New Health Guide

How Many Grams of Fat per Day?

Nov 10, 2013

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