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Minimum fat grams?

DoctorShock
DoctorShock Posts: 11 Member
I'm confused about the minimum level of dietary fat needed to avoid health issues. I've seen various numbers thrown around in some threads on MFP:
- 30 g regardless of body mass (online calculators such as http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/)
- 0.4 g/lb of lean body mass
- 0.4 g/lb of total body mass
- 20-35% of calories (US RDA)
- 30% (MFP default)

What should the actual minimum fat grams be, and why?
«1

Replies

  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
    If doing low carb, high fat, it would usually be between 60 and 70 percent of calories, otherwise 30 percent of calories would be MINIMUM.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    edited February 2016
    I believe the minimum is between 20 and 30g per day. And fsts contains fatty acids which are essential to the body.

    May i ask why you need to avoid fats? I only ask because there are a lot of healthy fats.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I'm very interested in this thread and would love to hear the reasoning, as this is something I've wondered about myself. Possibly also of interest (although I'm not interested in low fat myself, as I enjoy my diet more with around 30%) is this: http://rawfoodsos.com/2015/10/06/in-defense-of-low-fat-a-call-for-some-evolution-of-thought-part-1/
  • tbonethemighty
    tbonethemighty Posts: 100 Member
    I personally go for 45-50 g minimum, as any lower tends to show noticeable negative effects on my nails and hair. For me, that's almost exactly 0.3 (0.3030303...) of my body weight in pounds and 0.4 of my LBM, so that guideline is spot-on for my body chemistry.
    psulemon wrote: »

    May i ask why you need to avoid fats? I only ask because there are a lot of healthy fats.

    Not that I want to derail this thread, but this right here is why people often get annoyed at the "helpful" people on MFP. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I do not see anywhere in the OP where it says that he/she is trying to avoid dietary fat. I've wondered about the same question, not because I'm concerned with low fat, but because I'm concerned I don't get enough...
  • William4MVP
    William4MVP Posts: 166 Member
    50-80g is what I shoot for but more than that is fine too if it meets calorie goal..any lower than 50 though and it's not good imo. You should make sure you have good fats and avoid saturated fats (fast food)
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,399 Member
    Though I never really saw the connection before I started logging food, if I have a day on the lower side of fat intake I often don't stay full as long, even if my protein intake is up. I've actually considered picking up some source of higher fats that would be easy to make as a stand alone thing (BP coffee or something) so I could add some extra fat without more protein and carbs to see if it keeps me full longer.

    I am flexible when it comes to fat intake and avoid back to back days of lower fat intake, so I've never really noticed any changes in skin or nails. Tonight was pizza night, so I could probably get away with eating lean tomorrow. :)
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I shoot for at least 70 grams, but I don't know if I need that much, or if it just reflects how I like to eat. I feel better mentally and physically than ever, but I don't know if that's because I eat more fat (I'm not able to recreate a typical "before" day), or if the fat I eat is better than the fat I ate before, or if it's that my overall diet has improved, not even if the higher fat allowance has made it much easier to eat better, and if the feeling of autonomy I get from "disobeying" nutritional guidelines has anything to do with it. Anyhow, this way of eating is healthy "enough", while at the same time a way I enjoy eating, that means I'm going to stick with it, and this "optimal" diet is better than any "ideal".

    My physical health has improved, I have a stable, normal weight, more energy, sleep better, etc, but most important for my wellbeing is this: The intense cravings for junk have almost disappeared. I don't know if I can attribute this to less exposure/temptation, or change of habits, attitude and taste buds, or if it's just the stronger appeal of my new normal diet. I have experienced a lessening in cravings before, when eating better but low fat; the effect didn't last very long - this time around I have been eating in the way I want to for more than two years.
  • Trump2016
    Trump2016 Posts: 80 Member
    edited February 2016
    Since this is "Nutrition Debate"...

    Can the next person who posts a minimum amount include a medical journal or something substantive to corroborate the number or one that shows deleterious effects of having a fat intake as low as a certain number?

