Fats

SonFlowerTC
SonFlowerTC Posts: 42 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Could someone help me to set my fat goals? I am slated for 1200 calories. What should I set my saturated, poly, and mono fats to shoot for? Thank you for your help :)

Replies

  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    It’s fine to use the macro defaults on MFP. Macros don’t matter directly for weight loss; they are for other health and satiety purposes.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    MFP will give you a sat fat goal based on the USDA recommendation. There is no generally agreed upon "right" level of poly and mono unsat fats, so that's kind of up to you. MFP defaults them to zero, rather than N/A for some reason.
  • SonFlowerTC
    SonFlowerTC Posts: 42 Member
    Awhile back a coach changed my macros according to her recommendations, I guess I could write them down and switch back to the default and then tweak it. A nutritionist told me Sat Fat: 10%, Mono 15% and Poly 5%. All totals should be not more than 30% of my calories should be from fats.
  • SonFlowerTC
    SonFlowerTC Posts: 42 Member
    I think according to this recommendation for 1200 calories:
    10% Sat Fats=13
    15% Mono = 20
    5% Poly = 6.7
  • SonFlowerTC
    SonFlowerTC Posts: 42 Member
    P.S. Nutrition is very important to me, even more than losing weight:)
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,226 Member
    I go higher in the fat department finding it does a good job of helping meet my satiety needs. My 7-day average is 26% fat. Discover what works best for you rather than depending on the MFP defaults.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    OP, do you have a medical condition that requires such close attention to your fat intake? If so, then you should follow the guidelines for that condition. For example, the American Heart Association recommends no more than 5-6% of your calories from saturated fat (https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/fats/saturated-fats).

    But, if you don't have a specific medical reason for cutting your saturated fat intake that far, then you may choose to follow the FDA's more general guideline of no more than 10% (https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/interactivenutritionfactslabel/factsheets/Saturated_Fat.pdf).

    For saturated fat, the general consensus is that less is better. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are considered preferable ways to meet your fat intake needs (https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/interactivenutritionfactslabel/factsheets/Monounsaturated_and_Polyunsaturated_Fat.pdf).

    Keep in mind, also, that trying to hit every single nutrient perfectly on every single day is going to be nearly impossible, and very stressful. I would recommend looking at weekly averages unless you have a medical reason to do otherwise.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    If you are concerned with nutrition, I think omega 3 to 6 ratio and getting in DHA/EPA as part of the omega 3 is a lot more important than total amounts of poly and monounsaturated. I'm kind of obsessed with nutrition, but that seems to me not really important at all.

    I also don't think total percentage of fat is all that important, although I do limit sat fat (my personal limit is consistent with the MFP default, but I've never had an issue with cholesterol, or other bad test results and would play around with it if I did to see if it helped).
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited March 2019
    pierinifitness wrote: »
    I go higher in the fat department finding it does a good job of helping meet my satiety needs. My 7-day average is 26% fat. Discover what works best for you rather than depending on the MFP defaults.

    That's actually lower than the MFP default (which is 30%).

    I agree that fat percentage overall is more of a "find what works for you" thing.

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