How many fats do I need in a day?

[myfavoritepa]

For context I am 5’ 1/4 inch and 95 lbs and I eat about 1,500 cals per day. Typically, I eat 120 G protein, 170 G Carbs, and about 35-37 G Fat. I saw something the other day that women should never eat less than 40 grams of fat per day. Is this true? Am I really doing myself a disservice eating this way?

 

[sweetkf]

@myfavoritepa Please ignore the trash influencers who think fat is bad. Every body, height, etc is different and you need enough fat in your diet to be healthy. Fat doesn’t make you fat - overeating calories, regardless of macro, makes you fat. Period.

 

[juliet2262]

@myfavoritepa Hormonally, I've always heard no less than 50-55g/day. Try to keep these to as healthy fats as possible (avocados, coconut, olive or avocado oil, nuts, salmon, tuna, sardines...) Too low of fats, messes with your hormones and in turn messes with your metabolism..

 

[mj_1969]

@myfavoritepa The recommendation depends on who you ask since there's no consensus based on literature, but the Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics recommends 20-35% of your intake from fats. It really varies from person to person.

 

[gregltegman]

@myfavoritepa I'm interested in hearing other's thoughts on this. I watch calorie intake pretty much all the time, even for maintenance and when I track and am low on fats, I feel like absolute dogsh*t, and I feel like I can see it in my skin and hair quickly. I mean stuff like, nuts and seeds and their butters, and avocadoes and at least 2% yogurt. I'm admittedly a little obsessive about the relative nutritional value of things that I eat, but if I don't eat a pretty decent amount of "good" fats (I'm seriously not food shaming, I'm trying to identify a food group using language we all know), I lack energy to work out and my body is worse off for it.

I am old enough that I lived through my mom going through what I think of as the Snackwells Era and idk how the heck any of them survived and that much sugar and fillers and, like. No fat. Good lord. They must have felt awful, all the time.

 

[stuzky]

@myfavoritepa I think if you feel good leave it. You can always trying upping fats for a few weeks and see how that works for you

 

[graciousx]

@myfavoritepa I have similar stats as you and my maintenance is about 1500 as well. my fats are typically 30-35% of my intake. Some days carbs are higher and fats are lower though. 35g of fat would be my minimum. I generally don’t feel good eating less than that.

 

[johnclarkz]

@myfavoritepa I think your calories are far too low. You are quite thin and 1500/day isn’t enough for you to put in weight. I don’t think it really matters what type of calories you’re eating at this point, you just need more of them.

 

[tashpauls]

@myfavoritepa Fat has more than twice as many calories per gram as carbohydrates and proteins. If fat makes you fat, its because of the calories in it. I volume eat, so less fat works for me.

 

[abastzar]

@myfavoritepa Play around with grams and percentages and see what works for you. I tend to get hungry in the middle of the night when I eat less than 50g but macro proportion wise I'm usually 15%-30%