How to stay under?

r61913

Is it possible to stay under the total fat? Today I ate a spicy chicken lettuce wrap and it was tasty but I clearly went over.

AnnPT77

AnnPT77

Yes, it's possible. I'm under my fat goal oftener than I'd like, unless I work at it.

But a maybe more important question is "is it important to stay under the total fat?".

If your goal is weight loss (or gain or maintenance), that's about the calories for the day directly. Fat, protein, carbs - they don't have a direct significant effect on weight loss/gain/maintenance.

That doesn't mean nutrition is unimportant. It's important for health, body composition, satiety, etc.

Protein contains essential nutrients, in the sense that it contains things that our bodies can't manufacture out of anything else, so we need to eat a certain minimum amount of it for best health. The same is true of fat, which also contains essential nutrients. Carbs are not an essential nutrient. That doesn't make them bad, but they're more flexible.

Therefore: It's good to hit your fat goal as a minimum, or at least come close. It's good to hit your protein goal as a minimum, or at least come close. Unless you have certain unusual health conditions (you'd know), it's also OK to be over your fat goal or your protein goal or both, from a nutrition perspective. It's less good to be consistently lots under your protein or fat goals. (Once in a while isn't a big deal.)

Right now, you're close to your protein goal (good), over your fat goal (not necessarily bad) and under your carb goal (neutral, as long as you feel good). From looking at your macros, you probably some calories left that you can eat. From the macros, I'd guess it's around 200 calories.

I think you're in decent shape for the day, and I'd think that even if you ate a little more fat as part of the rest of your calories. It might be good to top up the protein or even go over protein goal, and there's nothing wrong with some nutrient-dense carbs, either. Being over on fat by the end of the day isn't a huge big deal.

Your macros aren't like a magic spell where you need to be exactly exact every single day or you won't reach your goals. Pretty close on average most of the time is fine, with a little nuance because of protein and fats having essential nutrients in them, but carbs being more flexible.

Best wishes

Retroguy2000

You need some fats in the diet. So long as you are getting enough, total calories and protein as a min target in grams are more important.