Have a question? Fat is a completely necessary and poorly understood macronutrient, but this doesn’t mean we should skip out on watching our daily intake and eat a high-fat diet.
With this fat intake calculator page, we will find out how much fat we should take in every day for optimal health, along with some ways to look for it in our foods.
Fat is essential for optimal health and wellness, it’s found in every cell in the body in some form, and another main function is the regulation of hormones and bodily processes.
Not only does fat serve those primary functions, but it also is a high-calorie-dense source of energy for the body.
For these reasons, we need to know how much fat we should have in our diet to achieve good muscle gain and weight loss.
To use this calculator, you must input your age, sex, height, weight, physical activity goal, and current activity level.
You will receive the exact recommendation in grams of fat that you should aim for every day.
How Is The Daily Fat Intake Calculated?
This Fat Calculator Uses the Mifflin St Jeor equation, which most nutritionists, dietitians, and fitness professionals consider the gold standard for finding basal metabolic rate.
The BMR equation is:
- For men: 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) + 5 (kcal / day)
- For women: 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) -161 (kcal / day)
From there, you will then multiply by your activity level, which the number is determined based:
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- Sedentary = 1.2
- Lightly active = 1.375
- Moderately active = 1.550
- Very active = 1.725
- Extra active = 1.9
Your physical activity goal will adjust the total number of calories required: either losing, gaining, or maintaining weight.
- For weight loss, the calories are reduced by 10 – 20%.
- For weight gain, 500 calories are added to the product of the equation.
- For weight maintenance, the result from multiplying activity level by calories will stay the same.
To find the grams of fat we need in a day; you need to take the percentage of fat recommended in your diet, for which there are predetermined numbers. The number we have used is for general health, and 30% of the total calories come from fat.
This percentage has been found to keep up well with the fat needs that are associated with activity while ensuring you can still cover all of your essential fat jobs. This number may need to be adjusted if you pursue a diet like keto.
For that, we recommend you look at our macro calculator page.
If you were on a 2,000-calorie diet using the 30 percent rule we have implemented, you would need to take in 600 calories from fats. Divide the 600 calories from fat by the 9 calories per gram a fat molecule offers, and you achieve the number 67.
In this example, you would need 67 grams of fat to get 600 calories.
How Do I Find How Much Fat Is In My Food?
We can easily find the amount of fat in our food and meals by looking at the nutrition labels and then using a food scale to determine how many grams of fat are in them.
This calculator will give you the exact number of recommended grams of fat, and then you need to track the calories in your food to reach that recommendation.
Reading the serving sizes and comparing them with your portion sizes can be good. You could even have some pre-determined portion sizes that you always go to for easier tracking of calories.
Counting your macros doesn’t have to be hard, but getting used to it may take a little time.
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What Types Of Fats Are Best?
All fats are not created equal; we must aim for healthier fats when reaching our goals.
The unsaturated fats, both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, are considered to be the healthier fats along with the omega-3 fatty acids.
Monounsaturated fats contain one or more double bonds between the carbons, and they will be stable in room-temperature environments.
Polyunsaturated fats have one or more double bonds between the carbons, and they are unstable and liquid when at room temperature.
Ideally, we will get most of our fats from these unsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids.
An example of unsaturated fats is avocados, nuts, soybean oils, and corn oils.
For omega-3 fatty acids, we should look for food items like nuts, fish, and canola oil.
We have saturated fats for the types of fats that need to be avoided the most. These fats contain single bonds and will become solid at room temperature.
Examples of saturated fats are both butter and coconut oil.
Omega-6 fatty acids are also present in the diet and shouldn’t be focused on too greatly as they can cause blood vessel clotting over the long term.
Another form of fat that isn’t preferable is trans fats, partially hydrogenated oils associated with a higher risk of heart disease.
In summary, around 10 percent of our calories should come from the saturated fats in the diet, and the rest should come from unsaturated fats.
Does The Consumption Of Fats Make Me Fat?
In short, no, the only thing that makes you fat is the overconsumption of calories.
So, eating fats does not make you fatter, as long as you eat the number of calories to maintain or lose weight.
Most people believe the contrary, but you need to eat fat as part of a healthy diet, fulfill hormonal roles, and maintain cell membranes’ health.
Without fat present in the body, you would be unable to process and utilize essential micronutrients like vitamins A, D, E, and K.
We hope this article has helped you with your fitness and health goals!
Make sure to check out the many other fitness calculators that are present here on PTPioneer.
Tyler Read
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