Saturated vs. Unsaturated fats

poliver319
poliver319 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
SO I am confused. On the nutrition page you see a break down of Saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans fats. My diet consists of 1790 calories per day, and under my nutrition details I have a goal of 22 g of Sat fat, and 0 g of both unsaturated fats. This is what I am confused about. WebMD (http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/good-fats-bad-fats) states that the "bad" fats are Saturated and Trans fats. That for a 1800 calorie diet I should be consuming only 14 g of sat fat, and I should be consuming 24-54 g of other fats (I am assuming this balance is unsaturated).

So why does myfitnesspal.com have this wrong?????

Or is webmd wrong?

Replies

  • mlima14
    mlima14 Posts: 112 Member
    Why not ask your doctor, or nutritionist? I think that way you know for sure.
  • ldula88
    ldula88 Posts: 169 Member
    It could be a glitch in MFP. WebMD's estimation of the balance of fats sounds about right for an 1800 calorie diet.Trans fats should be avoided if at all possible. However, saturated fats actually aren't bad for you, as long as they are part of a healthy and balanced diet. The myth that saturated fats cause all sorts of health problems are mostly unfounded. When eaten as part of a balanced diet with the correct macronutrient levels, they cause no harm to the body. Check out the link below to learn more about why trans fats mess your body up:

    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-are-trans-fats-bad/#axzz2rAFjVlyH
  • HappyStack
    HappyStack Posts: 802 Member
    Not every food entry has all fats included. I see this a lot.

    As the above poster said, sat fats are important, the only ones you want to watch are trans fats.

    Don't worry about it too much. You're highly unlikely to be eating too much fat if you're following maintenance or deficit calories.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    The medical recommendation is no more than 10% of your total calories from saturated fat. I'm not sure what calculation MFP uses, but you can manually change it if you want.

    http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/fat/saturatedfat.html
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    There aren't any specific recommendations for unsaturated fats. Therefore, mfp doesn't give you an artificial goal. There are recommendations for saturated & trans fats, so mfp gives you those goals. Your total fats (also an mfp goal) will include all the fats-including unsaturated (which you can have in any ratio - assuming you're within whatever your total fat goal is). So mfp didn't get it "wrong", they just don't list artificial goals for a subset of total fats. You can change all of these if you so desire.

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