What Is The Recommended Daily Fat Intake For A Woman?

Dieting women often treat fat as their enemy. While fat does contain more calories per gram than carbohydrates or protein, a certain amount is essential to a healthy diet. Understanding how much you should consume daily will better help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

Significance

A certain amount of fat is necessary for proper body functioning. Fats make up the structure of your cell walls and pad the internal organs. Fat helps with vitamin absorption and regulation of hormone production. Fat also makes your meals more satisfying because it takes longer to digest and creates a specific mouth-feel. If you, as a woman, do not get enough fat regularly, you may experience interruptions in your menstrual cycle and infertility, dry skin and hair and nutritional deficiencies.

Recommendations

The Institute of Medicine recommends all adults consume between 20 and 35 percent of daily calories from fats. For a woman following the typical 2,000-calorie diet, you should consume about 400 to 700 of these calories from fats. Because 1 g of fat contains 9 calories, this means between 44 and 77 g daily. If you eat more or fewer calories daily, adjust this recommendation accordingly.

Heart-Healthy Fats

Heart-healthy unsaturated fats are your best choices to fill your daily fat intake. Called monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and omega-3 fats, heart-healthy fats can help lower your blood cholesterol when used instead of saturated or trans fats. Omega-3 fats may further protect your heart from disease and support brain health. Your body cannot produce omega-3 fats so you must obtain them from food sources. Sources of omega-3 fats include fatty fish, walnuts and flaxseed. Other unsaturated fat sources that may or may not offer omega-3 include peanut butter, avocados, olive oil, safflower oil, tree nuts and seeds.

Saturated and Trans Fats

Saturated fat is solid at room temperature and is in animal products and some tropical oils. Coconut oil, butter and lard are examples of this fat that has been linked to high cholesterol levels. You should limit intake of saturated fat to less than 7 percent of total daily calories, or about 15 g for a 2,000-calorie diet. Women should also avoid trans fats, a manufactured fat that has a long shelf life. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines for Americans published in 2010 recommends avoiding this fat altogether and the American Heart Association says it should never make up more than 1 percent of daily calories as it can both raise your levels of bad cholesterol and decrease your levels of good cholesterol.