Fat confusion

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BeerMkr
BeerMkr Posts: 11 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I am new to this whole dieting thing and I am confused. Based on my totals and goals, I was set on a 2K diet. After a few days of logging my diary, I am starting to learn what I can eat, what I can't eat and getting some balance. However, my total allowable daily fat content is confusing me. It says that I am allowed 67g of Fat in my diet. However, it red flags anything that I add that allows polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat and does not red flag saturated fat? From my mobile, it actually shows goal is 0g. Why is that? I thought these were supposedly good fats, better than saturated fats. That would mean that I am not allowed to include avocado or nuts in my diet. Please help.

Replies

  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
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    You can use the website to set goals for the various sorts of fats. IHMO, I'd just ignore them -- unless you have a medical necessity to watch certain types of fats, just worry about the basic carb / protein / fat macros. Or, better yet, just worry about meeting your calories goal with your normal food, and worry about the macros in a few months when you get the hang of just meeting the calorie intake.
  • 1992fx3
    1992fx3 Posts: 35 Member
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    I believe it's becuase there's no RDA for poly and mono fats, so MFP sets the goal at zero, which results in a negative number when you eat those fats, which in turn implies you've gone over your limit. Some research I've previously done on MFP indicates you should ignore those particular negative numbers as poly and mono fats are generally considred good for you. I just concentrate on staying within my overall fat intake goal, if I get some poly and mono fats in there, it's a bonus.
  • extra_medium
    extra_medium Posts: 1,525 Member
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    Personally I've had success just paying attention to calories, eating "normal" food and not over-thinking the rest of it. It all seems to fall into place unless you're going nuts on a certain type of food all day long which would throw one macro out of wack compared to all the rest.
  • BeerMkr
    BeerMkr Posts: 11 Member
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    Thanks for the help. I'm going to take the advice of sticking with normal food and adjusting as I get used to it.
  • cavery23
    cavery23 Posts: 9 Member
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    I think that it has it set to 0 because there shouldn't be a limit or 'goal' for the unsaturated fats, you can just eat as much fat of this type as you want. With the Saturated fat 'target' it is more of a target to keep under, not to hit imo. Staying under your overall fat of course.

    Pay attention to overall calories the most though, don't beat yourself up over macros unless you have very specific goals or are really serious haha
  • byrnet18
    byrnet18 Posts: 230 Member
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    I just ignore it. I mainly watch my total calories and carbs, I don't want to see red in those two areas. Best of luck!!
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    You can use the website to set goals for the various sorts of fats. IHMO, I'd just ignore them -- unless you have a medical necessity to watch certain types of fats, just worry about the basic carb / protein / fat macros. Or, better yet, just worry about meeting your calories goal with your normal food, and worry about the macros in a few months when you get the hang of just meeting the calorie intake.

    +1
  • pleasurelittletreasure
    pleasurelittletreasure Posts: 236 Member
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    I feel good if I choose Hefeweizen over Stout because of the protein it supposedly contains. Good fat / bad fat. Meh. If you aren't free-basing lard, you're doing good. (Did I get that one right?) I haven't used the phone app because I've heard about the interesting observations it offers on your food choices. I like 'all things in moderation' as a good rule of thumb.
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
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    I wouldn't pay any attention to the red, as long as you are in an overall calorie deficit and you are hitting your protein goal that's all that matters.

    As an additional (and this is where MFP falls short) I would try and limit (not cut) the polyunsaturated fat intake and focus more on saturated fats.
  • BeerMkr
    BeerMkr Posts: 11 Member
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    I feel good if I choose Hefeweizen over Stout because of the protein it supposedly contains. Good fat / bad fat. Meh. If you aren't free-basing lard, you're doing good. (Did I get that one right?) I haven't used the phone app because I've heard about the interesting observations it offers on your food choices. I like 'all things in moderation' as a good rule of thumb.
    I feel good if I choose Hefeweizen over Stout because its estimated 300 calories less per 12 oz. serving. You know what that means? 3 beers for the choice of 1. LOL I like the way you summed that up. It makes sense.
  • Patttience
    Patttience Posts: 975 Member
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    I second what hills said although i would add one thing. Add fibre into one of the macros you have showing. Don't bother with sugar because it does't differentiate between good and bad.

    But fibre is a very important and often overlooked type of food. If you want to learn about the importance of fibre you can watch this tv show on you tube.

    Catalyst - Gut Reaction. Its fascinating and you can reread about it on wikipedia later. When i saw this show, i had no idea about all this though i had long known that fibre was good for us. I just didn't realise how important and valuable it is for health.

    About fats, which you can either take on board now or down the track. WEll i'm sure you know about trans fats but it turns out that nearly all vegetable oils are not good for us because of the industrial processes they've used to produce them. But some like olive oil which are cold pressed are very good for you. Other nut oils the same. So use these for cooking. Even olive oil is not bad for you when cooking with it, though its not suitable for deep frying. But its fine for all other cooking processes.

    And then the low carb people will tell you, maybe even persuade you that saturated fat is not bad for you after all. Its low fat that''s the health risk.