    That's what we need to know: what's the minimum amount for hormonal function, vitamin absorption, etc.? Too many responses about personal preferences.

    For example, if I said I highly prefer carb sources for satisfaction and wanted to lower my fat intake to 10% make room for them, could you say with confidence that it would be self-sabotage to my hormones and would you have a source for it?

    I'm genuinely curious. The question about min. fat has always bugged me. I'm at ~25% for the fat macro but would lower it if I knew there were a lower floor.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    I personally go for 45-50 g minimum, as any lower tends to show noticeable negative effects on my nails and hair. For me, that's almost exactly 0.3 (0.3030303...) of my body weight in pounds and 0.4 of my LBM, so that guideline is spot-on for my body chemistry.
    psulemon wrote: »

    May i ask why you need to avoid fats? I only ask because there are a lot of healthy fats.

    Not that I want to derail this thread, but this right here is why people often get annoyed at the "helpful" people on MFP. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I do not see anywhere in the OP where it says that he/she is trying to avoid dietary fat. I've wondered about the same question, not because I'm concerned with low fat, but because I'm concerned I don't get enough...

    It's probably because the way I read it, was what is the minimum grams of fat, so they can eat at the level (because fats cold cause help issues).
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    Since this is "Nutrition Debate"...

    Can the next person who posts a minimum amount include a medical journal or something substantive to corroborate the number or one that shows deleterious effects of having a fat intake as low as a certain number?

    That's what we need to know: what's the minimum amount for hormonal function, vitamin absorption, etc.? Too many responses about personal preferences.

    For example, if I said I highly prefer carb sources for satisfaction and wanted to lower my fat intake to 10% make room for them, could you say with confidence that it would be self-sabotage to my hormones and would you have a source for it?

    I'm genuinely curious. The question about min. fat has always bugged me. I'm at ~25% for the fat macro but would lower it if I knew there were a lower floor.

    I have been searching for some kind of medical journal for awhile on what is the actual gram or percentage to sustain hormonal regulation. I have never found a good source. Most source, like below suggest a range based on caloric intake.

    http://www.usfsa.org/content/Fat_How Low.pdf

    https://iom.nationalacademies.org/Reports/2002/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-for-Energy-Carbohydrate-Fiber-Fat-Fatty-Acids-Cholesterol-Protein-and-Amino-Acids.aspx

  • Vortex88
    Vortex88 Posts: 60 Member
    Unlikely that even the smallest woman should be going below 20g and even that would not be recommended. For a man the absolute minimum would be about 40g but, again, that would not be recommended.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    EFSA got as low as minimum contents of linoleic acid (11 g/day) plus α-linolenic acid (1.4 g/day) in the context of a regulatory VLCD specification.
  • Trump2016
    Trump2016 Posts: 80 Member
    edited February 2016
    psulemon wrote: »
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    Since this is "Nutrition Debate"...

    Can the next person who posts a minimum amount include a medical journal or something substantive to corroborate the number or one that shows deleterious effects of having a fat intake as low as a certain number?

    That's what we need to know: what's the minimum amount for hormonal function, vitamin absorption, etc.? Too many responses about personal preferences.

    For example, if I said I highly prefer carb sources for satisfaction and wanted to lower my fat intake to 10% make room for them, could you say with confidence that it would be self-sabotage to my hormones and would you have a source for it?

    I'm genuinely curious. The question about min. fat has always bugged me. I'm at ~25% for the fat macro but would lower it if I knew there were a lower floor.

    I have been searching for some kind of medical journal for awhile on what is the actual gram or percentage to sustain hormonal regulation. I have never found a good source. Most source, like below suggest a range based on caloric intake.

    http://www.usfsa.org/content/Fat_How Low.pdf

    https://iom.nationalacademies.org/Reports/2002/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-for-Energy-Carbohydrate-Fiber-Fat-Fatty-Acids-Cholesterol-Protein-and-Amino-Acids.aspx

    Yeah, believe me - I've looked around with an honest effort too and my findings can be summed up similarly to yours. None are really thorough enough to inform me through baselines and numbers what happens with hormones when they're compared with different thresholds.

