Daily Calories & Fat Intake

People often associate fat intake with negative health implications, but the nutrient is actually essential to proper body function. Fat helps maintain your body temperature, provides insulation, cushions your organs and makes up an important structure in your cells. Fat also provides energy in the absence of carbohydrates. It is important, however, to keep fat intake within recommended ranges.

Types of Fats

Dietary fat exists in four major forms: saturated fat, trans fat, monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat. Fats are categorized based on their physical structure and their chemical characteristics. Saturated fat and trans fat, which are often referred to as bad fats, contain carbon atoms saturated with hydrogen atoms and are solid at room temperature. The unsaturated fats contain carbon atoms that are not saturated with hydrogen atoms. These types of fats are liquid at room temperature.

Daily Recommendations

Your daily recommendation for fat is given as an Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range, or AMDR. The AMDR represents the percentage of calories that should come from a specific macronutrient. All types of fat provide nine calories per gram. The AMDR for fat is 20 to 35 percent of your daily calories. For someone on a 2,000 calorie per day diet, this would equal approximately 44 g to 78 g of fat.

Most of your fat intake should be in the form of monounsaturated fats. You should consume no more than 10 percent of your calories, or 22 g in this case, from a combination of saturated fat and trans fat. Ideally, you should avoid trans fat altogether.

Considerations

If you have any existing heart conditions or an increased risk for heart disease, your recommended fat intake differs. Those with heart conditions should keep their total fat intake on the lower AMDR range. In addition to lowering total fat intake, saturated fat should contribute no more than seven percent of daily calories.

Implications of Excess Fat

If you consume too much fat on a regular basis, it can lead to high triglyceride and high cholesterol levels. It can also lead to obesity and increased blood pressure. All of these conditions can cause heart diseases, such as coronary artery disease, and increase your risk of experiencing a heart attack or a stroke. It is important to monitor your fat intake, especially if you are at risk for heart disease.

Food Sources

The best sources of dietary fat are foods that contain unsaturated fats. These foods include vegetable oils, nuts, avocados, seeds and fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel or herring. Most of your daily fat intake should come from a combination of these foods.

Although they should not be avoided completely, foods that contain saturated fats should be limited. The richest sources of saturated fat are animal foods, such as meat, poultry, eggs, dairy products and butter. Some oils, such as coconut oil and palm oil, also contain saturated fat.

If possible, it is best to completely eliminate trans fat from your diet. Foods that contain trans fat include partially hydrogenated oils, fried foods, commercially baked items, shortening and margarine, according to MayoClinic.com.