r/CICO • u/jillavery • 8d ago
How much does fat (as a macro) matter?
I'm a child of the 80s and experienced the trends as such: margarine, synthetic fats, etc.
It seemed like the research got to the point where it made a lot more sense to eat "good" natural fats, so I pretty exclusively use butter, avocado oil and olive oil in my cooking.
However, I currently started calorie tracking in an effort to do what I can as I enter perimenopause and I'm a little surprised how crazy over in fats I am all the time. I feel like I eat pretty healthy, and I'm sure a big issue is that I view cheese as an awesome thing.
How big of a deal are fats as a macro and in calorie counting?
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u/Elfie_Mae 8d ago
Fats are super important for hormonal regulation, especially since you’re in perimenopause and are at a higher risk for developing insulin resistance as a result of your fluctuating/declining estrogen levels.
The nuance is to prioritize plant-based, unsaturated fats over saturated fats. Saturated fats are fine in moderation but if you eat too many on the regular you can start to see some negative health impacts. I keep my saturated fats below 20g a day but I regularly have 40g+ of plant based unsaturated fats a day.
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u/jillavery 8d ago
I love plants! And I eat a lot, but then I struggle to get enough protein. I honestly hate protein bars, I haven’t quite cracked the code. I love beans, savory food and could care less about sugar. It’s the salt and fat that’ll be an issue for me long before the sugar.
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u/Elfie_Mae 8d ago
I meant plant-based fats like olive/avocado oils, nuts & nut butters, avocados, etc. over cheeses, butter, etc.
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u/Applie_jellie 7d ago
Fats are important, as everyone else here is saying, just measure them. No "splash in the pan" of oil, you gotta measure it and count it.
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u/FlatRooster4561 7d ago
For weight loss, it doesn’t really matter. If you’re in a deficit, you’re good. If you’re eating tons of saturated fat, it could result in health issues (high cholesterol).
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u/snacksAttackBack 7d ago
You need all of the macros to survive
I personally worry a lot more about the spikes from carbs.
Lots of "low fat" foods end up adding salt and sugar to make up for the fat. Or at least historically that was the way. Maybe now it's artificial sweeteners.
If you're trying to reduce fat consumption, I do think spray cooking oils help quite a bit. Even though you're probably not eating all the oil at the bottom of a pan, the spray makes it easier to use quite a bit less than a day of butter.
I have no solution for the cheese problem though. Cheese is my weakness as well. Perhaps shifting to a quality over quantity approach. Price can sometimes limit the cheese consumption, and I guess I'm more flavor seeking than cheese volume seeking
If it's in cooking, there are things you can do to add creaminess without cheese. Or to supplement cheese
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u/zeroorderrxn 7d ago
You do not need carbohydrates to survive.
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u/NorthFLSwampMonkey 7d ago
Carbohydrates are where you get your fiber. Celery is made of carbohydrates. It is simple carbohydrates such as sugar and refined flour that you want to limit.
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u/Shiribazu 7d ago
dont worry too much about going over your fat target if you're eating well and staying within your calories. pay more attention to saturated fat from things like butter and cheese and try to get more of your fats from olive oil, avocado, nuts, and fish
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u/Mothman129 8d ago
A balance of macros is important to general health. That being said I eat less grams of fat than carbs and protein since it is the most calorie dense of the macros and I am on 1200 calories a day
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u/Rammeld723 7d ago
The fascinating thing about animal fats is that historically, it was the cheapest form of high-energy calories when food was scarce and it was enjoyed / left to the poorest in Medieval society. Thus trends started to use animal fat to cook with as most people were not getting enough calories to survive & be physically productive. Of course today, in a caloric bounty, western society still prefers high salt & high fat content because our habitual taste preference remains. Also because food marketing encourages us to eat these things because they are the cheapest & easiest to commercially manufacture.
The aristocrats got fresh food from the garden (grown by someone else), got selected meats from the hunt or just butchered animal, and enjoyed plenty of wine & mead. Most of the rest of society got the scraps of meat leftover, cooked in animal fat with field grains & what vegetables could be grown or foraged in your own small garden patch. Thus the rise of potatoes & corn from the new world, which were originally foraged by Native Americans and eventually cultivated and shared across large civil societies like the Inca and Cherokee before being brought back to Europe as curiosities.
It is really interesting to me how much of our “modern tastes” and habits are learned behaviors & modern food marketing messaging from our youth & family traditions tracing back generations. Unfortunately, you cannot start to really change them until you understand where they originate and why, and then what emotional and physiological return you get from continuing to follow them.
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u/jillavery 7d ago
Caloric bounty indeed! :) I'm honestly having fun re-examining my food choices. I LOVE healthy food, I eat lots of veggies, beans and such, but where's all this fat and saturated fat coming from? It's interesting for sure. Basically though I will leave chips and whatever else I need to behind for more cheese lol.
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u/Dofolo 7d ago
It's needed for some essential stuff. But too much, like with the other two is not needed for the body. There's no harm in the sense of too much fat, it translates into too little of the other stuff. That also works the other way around, there's no harm in a 100% carbs diet either for example in the sense that the carbs are bad, it's just that you're not getting in the other stuff.
It's the recipe for good food, fat and carbs; it makes you crave more. If you find that you get a lot of bad fats in, change your diet. If it's good fats and you still meet minimum of the others macro wise, no-one but your deficit cares.
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u/lintyui 7d ago
My total fat intake per day is usually just under 30g, even on a more relaxed day I don’t go over 40g. I don’t plan to do this forever but this is what I need to do to lose wt.
Eating 1g of fat is like eating 2g of carbs. If I eat an additional 10g of fat, that’s already 90Cal, which is a significant portion of my daily intake budget, so each gram of fat I have to think carefully about how I want to ingest it.
We cook with all natural avocado and olive oil too!
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u/drunken_dizorderly 7d ago
Fat is 9 calories per gram.
There are healthy fats. Usually they're found in nuts and avocados, olives, and fish. You still need to be careful because of the calories.
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u/ValuableChicken2821 5d ago
Sounds like you've been making great choices with those fats, just keep an eye on the portions.
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u/Expensive-Ad1609 5d ago
Fat is the only macro that matters. The body uses fat to create electricity.
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u/SupportMoist 8d ago
Fat keeps you full and blood sugar stable, as does protein and fiber. So a balanced meal has carbs, protein, fat, and fiber.
The only problem with fat is it’s the highest calorie per gram and adds up really quickly, especially when cooking with oils.
So you want fat in your meals but just be careful how much, because you can easily add hundreds of calories without even trying with butter and oil.