Despite the prevalence of low-fat diets marketed in American society, fat represents an essential part of a healthy diet. Your body utilizes some types of dietary fat to maintain healthy cell membranes, while other fats allow for proper hormone production. The types of fat vary, and each has a distinct recommended daily intake.
Unsaturated Fats
The majority of the fat in your diet should come from unsaturated fats. These fats contain unsaturated molecular bonds, with each fat chain having a kinked or crooked shape, and they typically form liquid oils at room temperature. Unsaturated fat is further categorized into polyunsaturated fatty acids -- which contain two or more unsaturated bonds -- or monounsaturated fats -- which contain one unsaturated bond. Colorado State University Extension recommends that monounsaturated fats account for up to 20 percent of your total calorie intake, while polyunsaturated fats can make up 10 percent. Safflower, corn and soybean oil are sources of polyunsaturated fats, and olive oil is a source of monounsaturated fat.
Saturated Fat
A healthy diet should contain only small amounts of saturated fat. Saturated fats contain saturated fatty acids, which form a straight line. The straight shape of saturated fats allows adjacent molecules to pack closely together, causing the fat to appear solid at room temperature. Consuming saturated fat negatively affects your cholesterol levels, boosting the amount of harmful cholesterol in your bloodstream. Consuming too much saturated fat is also linked to prostate cancer, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Harvard recommends that up to 7 percent of your daily calories come from saturated fat.
Trans Fat
The unhealthiest type of fat is trans fat, made when unsaturated fats are chemically modified so they become solid at room temperature. Any product containing hydrogenated oils contains trans fats, even if the nutrition label does not specify that the food contains trans fats. You should severely limit or eliminate your trans fat consumption, as trans fats can profoundly increase your risk of heart disease as well as increase your risk of diabetes. Harvard recommends you consume no more than 2 g of trans fats daily to help protect your health.
Calculating Fat Grams
The recommended fat grams required daily vary depending on your calorie intake. A person following a 2000-calorie diet should consume more fat than someone following a 1500-calorie diet. Since each fat gram contains approximately 9 calories, you can use your total calorie goal to calculate your recommended grams of fat. Simply determine the number of calories of each type of fat you require, then divide that number by nine to get the number of recommended fat grams.
For example, an individual following a 2000-calorie diet should consume 400 calories worth of monounsaturated fat -- which translates into 44 g of the fat -- as well as up to 200 or 140 calories, or 22 and 15.5 g, of polyunsaturated or saturated fat, respectively. An individual following a 1500-calorie diet should consume 33 g of monounsaturated fat, up to 16.5 g of polyunsaturated fat, and up to 11.5 g of saturated fat.
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