    Ah well. Thanks.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited February 2016
    psulemon wrote: »

    This is the source I've looked at, and it gives the 20-35% range.

    I've also looked for something better and not found it, which is why I'm interested in this topic.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    50-80g is what I shoot for but more than that is fine too if it meets calorie goal..any lower than 50 though and it's not good imo. You should make sure you have good fats and avoid saturated fats (fast food)

    To clarify: saturated fats =/= "fast food". Granted most fast food is high in saturated fat, but so are many other things.
  • richln
    richln Posts: 809 Member
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    psulemon wrote: »
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    Since this is "Nutrition Debate"...

    Can the next person who posts a minimum amount include a medical journal or something substantive to corroborate the number or one that shows deleterious effects of having a fat intake as low as a certain number?

    That's what we need to know: what's the minimum amount for hormonal function, vitamin absorption, etc.? Too many responses about personal preferences.

    For example, if I said I highly prefer carb sources for satisfaction and wanted to lower my fat intake to 10% make room for them, could you say with confidence that it would be self-sabotage to my hormones and would you have a source for it?

    I'm genuinely curious. The question about min. fat has always bugged me. I'm at ~25% for the fat macro but would lower it if I knew there were a lower floor.

    I have been searching for some kind of medical journal for awhile on what is the actual gram or percentage to sustain hormonal regulation. I have never found a good source. Most source, like below suggest a range based on caloric intake.

    http://www.usfsa.org/content/Fat_How Low.pdf

    https://iom.nationalacademies.org/Reports/2002/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-for-Energy-Carbohydrate-Fiber-Fat-Fatty-Acids-Cholesterol-Protein-and-Amino-Acids.aspx

    Yeah, believe me - I've looked around with an honest effort too and my findings can be summed up similarly to yours. None are really thorough enough to inform me through baselines and numbers what happens with hormones when they're compared with different thresholds.

    Ah well. Thanks.

    Unfortunately, I don't think you are going to find a precise answer to this. There is no baseline because there is just varying degrees of badness when fat intake goes lower than ideal.
    When you get down towards the low end of recommended fat intake, you are already compromising your systems, and things just progressively worse as you go lower. For example, testosterone production scales roughly linearly for a broad range of saturated fat intake:
    http://www.anabolicmen.com/fats-and-testosterone/
    If you need to go low fat, then I think it is best to start with the expert's recommendations in the 20-25% of total calorie intake (usually in the 0.4-0.5 g/lb range), then experiment if you want to see how your body responds:
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/fat-loss-for-athletes-part-2.html/
    If you need to cut fast for a short amount of time, the lowest I see bodybuilders recommend is typically about 15% of total calories (or about 0.3-0.35 g/lb) before you start dropping a lot of lean body mass:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033492/
    If you don't care about preserving lean body mass that much, you can go a little lower before you start running into serious absorption and deficiency issues:
    http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2014/05/vitamin-d-e-k-how-much-and-what-type-of.html
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    ajcn.nutrition.org/content/80/3/550.full?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1097233292054_2953&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&volume=80&firstpage=550&resourcetype=1&journalcode=ajcn
    ^ There's a surprising lack of research on fat minimums.
    Lyle McDonald's recommendation from his Rapid Fat Loss diet seems to be that 3 grams of EPA+DHA is optimal.
    http://www.lylemcdonald.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7360
    To what extent do you mean avoid health issues? I'd believe that to some extent some hormones are going to be produced less in a deficit no matter what your actual dietary fat intake, which could be a form of health issue. On the other extreme to avoid dying, 0 is possible for a while if fat stores are sufficient, though not recommended. In between the two, hormone production and health related effects would vary based on a combination of current fat stores and dietary intake. The leaner the individual, the higher the total deficit, and the less the dietary fat, the more overall chance an appreciable decrease in fat synthesized hormone production.
  • DoctorShock
    DoctorShock Posts: 11 Member
    psulemon wrote: »
    I believe the minimum is between 20 and 30g per day. And fsts contains fatty acids which are essential to the body.

