Healthy Fats vs just fats

gdwinco

Has there been any consideration of breaking fats down to capture different fat types? I get a lot of fats from whole food (Avacado, nuts, seeds, plant- based milk) vs other (meat, dairy, …). After tracking for a couple months I find exceeding my goals for fats doesn’t necessarily hurt my weight goals since healthy fats are the only way to meet my protein and calorie goals.

AnnPT77

In the Nutrition option in the phone/tablet app, or the Report option in web MFP, you can see statistics for polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, assuming you logged food database entries that had accurate data in those fields.

Generally speaking, none of the nutritional goals have a direct effect on fat loss: That's all about calories. Nutrients can affect weight loss indirectly, in that sub-ideal nutrition may trigger fatigue (so a person burns fewer calories than expected) or spike appetite (so it's hard to stick with calorie goal). The direct mechanism is still calories.

Protein and fats contain what are technically essential nutrients - essential amino acids and essential fatty acids respectively - so we need to eat some to get reasonable nutrition, because our bodies can't manufacture those out of anything else. Carbs are more flexible, because our bodies can manufacture carb-equivalents. The implication is that - absent a relevant pre-existing health condition - it's fine to be over protein goal or over fats goal or both, nutritionally, within reason; not a great plan to be persistently far under reasonable levels of protein or fats; and fat loss will happen at the right calorie level pretty much irrespective of nutrition.

I don't really understand your comment about needing fats to meet protein and calorie goals: I easily meet my (high-ish) protein goal, even as a vegetarian, but often have to pay attention in order to hit my intended fat minimum. Every eating style differs, though, and I do see quite a few people say they get enough fat without paying much attention to it.