Calories vs Fat?

peaceloveabby
peaceloveabby Posts: 40
in Food and Nutrition
Just out of curiosity I've been looking this up and am still kind of unsure.

Which is better for you/better for weight loss?
1. A product that is higher in calories but has little to no fat
Or
2. A product with a lower calorie count but has a significantly higher amount of fat?

I don't really know which is more critical to controlling weight. Thoughts?

Replies

  • sunsnstatheart
    sunsnstatheart Posts: 2,544 Member
    A product? You mean one single food item? The basic principle is calories in vs. calories out. Not sure what your question is going for.
  • peaceloveabby
    peaceloveabby Posts: 40
    Yeah I'm talking about one food. Like if I have the choice between a variety that is high calorie and low fat or low calorie and high fat, which should I chose?
  • sunsnstatheart
    sunsnstatheart Posts: 2,544 Member
    Honestly, I think you're asking the wrong question. You should be eating a variety of foods and balancing your protein, fat and carbs intake.

    Please start by reading this and go from there. There is a lot of additional information available in this group so keep going.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819925-the-basics-don-t-complicate-it
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    Calories are the only factor in controlling weight. Eat all the fat you want and as long as you stay under goal, you will lose weight
  • karainwater
    karainwater Posts: 3
    I have similar questions. Carbs, fats & proteins are the 3 groups of food we are tracking. Which should have the highest percent consumed? I fave been watching my food intake and it is lways highest in carbs, then fats and proteins. What is a good balance percentage wise for these 3 groups?
  • SnivyToast
    SnivyToast Posts: 25 Member
    Fat does not make you fat, often it will help to keep you full longer. Do not avoid eating healthy fats (such as high fat greek yogurt).
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
    I eat probably far to much fat, significantly over what's recommended most days (>100g). I lost 30lbs doing that. Fat doesn't make you fat. In fact, it's fairly important. You can eat all the veggies you like, but you won't absorb all the nutrients in them until you get enough fat in your diet. Instead of looking into weight loss maybe you should be looking into nutrition. Make sure you get at LEAST .8g/kg of your body weight in protein (significantly more if you move), and enough fat to absorb nutrients, limit your carbs if you don't move much but the more exercise you do the more you'll need carbohydrates. Don't try to cut any of those things out of your diet completely, it's a bad idea.
  • zorbaru
    zorbaru Posts: 1,077 Member
    i once had a theory that if i only ate things that were 10% fat or less, then i could never go above 10% body fat.

    now i am on here.

    you do the math :D
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    I have similar questions. Carbs, fats & proteins are the 3 groups of food we are tracking. Which should have the highest percent consumed? I fave been watching my food intake and it is lways highest in carbs, then fats and proteins. What is a good balance percentage wise for these 3 groups?
    Read this and wonder no more:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

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