    May i ask why you need to avoid fats? I only ask because there are a lot of healthy fats.

    I'm actually not trying to avoid fats. I tend to find a higher-fat diet more satisfying, personally.

    I'm just curious about what the minimum would be to maintain proper body function and what would happen to you if tried to eat under that limit for an extended period of time.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    If you don't get the Essential Fatty Acids (<15g/day) then presumably some body functions start to be sub-optimal but I don't know what they would be. I guess the opposite of the benefit of omega-3 supplementation would be the downside of not having enough.
  • DoctorShock
    DoctorShock Posts: 11 Member
    richln wrote: »
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    psulemon wrote: »
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    Since this is "Nutrition Debate"...

    Can the next person who posts a minimum amount include a medical journal or something substantive to corroborate the number or one that shows deleterious effects of having a fat intake as low as a certain number?

    That's what we need to know: what's the minimum amount for hormonal function, vitamin absorption, etc.? Too many responses about personal preferences.

    For example, if I said I highly prefer carb sources for satisfaction and wanted to lower my fat intake to 10% make room for them, could you say with confidence that it would be self-sabotage to my hormones and would you have a source for it?

    I'm genuinely curious. The question about min. fat has always bugged me. I'm at ~25% for the fat macro but would lower it if I knew there were a lower floor.

    I have been searching for some kind of medical journal for awhile on what is the actual gram or percentage to sustain hormonal regulation. I have never found a good source. Most source, like below suggest a range based on caloric intake.

    http://www.usfsa.org/content/Fat_How Low.pdf

    https://iom.nationalacademies.org/Reports/2002/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-for-Energy-Carbohydrate-Fiber-Fat-Fatty-Acids-Cholesterol-Protein-and-Amino-Acids.aspx

    Yeah, believe me - I've looked around with an honest effort too and my findings can be summed up similarly to yours. None are really thorough enough to inform me through baselines and numbers what happens with hormones when they're compared with different thresholds.

    Ah well. Thanks.

    Unfortunately, I don't think you are going to find a precise answer to this. There is no baseline because there is just varying degrees of badness when fat intake goes lower than ideal.
    When you get down towards the low end of recommended fat intake, you are already compromising your systems, and things just progressively worse as you go lower. For example, testosterone production scales roughly linearly for a broad range of saturated fat intake:
    http://www.anabolicmen.com/fats-and-testosterone/
    If you need to go low fat, then I think it is best to start with the expert's recommendations in the 20-25% of total calorie intake (usually in the 0.4-0.5 g/lb range), then experiment if you want to see how your body responds:
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/fat-loss-for-athletes-part-2.html/
    If you need to cut fast for a short amount of time, the lowest I see bodybuilders recommend is typically about 15% of total calories (or about 0.3-0.35 g/lb) before you start dropping a lot of lean body mass:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033492/
    If you don't care about preserving lean body mass that much, you can go a little lower before you start running into serious absorption and deficiency issues:
    http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2014/05/vitamin-d-e-k-how-much-and-what-type-of.html

    Are the grams per pound ranges that you're estimating above based on lean body mass or total body mass?
  • DoctorShock
    DoctorShock Posts: 11 Member
    senecarr wrote: »
    ajcn.nutrition.org/content/80/3/550.full?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1097233292054_2953&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&volume=80&firstpage=550&resourcetype=1&journalcode=ajcn
    ^ There's a surprising lack of research on fat minimums.
    Lyle McDonald's recommendation from his Rapid Fat Loss diet seems to be that 3 grams of EPA+DHA is optimal.
    http://www.lylemcdonald.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7360
    To what extent do you mean avoid health issues? I'd believe that to some extent some hormones are going to be produced less in a deficit no matter what your actual dietary fat intake, which could be a form of health issue. On the other extreme to avoid dying, 0 is possible for a while if fat stores are sufficient, though not recommended. In between the two, hormone production and health related effects would vary based on a combination of current fat stores and dietary intake. The leaner the individual, the higher the total deficit, and the less the dietary fat, the more overall chance an appreciable decrease in fat synthesized hormone production.

