The Recommended Daily Allowance Of Calories And Fat

The amount of calories and fat you consume each day impacts your weight and risk of developing serious medical conditions, warns Dr. David Caruso, a primary care physician in St. Marys, Pennsylvania. To keep yourself healthy, you need to understand the recommended daily allowances for calories and fat and learn how to stay within the guidelines.

Recommended Calorie Intake

The number of calories you need varies based on your gender and the amount of activity you get on a daily basis. Determine the number of calories you need to maintain your weight by multiplying your weight in pounds by 15 for a moderately active man, by 13 for a moderately active woman, by 12 for a relatively inactive man or by 10 for a relatively inactive woman, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. MyPyramid.gov shows that for each decade of life beyond 20 years of age, you need 200 fewer calories.

Recommended Fat Intake

The American Heart Association recommends that you take in no more than 30 percent of your calories from any source of fat. In addition to this recommendation, consume no more than 7 percent of your calories from saturated fat and no more than 1 percent of your calories from trans fat. To determine how many grams of fat you need you must multiply your average daily caloric intake by 0.3, then divide this number by nine. The 0.3 represents the total amount of fat you should consume and the nine is how many calories each gram of fat contains. Replace the 0.3 with 0.07 or 0.01 to calculate saturated fat grams or trans fat grams, respectively.

Food Choices to Meet Guidelines

Lower-calorie foods tend to contain less fat than high-calorie foods. Replace one or two high-calorie food items, such as French fries, potato chips or chocolate cake, with a low-calorie food item, such as fresh fruit, fresh vegetables or pretzel sticks. By doing this you will reduce both your fat intake and your calorie intake. Unprocessed foods often contain less calories and fat, as well.

Meal Preparation to Meet Guidelines

You can add a lot of fat and calories to food during preparation. Avoid breading, frying, or using butter or high-fat creams to prepare your food. Instead, look for alternative cooking methods, such as baking, grilling or boiling. Use low-fat or fat-free dressings or dairy products in your cooking. Reduce fat and calorie content of your favorite high-calorie, high-fat dishes by replacing some pasta or meat with vegetables. Watch your portion sizes when dishing your meals.

Shopping to Meet Guidelines

Plan your shopping list to contain as many low-fat or fat-free food choices as possible. Buy items such as low-fat or fat-free dairy products, whole grain products, egg substitute, low-fat crackers, lean red meat, skinless poultry, fresh or frozen vegetables and fruit, and fat-free or low-fat dressings. Read nutrition labels of foods to decide which brand of food contain the least amount of fat and calories.