What happens if you don’t meet you fat goal?

Gracecakes29
Gracecakes29 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am new to this tracking my macros, i can hit my protein and carbs but having issues with hitting my fat.. please educate me on this.

Replies

  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Depending on how much you ate of other macros and how little fat you eat, you may end up eating too few calories or be too low on fat, which is not the best thing for health. If you're not severely restricting fat and are just under by a few grams, nothing bad will happen. I find dieting easier on lower fat, so I have mine set to 40-50 grams, which is not too low but not as high as MFP defaults would want me to eat.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    It depends. On a short-term basis and if you're not that far under, nothing happens.

    If you're significantly low on fat on a long-term basis, it can have a number of adverse effects upon the body. Fats are essential for absorption of certain vitamins (A, D, E and K are all fat-soluble vitamins). Fats (lipids) are also essential to cellular composition/repair (the cell membrane is also called the 'lipid bilayer'), among numerous other functions they support/carry out in the body.

    tl;dr - it's not a good idea to eat a very low fat diet for a long time, for numerous reasons.
  • Gracecakes29
    Gracecakes29 Posts: 11 Member
    My goal is set at 78 and I’m at 43.. if i eat anything else my carbs exceed my goal
  • Gracecakes29
    Gracecakes29 Posts: 11 Member
    What’s a significant amount to stay healthy for weight loss?
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    edited May 2018
    Gracecakes29 wrote: »
    What’s a significant amount to stay healthy for weight loss?

    According to the FDA, the RDI (Reference Daily Intake) is 78 grams for a 2000 calorie diet. Scale accordingly for your calorie level.

    Another common recommendation, as seen here, is 0.35 grams per pound of bodyweight.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    It's okay for your macros to exceed goal or be under goal sometimes. What happens in one day is not important. 43 grams of fat would be at the lower edge of what I would consider acceptable for myself (like I mentioned earlier I have a lower limit of 40-50 grams as an absolute minimum for most days, higher is okay, lower shouldn't happen often). If you are at or around your goal most days, what happened today makes little difference.

    Fat is a funny macro. Unlike protein, it doesn't have an official personalized number range that is considered healthy specifically for weight loss because it's treated as a percentage of calories (although I have seen numbers thrown around but I'm not sure what they're based on), and unlike carbs, you do need a minimum of it to stay healthy.

    Don't fixate too much. Try to be in the ballpark most days and you should be fine. Trying to hit every single macro perfectly every single day is an unsustainable balancing act.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,089 Member
    Gracecakes29 wrote: »
    My goal is set at 78 and I’m at 43.. if i eat anything else my carbs exceed my goal

    The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine says "An Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (AMDR) has been estimated for total fat at 20 - 35 percent of energy for adults and children ages 4 and older ..."

    Personally, I don't see anything that suggests your body's need for fat decreases just because you're reducing calories to lose weight, so I would set a minimum goal of getting 20% of maintenance calories from fat.

    Don't worry about it for today, but for the future, there are lots of ways to increase fat without increasing carbs -- switch to full fat dairy; use butter or oil in cooking; on vegetables and salads; switch out low-fat, high carb choices for things like avocados and nuts.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,232 Member
    Low AMDR is set to 15% with saturated not to exceed 10% as per the 2010 expert consultation on Fats and Fatty Acids in Human Nutrition Report from FAO. All 189 PDF pages can be found: http://foris.fao.org/preview/25553-0ece4cb94ac52f9a25af77ca5cfba7a8c.pdf Of particular interest is page 30 of the PDF (pg 11 in the report)
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    @PAV8888 Thank you for this. It mentions 20% for women of reproductive age. I wish this was not a percentage, but I will treat it as a percentage of TDEE, so for me, my current arbitrary minimum of 40-50 grams corresponds to almost exactly 15%-20%. I already treat 50 grams as a minimum and 40 grams as a worst case scenario for most days, so I guess I'm good. Sorry for the highjack OP. I've been looking for a real answer for this for years now. Still wish it wasn't a percentage.
  • mywayroche
    mywayroche Posts: 218 Member
    Lower the carbs to increase the fat. There isn't a magic way to correct macros
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    edited May 2018
    Gracecakes29 wrote: »
    I am new to this tracking my macros, i can hit my protein and carbs but having issues with hitting my fat.. please educate me on this.

    Prelogging my food helps me hit my goals better. I have never really had trouble getting to or exceeeding the fat goal. I look at calories and protein mostly and don't worry much about the rest.
    Meat, seeds, nuts, avocado, fuller fat dairy, whole eggs, oils would add fat to your diet if you want to increase.

    https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/essential-guide-to-fat/
    Fat helps with the absorption of some vitamins. Too little fat consumption could lead to dry skin or contribute to health problems. Fat also contributes to satisfaction so too low of fat in your diet might lead to overeating more.
    https://www.livestrong.com/article/482359-sicknesses-caused-by-lack-of-fats-and-oils-in-the-diet/

    It looks like if at least 20 % of your calories are coming from fat you would be okay. MFP default for fat is 30% so you could go to settings and change fat to 20% and that would probably be close to what you are getting.
    https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/ask-the-dietitian-whats-the-best-carb-protein-and-fat-breakdown-for-weight-loss/

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