Can I get a refresher/crash course on fats?

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luvche
luvche Posts: 19
in Food and Nutrition
I thought saturated was the no-no and unsaturated were the good ones. Am I backwards? Because if I am not, I don't understand why MFP makes it part of my goal to get saturated fats but NO unsaturated???

I don't worry too much about it, but i would like to know if I am wrong or if I am right, why it is that I can have x amount of saturated but none of the others!

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  • hgycta
    hgycta Posts: 3,013 Member
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    Going off memory, Poly- and mono- unsaturated fats are the best fats for you, and they usually come from oil, nuts, and seeds while saturated comes from milk, beef, and heavier stuff and should be monitored. The reason the poly and monos aren't limited because if you stay within your goal for your total fat, then it doesn't matter how much you get since these fats are actually healthy :) The only fat you should try to never ever consume if possible is trans fat! This can be found in bakery products, croissants, and even things listed as 0g of trans fat (per serving). Look for partially hydrogenated oils on the food label, which indicate this harmful man made fat that raises your cholesterol and leads to all sort of health problems. If you want to learn more details I'm sure there's countless articles on google you could read :)
    So basically remember this:
    Mono or poly unsaturated fats: Good for you
    Saturated: Moderation
    Trans: Avoid
    Just try to stay in your goal and you should be fine :)
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,022 Member
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    Don't think of the saturated fat "goal" as something you're trying to reach -- think of it as a ceiling you don't want to reach, like the sodium and cholesterol numbers -- they're all derived from "do not exceed" medical recommendations. MFP is a little funny this way, treating "goals" most people will want to reach, if not exceed, like protein, vitamins, and minerals, the same way it treats ceilings that, in most cases, you probably are better off staying well under. And your numbers turn "red" (as in stop) when you exceed (or even reach -- if you hit your calories spot on for they day, your "0" remaining calories show up in red, like that's a bad thing), whether they're things that are "goals" that you're OK going over or things that are ceilings. Try tracking trans fat -- the goal is to have zero, but if you have zero, that shows up in red, because MFP treats a number above or EQUAL TO your goal as an alarming thing.
  • DatMurse
    DatMurse Posts: 1,501 Member
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    There is nothing wrong with saturated fat, please have a general understanding of what the rest of the world practices rather than relying on outdated information.

    The french have 2x as much saturated fat than we do and less risk of heart disease

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1768013/
  • luvche
    luvche Posts: 19
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    I wasn't so much saying there is something wrong with saturated.

    I am not worried too much about it-I am overall trying to stay under it. So I am not obsessing over which fats are which, again.....just curious as to why MFP would, out of the total suggested fat goals, put it at

    Goal:
    Saturated 15
    Poly 0
    Mono 0
    Trans 0

    Why are they making the "healthy" fats as "0" on my goals and the "unhealthy" fats as the entire amount of my fat consumption goal? That was my point. It seems the "better" fats would not be 0 as the goal.

    Today I was at 10 saturated, 2 poly, 1 mono. So of course the mono and poly show in the red. Again, weird to me since these are supposedly the better ones for you. Because I also want to make sure as I try to make smarter and healthier food choices that I get the appropriate nutriets I needs, while gradually lowering the excess of what I do not ;)
  • DatMurse
    DatMurse Posts: 1,501 Member
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    I wasn't so much saying there is something wrong with saturated.

    I am not worried too much about it-I am overall trying to stay under it. So I am not obsessing over which fats are which, again.....just curious as to why MFP would, out of the total suggested fat goals, put it at

    Goal:
    Saturated 15
    Poly 0
    Mono 0
    Trans 0

    Why are they making the "healthy" fats as "0" on my goals and the "unhealthy" fats as the entire amount of my fat consumption goal? That was my point. It seems the "better" fats would not be 0 as the goal.

    Today I was at 10 saturated, 2 poly, 1 mono. So of course the mono and poly show in the red. Again, weird to me since these are supposedly the better ones for you. Because I also want to make sure as I try to make smarter and healthier food choices that I get the appropriate nutriets I needs, while gradually lowering the excess of what I do not ;)

    why is your fa so low? as I said, there is nothing wrong with saturated fat
  • luvche
    luvche Posts: 19
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    My goal is at something like 1345 calories a day (as calculated by MFP). MFP had my fats at 30% of my caloric intake and I went in and customized it to 20%. Simply because I lost weight alone in the past just by keeping my fat intake at or below 20% alone. I personally think they have my caloric intake down rather low (depending on what source I refer to, it takes between 1800-2100 calories a day to maintain my body weight now......so why the 500+ deficit was calculated, I have no idea).

