Eating too much fat!
RedRaven49
Posts: 52 Member
I have found through MFP that my intake of fat is consistently more than I should be eating. I'm wondering if you have any tips about decreasing fat intake in general, for example, are low-fat substitutions a good choice?
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Replies
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Low-fat products often have more sodium and sugar. I use some to cut overall calories in my day, but fat helps with satiety and going to the bathroom. Do you have a specific medical reason to be concerned about fat intake?0
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BTW, many people on here see the fat macro as a minimum.0
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How much fat is MFP setup for and how much do you go over? OR better yet, what are the percentages setup for and what does your typical daily calories look like at the end of the day based on all macros at these percentages..
It would be helpful if you would open your diary for this thread..0 -
What are you eating that is high in fat? How about vegetables, fruit, lean turkey breast, chicken breast, tuna, egg whites, bread, oatmeal. These are all low in fat.0
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How high is your intake? (Your diary's private). I've customised my fat to 35% and use it as a MINIMUM if that's any help.
Edit: percentage isn't even a good example as we're all eating a different amount of calories - I chose my %age based on 0.4 g per lb bodyweight.0 -
If you want to decrease your fat, increase your carbohydrates and protein. Sounds silly, but think of it that way.0
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I use fake butter from various brands as well as fat free cheeses, yogurts, and sour creams. I get most of my fats from olive oil and from whole eggs.0
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barbecuesauce wrote: »Do you have a specific medical reason to be concerned about fat intake?
I don't have any specific medical reason, I just find myself always going over the limits for fat, even if I have loads of everything else left at the end of the day.How much fat is MFP setup for and how much do you go over? OR better yet, what are the percentages setup for and what does your typical daily calories look like at the end of the day based on all macros at these percentages..
It's set up at 80, and I usually go over by about 20.0 -
They're not limits. They're minimums. Going over isn't an issue - going under is.0
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Unless your fat intake is putting you over your calories, it's fine. I actually found that lowering my carbs limit and increasing fat (and protein) helped me feel fuller, thus stay within my calorie goal.0
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Same problem here. MFP gives me 40g/day and I keep getting around 60. The app I used before gave me 50g but I was still at 60. It's my magic number it seems.0
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RedRaven49 wrote: »barbecuesauce wrote: »Do you have a specific medical reason to be concerned about fat intake?
I don't have any specific medical reason, I just find myself always going over the limits for fat, even if I have loads of everything else left at the end of the day.How much fat is MFP setup for and how much do you go over? OR better yet, what are the percentages setup for and what does your typical daily calories look like at the end of the day based on all macros at these percentages..
It's set up at 80, and I usually go over by about 20.
That doesn't make any sense.
MFP limits are starting points, you can tweak them as you see fit. Calorie goals are absolute (but not necessarily correctly estimated by MFP). A rule of thumb can be around 1 gram of protein and 1 gram of fat pr kilo ideal/goal body weight. The rest you can fill with whatever you want. It's up to taste and satiety and preference.0 -
I keep my fats on the low side but definitely get more fats than carbs. I manually tweaked my number as well. I do use some low fat / no fat products as well but I do that to restrict the number of calories. Fat is good.0
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RedRaven49 wrote: »I have found through MFP that my intake of fat is consistently more than I should be eating. I'm wondering if you have any tips about decreasing fat intake in general, for example, are low-fat substitutions a good choice?
The main problem with being high on fat (if any) is if you are lower than you should be on something else. (Source of fat matters too, for nutrition, although people will disagree about precisely how.) I see you gave your fat grams, but it makes more sense in context--how many calories, what are you aiming for for protein and carbs, how low are you? What's the main source of the fat if you look at the diary?
On the whole I think fat and carbs can be thought of interchangeably, assuming you feel good (sufficiently energetic, not too hungry). Some people do better with more fat, some do better with more carbs. But I wouldn't increase fat percentage at the expense of protein, assuming you have a reasonable protein goal.
80 grams is a pretty high fat goal (like I said, that's not necessarily bad), so either you have a high calorie goal also or you've already modified your macros. If the latter, it would be worth letting us know how you set them, as that might help give context, again.
Assuming you decide you want to lower your fat, I personally like 1% and 2% dairy as much as full fat, so eat that. I don't really use any other lower fat substitutions (and I didn't eat full fat dairy before trying to lose weight, although I did experiment with it after to see if I found it more filling, but for me it's not).0 -
My fat intake is always high, too. Seems like it's mainly because I grab almonds for my snacks - everything else can be in line, but the fats go over.0
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My fat intake is always high. I eat a lot of eggs, nuts, avocado and fish. As long as you are still within your calories for the day, I don't see a problem.0
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The numbers set by MFP are minimums not maximums.
If you're that concerned, give me some of your fat, I could use it! Just keep the calories that come with it
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Thanks for the advice!! I wasn't too concerned since it was coming from a source with protein and insignificant sugar. Just a little weird to see almonds recommended as a good snack option, then have them blow the fat category out of line.0
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lemurcat12 wrote: »
80 grams is a pretty high fat goal (like I said, that's not necessarily bad), so either you have a high calorie goal also or you've already modified your macros. If the latter, it would be worth letting us know how you set them, as that might help give context, again.
