Eating over my fat grams...are there "good" fats?

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soccerkon26
soccerkon26 Posts: 596 Member
in Food and Nutrition
so lately I've been going over my fat grams (mainly due to eating pistachios and peanut butter and hardboiled eggs)

If I stay under my calories but go over on my fat grams, what is the consequence? And are there different effects for "good" and "bad" fats?

Replies

  • JPW1990
    JPW1990 Posts: 2,424 Member
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    There is no consequence. You need fat to absorb certain vitamins. Not even going to address the good vs bad issue, but you're going to hear yes and no from people equally convinced they're right. Fat doesn't make you fat, and as long as you're under on calories, you're fine.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    Fat is good. It is o.k. to go over as long as the calories are where you want them to be.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,953 Member
    edited February 2015
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    When people talk about good and bad fats, they're really talking about omega-3 and omega-6 fats. Our diets are supposed to have a certain ratio of one to the other (sorry, I'm not sure what! I think 2:1 O6 to O3? Maybe?). However, omega-3 is getting all the hype these days because the typical diet is now consisting of something like 6:1 Omega-6:Omega-3. So it's imbalanced.

    So it's not that Omega-6 (animal and some plant fats?) are bad, just that they typically out number the omega-3s (plants and fish?) the average person eats. You may not be an average person... I think a lot of people on MFP don't fit the average, since we're not exactly the carefree eaters of today... we watch what we eat.

    I highly recommend you do your own research on the subject, based on scholarly articles. It's on my list of to do projects as well..
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,028 Member
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    For weight loss, it doesn't matter whether you're going over in fat grams, so long as you're in a calorie deficit (= consuming less energy than you need to maintain your weight). Nor does the type of fat you're consuming matter for weight loss.

    For those that divide fats into good and bad fats (for their effects on things like your blood cholesterol numbers and long-term effects on heart disease), pistachios and peanut butter would fall into the "good" category.

    As for the eggs, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee just in the last few days recommended eliminating warnings against the consumption of too much cholesterol (which was the big reason many have advised against eating too many eggs), because of lack of evidence of any connection between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. There is some saturated fat in eggs (which is also viewed by some as a "bad" fat), but it has more unsaturated fat ("good" fat) than saturated. And eggs have lots of other good things: a decent amount of protein, and a range of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).

    I eat eggs (fried and poached more often than hard-boiled), but I generally try to buy the somewhat pricier eggs that claim high omega-3 levels (omega-3 is a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid that most Americans don't get as much in their diet as they should, in part because of the shift of animals from diets with grass, insects, and other "free-range" foods to diets high in grains).

    I hope that helps. Best of luck.
  • Natorade95
    Natorade95 Posts: 24 Member
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    MrM27 wrote: »
    Only bad fat is Trans fat.

    And saturated fat, obviously. High sat fat intake leads to plaque build up in arteries raising the risk of heart attack.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    ^^ This.
    Saturated fat is ok -- found in coconuts, salmon, brazil nuts, eggs, butter, steadk
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Natorade95 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    Only bad fat is Trans fat.

    And saturated fat, obviously. High sat fat intake leads to plaque build up in arteries raising the risk of heart attack.

    Uhm, that was debunked about 10 years ago.

    And there really wasn't any decent evidence for it being true in the first place. Saturated fat was labelled as "bad" by the government for political reasons.
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    soccerkon26 wrote: »
    so lately I've been going over my fat grams (mainly due to eating pistachios and peanut butter and hardboiled eggs)

    If I stay under my calories but go over on my fat grams, what is the consequence? And are there different effects for "good" and "bad" fats?

    The main consequence is that you'll probably live longer. Fat from natural sources like pistachios, peanut butter, and eggs is healthy. It's the refined oils that you need to worry about, mainly partially hydrogenated oils.
  • soccerkon26
    soccerkon26 Posts: 596 Member
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    Thank you all so much! I really appreciate it :)

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