What's Fat Got to Do With It?

We’ve all heard that we’re supposed to reduce our dietary fat intake. But really, why? What does that mean?

Fat can raise cholesterol levels in the blood, increasing the risk for heart disease. Also, some fatty foods (bacon, sausage, potato chips), often have fewer vitamins and minerals than low-fat foods.

In addition, fat has about TWICE the calories per gram as carbohydrates and proteins. A gram of fat has 9 calories, while a gram of carbohydrate or protein has 4 calories. In other words, you could eat twice as much carbohydrate or protein as fat for the same amount of calories.

The dietary reference intake for fat in adults is 20 to 35% of total daily calories from fat. That’s about 44 to 77 grams of fat per day if you eat 2,000 calories. Personally, I recommend staying closer to 20-25%. But more importantly, look at labels and try to eliminate as much “trans-fat” as possible from your diet! This fat, formed during a process called hydrogenation, converts a relatively healthy unsaturated liquid fat like corn oil, into a solid one. This process gives food a longer shelf life, but makes the fat act like a saturated fat in your body, and may be even worse when it comes to causing heart disease. How do you calculate your daily fat intake? Say you’re supposed to eat 1,500 calories each day. If your goal is 25% from fat, that is 375 calories (1500x.25). There are 9 calories in each gram of fat so take 375 and divide by 9. That gives you 41 grams of fat in a day. Watch your labels to keep track, or use an online food tracker like on our LifeBalance Program or at www.livestrong.com.

Bottom line: Read nutrition labels on your foods! They will tell you the total fat, and indicate if there are trans-fats in the product. Many times the fat is removed from a product and replaced with sugar so keep an eye out on sugar content. Added sugar does nothing to help you lose weight! Find quality low fat foods like fruits and vegetables and stay away from processed food as much as you can.