How much (fat) is too much?

NurseJilly76

Okay, so I'm still kind of a LCHF virgin. I'm reading as much as I can, and watching videos/documentaries, but haven't yet come across any guidelines for how much fat/cholesterol is too much. For the last 2 days, I've gone waaaaaay over MFP's daily recommended fat and cholesterol "goals". I know that I've been eating correctly, and keeping my carbs under 40-50g/day, but my 30+ years of low fat brainwashing has me worried that I'm going to overdose on fats, and have a massive MI (heart attack) any day now! Irrational, I know, but still worried.

Twibbly

My current fat goal is 140g per day, or 75%. Don't be afraid of the fat.

JPW1990

use this to figure out your goals:
http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

Set your carbs to where you want them, and it will coach you on the rest based on how active you are and how fast you want to lose.

Then on a computer (not mobile), use this to enter exactly those goals in the advanced option, and override whatever MFP puts in. This lets you adjust them to exact grams instead of 5% increments:
http://karoshiethos.com/2013/08/13/javascript-bookmarklet-for-enhanced-macro-goals-in-myfitnesspal/

If you don't want to use that second part, just set MFP to as close as you can get to the ratio you really want, but it will round your grams the way it chooses.

Once you figure that out, protein is a priority, carbs is what you don't exceed, and fat is what you eat so you're not hungry.

NurseJilly76

Thanks! Just used the keto calculator, and adjusted my goals! That cholesterol intake is still bothering me, though! And on my Jawbone app (for step & sleep tracking), it's rating my daily food intake at <5/10 every day! May have to figure out if I can adjust that as well, or just live with it.

FIT_Goat

My fat goal is around 200g a day. My cholesterol goal is to ignore dietary cholesterol entirely. I average 400-500% the goal MFP has set for me (300 mg). I forget if that's the original amount or if that's above what I raised it to. I eat 1200-1600 mg of cholesterol a day. There's no reason to restrict dietary cholesterol to any degree.

There's also no reason to worry about fat or saturated fat (I average about 90g of that alone).

camtosh

Read Cholesterol Clarity by Jimmy Moore to understand why you don't need to fear fat and why you need (the right kind of HDL) cholesterol to protect your heart. Once you understand the science of it all, it is easier. My fat goal is 103 grams per day, which I don't always hit. I feel too full.