Dietary fat plays an essential role in vitamin absorption and healthy development, but too much fat in your diet leads to weight gain, as well as other health concerns. To meet your body's need for dietary fat, aim to get 20 to 35 percent of your calories from fat, primarily from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Limit your saturated fat consumption to less than 7 percent of total calories and avoid trans fat altogether to promote heart health.
Step 1
Determine your daily calorie target. Your ideal fat intake is relative to the number of calories you consume. If you consume 2,000 calories, your minimum daily fat gram goal will be higher than if you consume 1,600 calories, for example.
Step 2
Multiply your calorie target by 20 percent to calculate the minimum number of calories you should get from dietary fat. For a 2,000-calorie diet, you would aim for 400 calories from fat to meet the minimum requirements.
Step 3
Divide the number of calories you need from fat by 9. Each fat gram contains 9 calories. On a 2,000-calorie diet, you would divide 400 by 9, for a total of 44.4 g fat daily.
Step 4
Keep a food journal to help your track your fat intake. Write down everything you eat, noting the calorie and fat content. A food diary makes it simpler to identify eating habits that cause you to miss your dietary fat goal, and you can also monitor and revise the overall quality of your diet.
Tips and Warnings
- To calculate the maximum number of calories you should get from fat, multiply your calorie goal by 35 percent and divide your answer by 9. Healthy sources of fat include cold-water fish, nuts, seeds, olives, avocados and oils, such as safflower, corn, soybean, sunflower, canola and olive.
- Too much saturated fat can contribute to high cholesterol. Trans fats also negatively impact blood cholesterol, raising bad cholesterol and lowering good cholesterol levels, and can lead to a higher risk for heart disease.
Member Comments