Calorie content vs Fat content?

DaisyJane82

Question: is it worse to go over your calorie limit or your fat intake limit?

For example: yesterday I went to the original soupman and ordered a broccoli and cheese soup. (which I later discovered was a big mistake when I looked up the nutritional value online after lunch)

The calorie content was only 400 but the fat content was 38 grams! I have a limit of 40 grams per day, so that was pretty much my main meal in order to stay under my fat limit for the day.

I had a really light dinner so my calorie content was WAY under for yesterday.. which I know isn't good at all. I've heard a lot of starvation mode horror stories...

So I guess I'm trying to figure out which is worse? Fat or calories?

Acg67

neither is worse so to speak, but if your goal is weight loss then going over your calories is worse for weight loss then going over in your fat. there really is no ceiling on any one macronutrient

bcattoes

I'm sure I'll probably get slammed by some for this, but prevailing medical evidence is that people who eat a diet high in saturated fat have higher incidence of heart disease as well as other diseases. So, it really depends on the type of fat. For weight loss it's all about calories, but if you are trying to lose and improve/maintain health then you need to not go over on saturate fat too often. Other fats reduce the risk of many diseases though, so total fat is a different issue. But going over on any of these things for just one day is unlikely to affect your weight loss or your health.

If you are interested, here is a good article about fats. http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/Truth-about-fats.shtml

MikeSEA

The question is kind of complex in that different people have different medical issues that might be at play. Generally speaking, though, your body will convert and store excess calories (of any source) into fat. It doesn't care.

EDIT: as mentioned by others, not all fats are equal either. While calories are calories, they aren't all metabolically the same.

TK421NotAtPost

bcattoes, that is a sensible response which I happen to agree with. Although sat fats is a subject of some controversy, it's been well established that replacing sat fats with poly or mono unsat fats does improve your lipid profile.

The effect that sat fats have on your body is also context dependent.

To the OP, I wouldn't stress too much over one meal, however if you find that you are consuming a lot of saturated fat on a daily basis, you might want to consider planning your meals or at least think about what you are going to eat for each meal and reading up a bit on what types of foods contain a lot of fat, particularly saturated fat.