This. For me, going over my fat goal means I'm at around 50-55 grams.0 -
I don't worry too much about the fats; I love avocado! But yes, as suggested, you could tweak your settings or stop eating foods higher in fat (but really why would you want to; they're delicious!).0
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lemurcat12 wrote: »RedRaven49 wrote: »I have found through MFP that my intake of fat is consistently more than I should be eating. I'm wondering if you have any tips about decreasing fat intake in general, for example, are low-fat substitutions a good choice?
The main problem with being high on fat (if any) is if you are lower than you should be on something else. (Source of fat matters too, for nutrition, although people will disagree about precisely how.) I see you gave your fat grams, but it makes more sense in context--how many calories, what are you aiming for for protein and carbs, how low are you? What's the main source of the fat if you look at the diary?
On the whole I think fat and carbs can be thought of interchangeably, assuming you feel good (sufficiently energetic, not too hungry). Some people do better with more fat, some do better with more carbs. But I wouldn't increase fat percentage at the expense of protein, assuming you have a reasonable protein goal.
80 grams is a pretty high fat goal (like I said, that's not necessarily bad), so either you have a high calorie goal also or you've already modified your macros. If the latter, it would be worth letting us know how you set them, as that might help give context, again.
Assuming you decide you want to lower your fat, I personally like 1% and 2% dairy as much as full fat, so eat that. I don't really use any other lower fat substitutions (and I didn't eat full fat dairy before trying to lose weight, although I did experiment with it after to see if I found it more filling, but for me it's not).
My carbs for today is 258 and protein 103, calories 2060 but yesterday it was 2563 - I've been consistently quite far under it so I guess that's why there's such a difference.
By looking at the diary I noticed that the high-fat stuff is when I'm in a rush and cook something fast - I end up making choices like sausage rolls or sandwiches (usually cheese as it's what I have in the house). So I think if I find healthier substitutions that I can make fast it will reduce my intake of fat.
Is the protein goal reasonable, do you think? The fat goal for the day is 69 if that means anything, but I haven't changed them myself.0 -
lemonsnowdrop wrote: »They're not limits. They're minimums. Going over isn't an issue - going under is.
This. I look at the fat as a minimum, same as with protein. I go over it daily, sometimes by quite a bit. I typically eat between 80 and 100 grams of fat per day. It doesn't affect weight loss. I've lost over 80 pounds consistently eating that much. Despite what some think, fat does not make you fat.
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RedRaven49 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »RedRaven49 wrote: »I have found through MFP that my intake of fat is consistently more than I should be eating. I'm wondering if you have any tips about decreasing fat intake in general, for example, are low-fat substitutions a good choice?
The main problem with being high on fat (if any) is if you are lower than you should be on something else. (Source of fat matters too, for nutrition, although people will disagree about precisely how.) I see you gave your fat grams, but it makes more sense in context--how many calories, what are you aiming for for protein and carbs, how low are you? What's the main source of the fat if you look at the diary?
On the whole I think fat and carbs can be thought of interchangeably, assuming you feel good (sufficiently energetic, not too hungry). Some people do better with more fat, some do better with more carbs. But I wouldn't increase fat percentage at the expense of protein, assuming you have a reasonable protein goal.
80 grams is a pretty high fat goal (like I said, that's not necessarily bad), so either you have a high calorie goal also or you've already modified your macros. If the latter, it would be worth letting us know how you set them, as that might help give context, again.
Assuming you decide you want to lower your fat, I personally like 1% and 2% dairy as much as full fat, so eat that. I don't really use any other lower fat substitutions (and I didn't eat full fat dairy before trying to lose weight, although I did experiment with it after to see if I found it more filling, but for me it's not).
My carbs for today is 258 and protein 103, calories 2060 but yesterday it was 2563 - I've been consistently quite far under it so I guess that's why there's such a difference.
By looking at the diary I noticed that the high-fat stuff is when I'm in a rush and cook something fast - I end up making choices like sausage rolls or sandwiches (usually cheese as it's what I have in the house). So I think if I find healthier substitutions that I can make fast it will reduce my intake of fat.
Is the protein goal reasonable, do you think? The fat goal for the day is 69 if that means anything, but I haven't changed them myself.
Yeah, that seems okay, and I think you are on the right track about how to lower the fat a bit. (If you feel generally satisfied and are within your calories I don't think it's a big deal.)0 -
Fat and protein -- ok to go over them.0
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I wouldn't worry about the fat amount unless you have some kind of health issue. If your fats come from a healthy source like avocado or nuts they are fine and you just need to worry about calories. If they come from a less healthy source like chocolate, it isn't a huge problem as part of a healthy diet. If you have 2000 calories coming from chocolate each day, then you have a problem!
About 10 years ago, I was on a very low fat diet due to medical reasons. My target was 20g a day and I found that really hard to do and get enough calories (wasn't trying to lose weight). Basically, I couldn't eat cheese, dairy with any level of fat in it, nuts, eggs, any kind of fatty meat, cook with oil.... I did it for about 6 months before I had surgery to correct the issue. It was not sustainable. My normal fat range now is 40-80g. I don't use low fat anything except sometimes cheese for cooking.0
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