    I was thinking of some of the health issues that have been mentioned in this thread:
    - vitamin deficiencies
    - loss of lean body mass
    - hormonal function
    - formation of gallstones
    - impacts on hair/skin/nails
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    IDK...all I know is that when I went very low fat (because I didn't know better) I went for about two weeks or so before I started having all kinds of whack *kitten* happening with my body...for one thing, a lot of neurological type of issues like major mood swings, migraines (which I never had before), depression, I had a hard time thinking and problem solving and analyzing, tired and fatigued, I had a difficult time driving because I just couldn't stay alert, etc...I bumped my fat back up and all of that stuff went away.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    richln wrote: »
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    psulemon wrote: »
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    Since this is "Nutrition Debate"...

    Can the next person who posts a minimum amount include a medical journal or something substantive to corroborate the number or one that shows deleterious effects of having a fat intake as low as a certain number?

    That's what we need to know: what's the minimum amount for hormonal function, vitamin absorption, etc.? Too many responses about personal preferences.

    For example, if I said I highly prefer carb sources for satisfaction and wanted to lower my fat intake to 10% make room for them, could you say with confidence that it would be self-sabotage to my hormones and would you have a source for it?

    I'm genuinely curious. The question about min. fat has always bugged me. I'm at ~25% for the fat macro but would lower it if I knew there were a lower floor.

    I have been searching for some kind of medical journal for awhile on what is the actual gram or percentage to sustain hormonal regulation. I have never found a good source. Most source, like below suggest a range based on caloric intake.

    http://www.usfsa.org/content/Fat_How Low.pdf

    https://iom.nationalacademies.org/Reports/2002/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-for-Energy-Carbohydrate-Fiber-Fat-Fatty-Acids-Cholesterol-Protein-and-Amino-Acids.aspx

    Yeah, believe me - I've looked around with an honest effort too and my findings can be summed up similarly to yours. None are really thorough enough to inform me through baselines and numbers what happens with hormones when they're compared with different thresholds.

    Ah well. Thanks.

    Unfortunately, I don't think you are going to find a precise answer to this. There is no baseline because there is just varying degrees of badness when fat intake goes lower than ideal.
    When you get down towards the low end of recommended fat intake, you are already compromising your systems, and things just progressively worse as you go lower. For example, testosterone production scales roughly linearly for a broad range of saturated fat intake:
    http://www.anabolicmen.com/fats-and-testosterone/
    If you need to go low fat, then I think it is best to start with the expert's recommendations in the 20-25% of total calorie intake (usually in the 0.4-0.5 g/lb range), then experiment if you want to see how your body responds:
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/fat-loss-for-athletes-part-2.html/
    If you need to cut fast for a short amount of time, the lowest I see bodybuilders recommend is typically about 15% of total calories (or about 0.3-0.35 g/lb) before you start dropping a lot of lean body mass:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033492/
    If you don't care about preserving lean body mass that much, you can go a little lower before you start running into serious absorption and deficiency issues:
    http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2014/05/vitamin-d-e-k-how-much-and-what-type-of.html

    Are the grams per pound ranges that you're estimating above based on lean body mass or total body mass?

    Most are based on lean body mass.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    IDK...all I know is that when I went very low fat (because I didn't know better) I went for about two weeks or so before I started having all kinds of whack *kitten* happening with my body...for one thing, a lot of neurological type of issues like major mood swings, migraines (which I never had before), depression, I had a hard time thinking and problem solving and analyzing, tired and fatigued, I had a difficult time driving because I just couldn't stay alert, etc...I bumped my fat back up and all of that stuff went away.

