The normal amount of fat an adult should get per day is between 20 and 35 percent of his daily calories. The American Heart Association indicates that you probably don't need as much fat as you're getting from your diet; fat is a calorie-heavy nutrient that contributes to a thickening waistline, high cholesterol and an increased risk for heart disease. However, it's not enough to keep count of how much fat you eat; the type of dietary fat you consume also matters.
Dietary Fat Dangers
There's more than one reason to limit the amount of dietary fat you consume. Of all nutrients, fat has the most calories at 9 per gram compared to carbohydrates and protein, which only have 4 per gram. Fat-heavy foods are typically heavy on the calories, too. However, the Cleveland Clinic points out that eating too much fat is directly linked to increased blood cholesterol levels. A lot of high-fat foods such as potato chips and bacon aren't as rich in essential nutrients as low-fat foods. When examining the amount of dietary fat you eat, see where the fat comes from. The AHA recommends getting the lion's share of dietary fat from heart-healthy polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat.
Heart-Healthy Fat
Some dietary fats can improve your blood cholesterol, as long as you eat them in moderation. According to the Cleveland Clinic, most of your fat calories -- 20 percent of your daily total -- should come from monounsaturated fat; 10 percent should come from polyunsaturated fat, another heart-healthy dietary fat. Sources of monounsaturated fat include nuts, nut butters such as peanut butter, olives and olive oil, canola oil and avocados. You can find polyunsaturated fat in many plant-based oils, such as soybean oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, cottonseed oil and corn oil, as well as sunflower seeds and many salad dressings.
Bad Dietary Fat
Two types of fats should take a back seat in your diet: saturated fat and trans fat. These dietary fats contribute to high cholesterol, which puts you at risk for heart disease. Saturated fats usually come from animal sources, according to MayoClinic.com, although they're also found in tropical oils such as coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil. Trans fat also occurs in some animal foods as well, but processed foods that contain partially hydrogenated oil can be loaded with this unhealthy solid fat. The AHA recommends that you get less than 7 percent of your dietary fat from saturated fat and less than 1 percent from trans fat. Put these foods on your list of fats to beware: beef and pork fat, butter, shortening and many margarines.
Tally It Up
It can be difficult to track the amount of fat you're getting from the foods you eat. Dietary fat is listed in grams on the Nutrition Facts panel of the food you purchase -- not calories. To see how much fat you can safely consume, first multiply the number of calories in your regular diet by 0.20 and 0.35. For example, if you eat a 1,800-calorie diet, between 360 and 630 of your calories can come from fat. Divide these numbers by 9, the number of calories in a gram of fat; this gives you between 40 and 70 g fat.
References
- Cleveland Clinic: Reducing Fat Intake
- American Heart Association; Know Your Fats; May 2011
- Cleveland Clinic: Cholesterol Guidelines
- Harvard School of Public Health: Fats and Cholesterol: Out with the Bad, In with the Good
- MayoClinic.com; Dietary Fats: Know Which Ones to Choose; February 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Fat Grams: How to Track Your Dietary Fat; K. Zeratsky, R.D., L.D.; March 2011
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