Fat in Your Diet

Page Updated on July 28, 2007

You should limit your intake of fat to less than 30% of the calories in your diet.

You should limit your intake of saturated fat and trans fatty acids / hydrogenated fat to less than 10% of your diet calories or 1/3 of your total fat intake. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats should make up the bulk of your fat intake to help reduce your LDL (bad blood cholesterol) levels and decrease your chances of getting heart disease.

To calculate how much fat you should limit yourself to, you must know how many calories you need to eat every day. See How Many Calories Do You Need to figure this out. Then multiply the number of calories you need per day by 30%.

Example: 2000 total calories per day X 30% = 600 calories of fat per day

Each gram of fat has 9 calories, so divide the number of fat calories you are allowed per day by 9 to figure out how many fat grams you are allowed per day.

Example: 600 fat calories per day / 9 fat calories per gram of fat = 66.7 grams of fat per day

Now figure out how much of that can be saturated (or hydrogenated) fat by dividing the number of fat grams you are allowed per day by 3 .

Example: 66.7 grams of fat per day / 3 = 22.23 grams of saturated and hydrogenated fat per day (but less is better)

To figure out how many grams of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat you can have each day, subtract the number of saturated fat grams you are allowed per day from the total number of grams you are allowed each day.

Example: 66.7 grams of fat per day - 22.23 grams of saturated and hydrogenated fat per day = 44.47 grams of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat each day

Sources: http://www.eatright.org, http://www.mayoclinic.com