    @cwolfman13 I'm curious what levels you saw these effects at.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited February 2016
    auddii wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    IDK...all I know is that when I went very low fat (because I didn't know better) I went for about two weeks or so before I started having all kinds of whack *kitten* happening with my body...for one thing, a lot of neurological type of issues like major mood swings, migraines (which I never had before), depression, I had a hard time thinking and problem solving and analyzing, tired and fatigued, I had a difficult time driving because I just couldn't stay alert, etc...I bumped my fat back up and all of that stuff went away.

    @cwolfman13 I'm curious what levels you saw these effects at.

    @auddii I don't really know because I was just getting started with things in an effort to try to clean up my blood work and hadn't discovered MFP yet...I was just keeping a paper diary of the things I was eating overall...basically I was eating primarily fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein...I made every effort to eliminate fat...I wasn't cooking with any oils at that time and was steaming everything or eating it raw...I also avoided high fat whole foods like nuts and avocados and basically only ate chicken breast for protein. I wasn't eating whole eggs either, just egg whites and totally eliminated all forms of dairy...so, it was pretty low I suspect.

    When I went to my doctor with my symptoms I showed him my paper diary and he asked me where the fat was and told me that I did need to have good fats in my diet. I had been under the impression that I needed to eliminate fat from my diet in order to improve my blood work...

    I'm sure that my calories were probably a lot lower than they should have been as well and when I increased my fat, that bumped my calories up too...so who knows...was it fat or just an overall lack of calories? My guess is probably a combination.
  • richln
    richln Posts: 809 Member
    richln wrote: »
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    psulemon wrote: »
    Trump2016 wrote: »
    Since this is "Nutrition Debate"...

    Can the next person who posts a minimum amount include a medical journal or something substantive to corroborate the number or one that shows deleterious effects of having a fat intake as low as a certain number?

    That's what we need to know: what's the minimum amount for hormonal function, vitamin absorption, etc.? Too many responses about personal preferences.

    For example, if I said I highly prefer carb sources for satisfaction and wanted to lower my fat intake to 10% make room for them, could you say with confidence that it would be self-sabotage to my hormones and would you have a source for it?

    I'm genuinely curious. The question about min. fat has always bugged me. I'm at ~25% for the fat macro but would lower it if I knew there were a lower floor.

    I have been searching for some kind of medical journal for awhile on what is the actual gram or percentage to sustain hormonal regulation. I have never found a good source. Most source, like below suggest a range based on caloric intake.

    http://www.usfsa.org/content/Fat_How Low.pdf

    https://iom.nationalacademies.org/Reports/2002/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-for-Energy-Carbohydrate-Fiber-Fat-Fatty-Acids-Cholesterol-Protein-and-Amino-Acids.aspx

    Yeah, believe me - I've looked around with an honest effort too and my findings can be summed up similarly to yours. None are really thorough enough to inform me through baselines and numbers what happens with hormones when they're compared with different thresholds.

    Ah well. Thanks.

    Unfortunately, I don't think you are going to find a precise answer to this. There is no baseline because there is just varying degrees of badness when fat intake goes lower than ideal.
    When you get down towards the low end of recommended fat intake, you are already compromising your systems, and things just progressively worse as you go lower. For example, testosterone production scales roughly linearly for a broad range of saturated fat intake:
    http://www.anabolicmen.com/fats-and-testosterone/
    If you need to go low fat, then I think it is best to start with the expert's recommendations in the 20-25% of total calorie intake (usually in the 0.4-0.5 g/lb range), then experiment if you want to see how your body responds:
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/fat-loss-for-athletes-part-2.html/
    If you need to cut fast for a short amount of time, the lowest I see bodybuilders recommend is typically about 15% of total calories (or about 0.3-0.35 g/lb) before you start dropping a lot of lean body mass:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033492/
    If you don't care about preserving lean body mass that much, you can go a little lower before you start running into serious absorption and deficiency issues:
    http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2014/05/vitamin-d-e-k-how-much-and-what-type-of.html

    Are the grams per pound ranges that you're estimating above based on lean body mass or total body mass?

