Tip #7
How much fat do you need?
Fat is necessary for many reasons! You need fat to help your body absorb and transport certain vitamins. And it is essential for healthy nerve tissues and cell walls.
Perhaps to your dismay, fat also serves an important role as body fat. The stored fat helps you maintain body heat, protects your vital organs, and provides you with a reserve source of energy. The ability to retain and hold on to body fat as a protection against times of food scarcity is an evolutionary advantage that humans have perfected over thousands of years.
We have not been programmed for life in a place and time in which there is continual abundance of food. However, there are ways to encourage your body to “let go” of the excess stored fat as well as ways to discourage your body from holding on to any more fat than is necessary.
Fat is important for another reason. Fat makes food taste better! It can provide you with a sense of fullness for a longer period of time than carbohydrates. Recent research suggests that protein provides an even greater sense of satisfaction and fullness than fat.
There are many different sources of fat and continued controversy among some experts as to which source is best. The majority of health professionals in the U.S. believe monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats to be better choices than saturated fats for overall health. I believe in the near future we will have a better understanding of the balance we need. What that balance may be will vary from one individual to another depending on one’s genetic makeup and the context of the overall diet and lifestyle.
For now, the most important thing for you to do is get a sense of how much total fat you need in a balanced diet. The National Academy of Sciences recommends that you have from 20 to 35% of your total calories as fat.
So how much fat do you need?
Action Step:
A. Determine the recommended number of calories you need as fat depending on your caloric intake (Choose to enter the calories you need to lose weight OR the calories you need to maintain).*
1. ____________ calories x .20 = __________calories as fat
2. ____________ calories x .35 = __________calories as fat
Your fat needs range from _______ (A1) to ________ (A2) calories with a total calorie intake of _________.
B. Fat yields 9 calories per gram. Given that, if you divide the number of calories you need as fat for a given caloric intake, you can determine the grams of fat that you need.
1. ____________ calories as fat from the lower end of the range
(from A1)/9 = ______ grams of fat
2. ____________ calories as fat from the upper end of the range
(from A2)/9 = ______ grams of fat
Your fat needs in grams range from ________ (B1) to ________(B2) grams with a total calorie intake of __________.
C. How does your current diet stack up with respect to fat?
To learn more, stop by the website for the Northwest Lipid Research Clinic,
http://depts.washington.edu/nwlrc/fis.html
and fill out the form you find there.
It will help you assess the amount of fat and cholesterol you have with your usual diet and give you some insight as to the kind of changes you may need to make. The results can be helpful for weight loss and better health.
1. Weight Loss: Reduce your caloric intake by reducing your fat calories. Gram for gram, fat has more calories than either carbohydrates or protein. But don’t overdo it! Follow the formula above to see that you are getting enough fat calories to meet your needs.
2. Better health: Assess your fat intake if you have a genetic need to keep your cholesterol levels in check to reduce your risk for cardiovascular diseases (heart disease, stroke, and more). (Note: This short assessment will only give you a sense of your fat intake by type of fat. Saturated fats seem to be a problem for many people but not everyone.)
*It is important that you get ENOUGH calories each day even when dieting. To learn more about the minimum number of calories you need I strongly recommend that you read my article posted on the Women and Weight Website with the title 1200 Calorie Diet: Getting Started!
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