Fat plays an important and essential role of our daily diet and is an integral substance for human body and brain development. A proper balanced diet consists of vegetables, fruits, meat, beans and whole grains with moderate quantity of sugar and fats. Transitioning to a low fat diet is not always an effective approach in the maintainence of overall health until and unless prescribed by the doctor due to a health issue.
It is essential to know the amount of fat you should ideally consume per day in order to better regulate your health and overall well-being. Also, it’s better to consume good fats rather than bad fats.
How Many Grams of Fat per Day?
There are a number of factors that must be considered in determining the total fat intake via diet:
General Guidelines for Calorie Intake
Following are some general guidelines which are helpful in counting right number of calories for the daily diet and maintain the weight for you.
- Older adults and woman with lesser activity requires 1600 calories per day.
- Active women, teenage girls, less active men and most of the children requires 2200 calories per day
- Teenage boys, very active women and active men require 2800 calories per day.
- If a person is looking forward to lose weight, then he or she requires lesser calories. The nutritionist or doctor can tell the suitable calorie amount required by the body.
General Guidelines for Daily Fat Intake
After knowing the amount of calories you require each day, you can take help from the chart below to sort the quantity of total saturated fats and unsaturated fats your body need on daily basis. These are the average figures, suggesting that if you have consumed high fat food one day then you can balance it by consuming foods with lesser fat content the next day. This phenomenon is called fat budgeting. The figures mention is the chart is for healthy adults. If you or your loved-ones have a cardiac condition, it is recommended to seek help from your doctor to further modify or reduce the recommended fat intake.
The method of using the chart is to look down first at the left hand column to sort your total desired calories consumption per day. You can get this information from the chart:
- Number of calories which can be obtained from dietary fat
- Total amount of fat in grams delivered by dietary fat
- Number of calories which can be obtained from saturated fat
- Total amount of saturated fat in grams delivered by dietary fat
How Much Fat Can I Eat?
| Your Total Daily Calories | Recommended Maximum Calories From Fat | Recommended Maximum Grams of Fat* | Recommended Maximum Calories From Saturated Fat** | Recommended Maximum Grams of Saturated Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,600 |
400 to 560 |
44 to 62 |
112 or less |
12 or less |
| 1,800 |
450 to 630 |
50 to 70 |
126 or less |
14 or less |
| 2,000 |
500 to 700 |
56 to 78 |
140 or less |
16 or less |
| 2,200 |
550 to 770 |
61 to 86 |
154 or less |
17 or less |
| 2,400 |
600 to 840 |
67 to 93 |
168 or less |
19 or less |
| 2,600 |
650 to 910 |
72 to 101 |
182 or less |
20 or less |
| 2,800 |
700 to 980 |
78 to 109 |
196 or less |
22 or less |
* Following this, you will receive the suggested 25% - 35% or fewer calories from fat.
** Following this, you will receive the suggested fewer than 7% calories from saturated fat.
What Are the Good Fats and Bad Fats?
Fats namely monounsaturated and polyunsaturated are considered as good fats, as they are healthy for the heart, cholesterol and the overall health of an individual. Conversely saturated or trans-fat are generally considered bad fat because of the tendency of fat molecules to clog the lumen of small blood vessels.
In addition, bad quality fats also enhance the risk of other degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, senile dementia or pre- mature dementia.
On comparison, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats both exists in liquid form at room temperature just like canola oil and olive oil. On the other hand saturated fats and trans-fats exist in the form of solid at room temperature like margarine and butter.
General Guidelines
It is important to eat fats in your daily diet rather than consuming no fats at all. If you are concerned about your physical, mental or cardiac health, it is recommended to replace trans-fats and saturated fats with monounsaturated and poly unsaturated fats. Like use olive oil instead of butter or consume legumes and beans instead of meat.
- Discard trans-fat from your diet and always see the label if your food contain trans-fats or unhealthy preservatives or by- products. Also try to limit the intake of fast food that is rich in unsaturated fatty acids.
- Increase the intake of suitable amounts of saturated fat by avoiding red meat and fat rich dairy items. Replace red meat with nuts, beans, fish and poultry. Switch from full-fat dairy items to fat-free products.
- Consume Omega-3 fatty acids (both in supplemental form and as part of your daily diet). Fish, ground flax seeds, canola oil, flaxseed oil, soybean oil and walnuts are good sources of omega 3.
| Good Fats | |
|---|---|
| Monounsaturated Fat |
Polyunsaturated Fat |
| Canola oil Olive oil Sunflower oil Sesame oil Peanut oil Olives Avocados Nuts like hazelnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, peanuts, cashews and pecans) Peanut butter |
Safflower oil Soybean oil Corn oil Sesame, Sunflower, flaxseed and pumpkin seeds Walnuts Fatty fish like tuna, salmon, herring, mackerel, trout and sardines Tofu Soymilk |
| Bad Fats | |
|---|---|
| Saturated Fat |
Trans Fat |
| High-fat cuts of meat such as beef, pork and lamb Chicken with its skin Whole-fat dairy products like cream and milk Cheese Butter Ice cream Lard Palm and coconut oil |
Commercially available baked pastries, doughnuts, cookies, doughnuts, pizza dough, cakes and muffins. Packaged snack foods like microwave popcorns, crackers, and chips. Vegetable shortening Stick margarine Fried foods like fried chicken, French fries, chicken nuggets and breaded fish) Candy bars |