What amount of fat should you eat?

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Posted by Susan Bowerman, M.S., RD, CSSD, CSOWM, FAND – Senior Director, Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training

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There really is good fat.

I have a long list of questions I’m asked all the time, but they are hard to answer. Last week I was asked – for what seemed the umpteenth time—another question that I’m adding to my list: “How much fat should I eat?”

The answer, as you may have guessed, is “It depends.” Or, sometimes, the equally vague “As little as possible.” That’s because specific recommendations for the amount of fat intake are often expressed as a percentage of calories—as in, “No more than 25% of your calories should come from fat.” For most people that’s not terribly useful, since it requires that they a) know how many calories they should be eating; b) multiply that number by 25% to figure out how many calories from fat they should be eating; and finally, c) divide the answer obtained in step b by 9 (since there are 9 calories in a gram of fat) to figure out how many fat grams they should eat per day.

If you want to try figure all that out, it’s up to you—but I think there’s an easier way.

Rather than focusing on a specific target and counting your daily fat grams, you can just follow these guidelines for a low-fat diet instead. If you do, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll be in the ballpark of “25% of calories from fat”—and there’s no calculator required.

Stay away from deep fried foods—like French fries, snack chips and crispy fried meats, fish, and veggies. Obvious, yes, but eliminating fried foods and greasy snack foods cuts a huge amount of fat out of your diet.
Use nutrition labels to help you find low-fat packaged items like cookies, crackers, breads, muffins and cereals.
Use low-fat versions of salad dressings, cheeses, milk, yogurt, mayonnaise, sour cream and ice cream.
Eat more poultry breast, fish, shellfish, egg whites, nonfat dairy products and soy products for protein. They have much less fat than steaks, ground meats and sausage.
Reduce the fats you use in cooking. Sauté in broth or wine instead of oil, replace part of the fat in baked goods with yogurt or applesauce, and season foods with herbs, spices, lemon, onions, garlic, chili’s and other seasonings rather than relying on heavy sauces, gravies and butter.
When you eat out, order meats, fish or poultry grilled, broiled, poached, roasted or baked. If the starchy part of the meal is likely to be fatty, you can skip it altogether and have double vegetables instead.
Have fresh fruit or sorbet for dessert rather than pastries and ice cream. And ditch the snack chips in favor of raw veggies and fresh fruits.

Susan Bowerman, M.S., RD, CSSD, CSOWM, FAND – Senior Director, Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training
Susan is the Senior Director of Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training at Herbalife, where she is responsible for the development of nutrition education and training materials, and is one of the primary authors of the Herbalife-sponsored blog, www.discovergoodnutrition.com. She is a Registered Dietitian and holds two Board Certifications from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics, and a Certified Specialist in Obesity and Weight Management. Susan is also a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Susan graduated with distinction in biology from the University of Colorado, and received her master’s degree in Food Science and Nutrition from Colorado State University. She then completed her dietetic internship at the University of Kansas. Susan has taught extensively and developed educational programs targeted to individuals, groups and industry in her areas of expertise, including health promotion, weight management and sports nutrition. Prior to her role at Herbalife, she was the assistant director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, and has held appointments as adjunct professor in nutrition at Pepperdine University and as lecturer in nutrition in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Susan was a consultant to the (then) Los Angeles Raiders for six seasons, and was a contributing columnist for the Los Angeles Times Health Section for two years. She is a co-author of 23 research papers, 14 book chapters, and was a co-author of two books for the public: “What Color is Your Diet?” and “The L.A. Shape Diet” by Dr. David Heber, published by Harper Collins in 2001 and 2004, respectively.