    Again, no one seems to be able to answe why all the other fats are calculated at 0 for goal.

    But it's not so hard. Work cafeteria meals are awful....not much to choose from since starting these goals!
  • bert16
    bert16 Posts: 726 Member
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    I believe all the other fats are set to a goal of 0 because many/most food labels don't specify how much mono- or poly-unsaturated fats are in them, which would make them difficult to track at that level. It's my understanding that the fat macro is set to cover all the fats and, as someone above already said, you want to avoid trans-fats, make sure you get your unsaturated fats in to increase HDL levels, and fit saturated fats in where you can/want. That being said, I'm not a nutritionist by any means, so this is just my understanding.

    ETA: 20% seems very low for your fat macro goal...
  • ErinNManley
    ErinNManley Posts: 1
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    Saturated fat isn't bad for you in the same way as trans-fats are. However due to the molecular makeup of it. (they stick together)
    they are much harder for your body to break up and digest. An excess of saturated fats do build up in your blood stream and cause heart problems. You need fat for basic bodily functions. Unsaturated fats are the best for you due to how the molecular structure is made up. they are kind of crumpled, so they are easier for your system to use and digest.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    My goal is at something like 1345 calories a day (as calculated by MFP). MFP had my fats at 30% of my caloric intake and I went in and customized it to 20%. Simply because I lost weight alone in the past just by keeping my fat intake at or below 20% alone. I personally think they have my caloric intake down rather low (depending on what source I refer to, it takes between 1800-2100 calories a day to maintain my body weight now......so why the 500+ deficit was calculated, I have no idea).

    Again, no one seems to be able to answe why all the other fats are calculated at 0 for goal.

    But it's not so hard. Work cafeteria meals are awful....not much to choose from since starting these goals!

    you lost weight because you created a caloric deficit ..not because your fats were low ...

    if you ate at 500 calories over maintenance and kept your fats at 20% you would still gain weight ...

    A calorie deficit creates weight loss, not what types of fats you do or do not eat...
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,021 Member
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    Saturated fat isn't bad for you in the same way as trans-fats are. However due to the molecular makeup of it. (they stick together)
    they are much harder for your body to break up and digest. An excess of saturated fats do build up in your blood stream and cause heart problems. You need fat for basic bodily functions. Unsaturated fats are the best for you due to how the molecular structure is made up. they are kind of crumpled, so they are easier for your system to use and digest.
    Sounds legit.
  • luvche
    luvche Posts: 19
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    My goal is at something like 1345 calories a day (as calculated by MFP). MFP had my fats at 30% of my caloric intake and I went in and customized it to 20%. Simply because I lost weight alone in the past just by keeping my fat intake at or below 20% alone. I personally think they have my caloric intake down rather low (depending on what source I refer to, it takes between 1800-2100 calories a day to maintain my body weight now......so why the 500+ deficit was calculated, I have no idea).

    Again, no one seems to be able to answe why all the other fats are calculated at 0 for goal.

    But it's not so hard. Work cafeteria meals are awful....not much to choose from since starting these goals!

    you lost weight because you created a caloric deficit ..not because your fats were low ...

    if you ate at 500 calories over maintenance and kept your fats at 20% you would still gain weight ...

    A calorie deficit creates weight loss, not what types of fats you do or do not eat...

    Well, I am aware what causes weight loss. All I was doing was making sure nothing I ate was over 20% fat in it and weight kept coming off. Of course, the lower fat versions were probably lower calorie also. I wasn't even looking at calories back then. I had severe pancreatitis thanks to gall stones and could not have surgery for a month. But I had to keep fat intake really low or the severe pain would land me in the hospital after just one meal (like the time I could not resist a grilled cheese with mayo-ended up in the ER with a demerol nap). I continued to make the same food choices for a few months after that and lost a good amount of weight.

    Still works for me now. almost always, when I don't pay attention to calories and simply make sure nothing I eat is above that 20% mark, I notice I lose faster. It is easier for me to eyeball the fat% on a label than remember the calories hen I don't feel like getting out my phone to do the MFP thing right then. I know what makes weight loss. And if my calories happen to be deficient when I do the fat % thing, then my statement is true: I have lost weight in the past when I would only eat foods with 20% or less fat. I know that is not what CAUSED the weight loss, but it was simpler than keeping track of calories and, by doing so, apparently kept my caloric intake down-as the weight comes off easier, in my case.

    Bert16: thanks! That seems like a logical answer :) I am not actually horribly stupid at this stuff. I pretty much just wondered, when given the choice, all my fat eggs were put in the saturated basket by MFP (so to speak).

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