    As you go along, do try to gradually improve the quality of your diet and try to cook more rather than rely on processed and ready made foods. Health lies in whole foods. EAting whole foods also makes it easier to lose weight because the food sustains you longer. If you don't know how to cook much, get hold of some recipe books and have a go. I recommend learn how to cook vegetables in interesting ways and in that category you can't go past the mediterreanean people.
  • hortensehildegarde
    hortensehildegarde Posts: 592 Member
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    BeerMkr wrote: »
    I feel good if I choose Hefeweizen over Stout because of the protein it supposedly contains. Good fat / bad fat. Meh. If you aren't free-basing lard, you're doing good. (Did I get that one right?) I haven't used the phone app because I've heard about the interesting observations it offers on your food choices. I like 'all things in moderation' as a good rule of thumb.
    I feel good if I choose Hefeweizen over Stout because its estimated 300 calories less per 12 oz. serving. You know what that means? 3 beers for the choice of 1. LOL I like the way you summed that up. It makes sense.

    are you just making a joke or do you really think stout has 300 cals per 12 oz more? Very very few beers (those with very high ABV) should have 300 cals in 12 oz, much less 300 MORE cals.

    Just sayin', in case you are drinking even less that you can. Gotta protect the beer choices.

    But yeah, I'd go for liquor anyway, even more bang for your buck.

    Oh yeah, and I just worry about calories too, and my protein tends to stay up but that's because protein rich foods tend to fill me up best, I don't actually really ever look at any other numbers on the tracking but the calories.
  • jenproliver
    jenproliver Posts: 1
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    I had the same question and based on what I google-researched it looks like you "should" have about 7% of your fats be unsaturated to have a healthy balance. In case that helps...
  • theresaweb
    theresaweb Posts: 2 Member
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    jenproliver wrote: »
    I had the same question and based on what I google-researched it looks like you "should" have about 7% of your fats be unsaturated to have a healthy balance. In case that helps...

    thanks!

  • theresaweb
    theresaweb Posts: 2 Member
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    1992fx3 wrote: »
    I believe it's becuase there's no RDA for poly and mono fats, so MFP sets the goal at zero, which results in a negative number when you eat those fats, which in turn implies you've gone over your limit. Some research I've previously done on MFP indicates you should ignore those particular negative numbers as poly and mono fats are generally considred good for you. I just concentrate on staying within my overall fat intake goal, if I get some poly and mono fats in there, it's a bonus.


    great answer! forced me to google polyunsaturated and monounsaturated thought! and I've learned something!

  • GreenTeaPotato
    GreenTeaPotato Posts: 40 Member
    edited August 2015
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    You can edit the amounts of those three fat goals in MFP: Go the "My Home" tab, click on "Goals," then edit "Micronutrients."

    Lower the "saturated fat" or set it to zero. Raise the poly and mono unsaturated fats. Make sure all three add up to your total fat goal.

    For example, my total fat goal is 41 grams. So my settings are Saturated Fat: 1, Polyunsaturated Fat: 30, Monounsaturated Fat: 10.

    While there's no RDA for poly and mono, I find it's easier to get in more poly from my diet, so I set that one higher.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    BeerMkr wrote: »
    <<snip>>It says that I am allowed 67g of Fat in my diet. However, it red flags anything that I add that allows polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat and does not red flag saturated fat? From my mobile, it actually shows goal is 0g. Why is that? I thought these were supposedly good fats, better than saturated fats.

    There is a known bug that MFP incorrectly provides zero (0) goals for poly- and monounsaturated fats on the Web version and Android app.

    Although the individual goals of Poly Fat and Mono Fat are undefined and should be labeled as not applicable (N/A), the sum of the goals of Poly Fat and Mono Fat is defined and equals the goal of Total Fat minus the goal of Saturated Fat, given the goal of Trans Fat is zero.

    Goal (Poly + Mono + Trans + Saturated) = Goal (Total Fat)
    ...rearranging...
    Goal (Poly + Mono) = Goal (Total Fat - Saturated - Trans)
    ...since Goal (Trans) = 0
    Goal (Poly + Mono) = Goal (Total Fat - Saturated)

    Just plug your daily goals for Total Fat and Saturated into the above equation to find your daily goal of Poly Fat plus Mono Fat.

    Please see this post for additional information on the reporting of the issue with MFP incorrectly changing the goals of Poly Fat and Mono Fat from N/A to zero (0). This issue seems to be fixed on the iOS app, but it still is an issue on the Web version and the Android app.
    community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10163604/poly-monounsaturated-fats#latest
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
    edited August 2015
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    I'm not sure what MFP is doing.

    -Trans fats should be 0 or as close to 0 as you can get.

    -Saturated fats should be limited - they say less than 7% of total calories.

    -Mono and polyunsaturated fats are the "good" fats and aren't really limited. Those are the fats you want taking up your fat numbers.

    I *think* that's why MFP doesn't put numbers on mono and polys, but does put numbers on sat fats.

    You can just ignore it all, if you want to, but if you're trying to have a healthier diet, pay attention to your fat sources.

    This is a very basic, but very cute, explanation on the different kinds of fats. It has an emphasis on what to use in the kitchen because it's from a cooking show...

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ukaaesfbO1k

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