For those of you counting calories as your plan...are you keeping your fat intake below a certain percentage of your total calories or are you just strictly counting calories?
The only thing I really and truly count are my calories. Now since I like getting the healthiest and the largest volume for my calories I tend to eat a diet fairly low in fat, since of course fat has the most calories. So I don't worry at all about my fat intake. It naturally has to be on the low side because of the foods that I am eating.
My fats come from chicken breast, fish, a bit of olive oil, avocado about once a week and some occasional pistachio nuts.
Last edited by rockinrobin; 06-07-2007 at 03:43 PM.
I agree with rockinrobin ... the only thing I count is calories, but that means I naturally gravitate toward lower fat foods because you get more bang for your calorie! I try to include mostly healthy fats (olive or canola oil, nuts, omega-3 fats). I naturally tend to end up somewhere between 25 - 30% of calories from fat.
I too try to keep my fats between 20 & 30%. The lower the better but i try to eat healthy foods that don't have a lot of fats in them. I try to stick with egg whites, yogurt, chicken breast, low carb veggies (like broccoli), things like that....1% milk...things like that. so to answer your question...yes, i do watch my fat intake. not all days are perfect days, but i try as much as i can to have good days.
I average at about 20, and thats just about where I like it for fullness/satisfaction reasons. But I don't really worry about it - thats where it settles naturally given (like everyone else) that I eat healthier, lower calorie foods to get the most bang for my calorie buck, so to speak.
Nope- don't count fat Although ever since I've been eating healthier, my percentage of fat has gone waaay down..lol
Some days I just have a day when I want the mouth feel of fat (to put it grossly) other days my fat level is very very low, I'm sure It all balances out..
I mean I mostly have chicken and fish for my meats now (I never thought I'd see the day) so i get a bit of fat from salmon..and salad dressings..and when I am craving fatty fried feel food, my favorite is to cut zucchini into very thin rondelles (a mandolin works well for this) and then fry them in a nonstick pan with only about 2tsp of olive oil. (believe it or not they don't even take on all the oil, and I blot the remainder with paper towel) Then once they are crisp-fried, serve with a stitch of 3 cheese ranch dip..I feel like I am having the most rich appetizer at a restaurant ..lol
So yeah it pretty much takes care of itself becasue if you decide to have higher fat items you'll find the calorie count can be much higher,,and you can make the decision for you if its worth it..the tradeoff calories for flavor..for me, meat is a no brainer. The leaner the better..but for milk, I cannot do skim. So I have 1%. AND the only cottage cheese I like is full fat ..but it still only has an extra 10cal per serving. The thing I probably cut the most was oil/butter/margarine as they add up fast so I only have them wehn I really want them bad. And I don't feel deprived bc I have a piece of toast for breakie every morning with lite marg on it, only 30 calories ..not bad.
I don't consciously count fat grams - though I do control my high-fat options; I think most calorie counters lean towards the low-fat in general, given how a gram of fat is 9 calories vs. 4 calories for a gram of carb/protein.
And of course, I try to avoid trans & saturated fats when possible.
Like most everyone here, I only worry about calories but I find that by restricting my calories, I naturally gravitate towards low-fat or non-fat foods. Fat has about 9 calories per gram; protein and carbs have about 4 calories per gram. You don't have to be very good at math (I'm an English major) to see that you'll get to eat more food if you cut out fats.
According to my food log, about 20% of my calories come from fat. About another 30% come from protein and 50% from carbs. I would like my calories from protein and carbs to be about equal (40% from each), but haven't been able to quite get there yet.
Percentage of fat?