    Those are for total goal bodyweight (can use athletic range for males of 6-13% according to ACE). In other words, what your total bodyweight would be if you were in the 6-13% bodyfat range. You need a decent idea of your current LBM to calculate this, but even if you are off by a little bit, you won't get a huge range in the number you calculate here.

    The McDonald and Helms links I posted above only calculate fat as a percentage of total calories in caloric deficit, which usually works out to about the same g/lb ranges I posted. For direct references to the g/lb figures, they come from the bb.com macro sticky:
    http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=156380183
    and Aragon:
    http://www.livestrong.com/article/553149-healthy-eating-101-improve-your-fat-loss-and-muscle-gain/
    (note the gray sidebar labelled "The Eating Guide").

    As I already mentioned, these lower limits will be highly dependent on individual response, so it is best to start conservative and experiment to see how your body responds. I would avoid pushing the lower limits unless you have a good reason.
  • FunkyTobias
    FunkyTobias Posts: 1,776 Member
    Just want to note there is a huge difference between fat from say overdoing the oil,butter,fatty meats and something wholesome like avocado for example. I just don't like the idea that fat will make you fat. To be honest I do not pay attention to how many grams I take in but if I could take a stab in the dark I would say about 80g. That would be attributed to the fact that I eat avocado cheese and I avoid meat, in favour of lentils beans eggs, and I do not use oil in my cooking.

    I do not like the fad of the 98% fat free dairy. It is nonsensical!
    You are adding more sugar in replace of less fat, not to mention assuming the normal full fat yoghurts are bad which I actually think they are better on the whole.

    Sugar is not added to dairy. When you remove fat you end up with a higher proportion of sugar. Because math.
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    Just want to note there is a huge difference between fat from say overdoing the oil,butter,fatty meats and something wholesome like avocado for example. I just don't like the idea that fat will make you fat. To be honest I do not pay attention to how many grams I take in but if I could take a stab in the dark I would say about 80g. That would be attributed to the fact that I eat avocado cheese and I avoid meat, in favour of lentils beans eggs, and I do not use oil in my cooking.

    I do not like the fad of the 98% fat free dairy. It is nonsensical!
    You are adding more sugar in replace of less fat, not to mention assuming the normal full fat yoghurts are bad which I actually think they are better on the whole.

    Sugar is not added to dairy. When you remove fat you end up with a higher proportion of sugar. Because math.

    Some yogurt has added sugar, but I think it is more kids stuff now that more adults are conscious of the low fat isn't low calorie food industry truck.
    For most of the yogurt I've bought lately it has usually been like milk - low or no fat is just that with protein and carbs being held the same.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    senecarr wrote: »
    Just want to note there is a huge difference between fat from say overdoing the oil,butter,fatty meats and something wholesome like avocado for example. I just don't like the idea that fat will make you fat. To be honest I do not pay attention to how many grams I take in but if I could take a stab in the dark I would say about 80g. That would be attributed to the fact that I eat avocado cheese and I avoid meat, in favour of lentils beans eggs, and I do not use oil in my cooking.

    I do not like the fad of the 98% fat free dairy. It is nonsensical!
    You are adding more sugar in replace of less fat, not to mention assuming the normal full fat yoghurts are bad which I actually think they are better on the whole.

    Sugar is not added to dairy. When you remove fat you end up with a higher proportion of sugar. Because math.

    Some yogurt has added sugar, but I think it is more kids stuff now that more adults are conscious of the low fat isn't low calorie food industry truck.
    For most of the yogurt I've bought lately it has usually been like milk - low or no fat is just that with protein and carbs being held the same.

    Also the added sugar issue has nothing to do with it being low or no fat -- indeed, often those have artificial sweetener if it's sweetened, since people buying them want low calories. You can get flavored yogurts with sugar added in full fat or no fat -- totally separate thing.

    People claiming that no fat or low fat milk/plain yogurt/cottage cheese has sugar added is so weird and a pet peeve of mine. It's an obvious lie if you bother to read labels at all.
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