133 Lbs With Beef Tallow: Why This Retro Fat Is the Weight-Loss Fuel We Need
Beef tallow is back: women are shedding serious pounds with this old-school switch
Here’s a piece of weight-loss advice you don’t hear every day: Be more like a fast-food restaurant. What?! Or at least consider upgrading from ultra-processed cooking oils to all-natural, unrefined fats like beef tallow, known to have benefits for weight loss.
Old-fashioned tallow is trending, thanks to news that restaurant chains like Outback Steakhouse, Popeyes and Buffalo Wild Wings have embraced it for health reasons. And women like Kelly Hogan, 46, are losing serious weight after switching. Here, the science behind the retro and delicious move, plus the health benefits you can expect from making the switch.
Why beef tallow is making a comeback
Many of our grandparents enjoyed full-fat cooking using this affordable, wholesome oil made from raw beef fat and they stayed effortlessly slim. Now, some experts say it’s time to go back to those old ways. “Modern diets are full of problematic fats,” says Cornell-educated Catherine Shanahan, MD, author of Dark Calories.
Woman's World Answers
The fats she’s referring to are highly processed, refined seed oils. They’re nearly unavoidable in store-bought processed carbs and fried foods at restaurants, though some kitchens are now switching. Dr. Shanahan goes as far as to deem certain seed oils “the Hateful Eight” (corn, canola, cottonseed, soy, sunflower, safflower, rice bran and grapeseed) and calls them “the worst thing in our food supply.”
What experts say about seed oils and weight gain
“They promote something called oxidative stress, which my research shows is the root cause of literally every chronic disease, including metabolic disease and insulin resistance,” says Dr. Shanahan, citing her 2025 Frontiers in Nutrition study. (Think of oxidation as graffiti damaging our body’s cells.) Plus, the industrial refining process used to make seed oils “removes up to 90 percent of the important nutrients in the food,” she adds. That can trigger cravings and weight gain.
More bad news: “Seed oils destroy our metabolism because they change the chemistry of body fat, so it doesn’t function.” How? Cells can’t easily burn ultra-refined fats for energy, so pounds won’t budge despite diet and exercise. In contrast, our body recognizes—and burns off—animal fats in butter, lard and tallow like old friends.
Indeed, in research published in the journal Cell Metabolism, people eating unprocessed foods made with “bad” oils lost 2 pounds more in two weeks than when eating processed fare.
The top benefits of beef tallow for weight loss
Here are some of the ways regularly adding small amounts of beef tallow to your diet can speed your weight-loss efforts.
It fights hunger
The animal fat is a good source of cholesterol, and if you’ve ever felt full after eating three eggs (180 calories), but still hungry after eating a slice of cake (400 calories), you’ve experienced the satiating power of cholesterol, says Dr. Shanahan.
It boosts metabolism
Studies show that when some of the bad fats in animals’ diets were replaced with beef tallow, it lowered “bad” LDL cholesterol, boosted metabolism and reduced belly fat. Tallow’s stearic acid is also known to lower cholesterol.
It burns more fat
Tallow contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid proven to boost fat burn. A University of Wisconsin study found that supplementing with CLA helps people shed an extra 5 pounds of body fat in six months without making any other changes.
It reduces inflammation
Switching from oxidation-prone seed oils to beef tallow (or any natural fat like unrefined extra-virgin olive oil or unrefined coconut oil for plant-based eaters) eases the chronic inflammation that drives weight gain.
It steadies blood sugar
“Beef tallow can normalize hunger and fullness cues because stable fats don’t trigger the same roller-coaster blood-sugar swings that seed oils and ultra-processed foods do,” says Dr. Mercola. Bonus: “Tallow provides the raw materials to make estrogen, progesterone and other hormones that dip during menopause.”
How to use beef tallow for cooking (and skin!)
“Why not just go back to eating what we used to eat?” asks Dr. Shanahan. Unlike seed oils, beef tallow is rich in vitamins A, K and the slimming superstar vitamin D. Try tallow when frying eggs or potatoes, when cooking steaks or burgers or even in salad dressing.
People love tallow’s rich flavor, which satisfies to make cutting calories easy. Proof: People who consumed healthy oil lost 10 times more body fat than those who ate refined seed oil, found a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“If you’re trying to lose weight and feel better, beef tallow deserves a spot on your plate,” says Joseph Mercola, DO. He calls it a stable fat, since it doesn’t oxidize to become toxic. “In the healthy weight-loss conversation, beef tallow isn’t just a neutral cooking fat—it’s an active ally that helps your cells shed toxic seed-oil residues and run efficiently, setting the stage for sustainable fat loss.”
You can find it in stores with cooking oils. He advises: “Be sure tallow comes from grass-fed cattle.” That way, you get a concentration of nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids that are lacking in cows fed processed grains. Or use these easy instructions to make your own beef tallow at home using cooking scraps.
Kelly’s story: beef tallow helped her lose 133 lbs
One doctor warned, “Your inflammation is caused by carbs. We can keep having this talk until one of us dies.” So Kelly Hogan, 46, overhauled her diet, focusing on low-carb foods like meat and cheese under the guidance of her doctor, Benjamin Dunlap, MD. She started cooking her daily steaks in all-natural beef tallow. “I loved that it didn’t have a single artificial ingredient or chemical.”
Within two weeks, Kelly’s IBS symptoms improved. Within a month, she was down 38 pounds, and she lost 80 pounds the first year. “I know this was not the typical diet advice, but I couldn’t argue with what it did for my body.”
She feels healthier than ever
While following a carnivore diet, Kelly was an early adopter to beef tallow. “I love spreading it on my burgers. I even use it on my skin like lotion.” She also makes tallow snack “bites” by mixing the fat with vanilla extract and salt before freezing.
Now Kelly, who lost 10 sizes and 133 pounds, coaches people at MyZeroCarbLife.com. She says, “I feel strong, healthy and happy. It’s like I’ve lived as two different people!”
Best of all, she has maintained her amazing “half-her-size” weight loss for more than a decade! “If you’re trying hard on a standard diet and still struggling, it’s like trying to convince your standard car that it needs to be a diesel—it’s just never going to work. You have to try a different fuel!”
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