LE Diet Question - Why is fat a percentage ?

I'm confused why on LE protein is an absolute number (40-50 grams) whereas fat is a percentage. I will give you an example I've come across many times for myself on the diet and keeps causing me problems.

Let's just say on my hypothetical day I've consumed 1200 calories, 40 grams of protein and 45 grams of fat. Based on this, I'm at 34% fat (over the limit by a bit). To adhere to the diet (even if I wasn't hungry) I would eat another 100 calories of pure sugar (a soda, jelly beans, etc) to get myself to 1300 calories and 30% of fat.

It seems in general I'd be better just consuming the higher % of fat and not eating the jelly beans rather than eating extra calories my body doesn't need/I don't want to eat just to get my fat % correct.

It seems to me even on a low calorie diet (1200-1300 calories), sticking to a fat limit (ie 50 grams) makes more sense (just like we do with protein) rather than tinkering with percentages and eating empty calories just to eat them. I'm sure there's a scientfic reason why we are supposed to limit the % of fat rather than the grams of fat, but I just can't find one! help!

oh my goodness! I don't know. I haven't been doing fat as a percentage. I've been aiming for about 42 g per day with an absolute max of 60 g. And I'm having trouble at the moment sticking to THAT (too many girl guide cookies and chocolate, I'm sure).

I'll be keeping an eye open for any light anyone can share....eeeek!

Angie

Because this:
Meatballs - Great Motivational Speech - It Just Doesn't Matter - YouTube

seriously though, different people need different amounts of fat. the reason why fat is a % instead of an amount is because there is a heck of a lot of difference between someone who does better on diet at 2000 cals a day and 20% fat (such as me) and someone doing 1200 cals a day.

You simply can't get that caught up in the diet limits. If you're at 34% fat, fitting in the day's limits for cals and protein, and it works for ya, that's great. What I DON'T want to see is someone getting a ton of cals from fat and then eating nothing else, not enough protein, and basically existing on butter and vegetables. Nor do I want to see people deciding to cut out fat entirely, which I also see all the time. This is not a magical "if you eat everything exactly this way you'll get a girl" type of diet. The numbers are there to help you know what to aim for, not as some bullseye target that you must hit exactly right.

at 1200 cals you have the leeway to do whatever the heck ya want as long as you're getting enough protein and calories and a minimum of 25 g of fat a day. Now, as I know we already talked about, I don't love seeing people eating 1200 cals but some people feel they need to go that low. My point is that at 1200 calories, you have leeway in the fat dept that people eating more calories don't have because no matter what you're going to be getting less fat than you were eating before.

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Originally Posted by angielorna

oh my goodness! I don't know. I haven't been doing fat as a percentage. I've been aiming for about 42 g per day with an absolute max of 60 g. And I'm having trouble at the moment sticking to THAT (too many girl guide cookies and chocolate, I'm sure).

I'll be keeping an eye open for any light anyone can share....eeeek!

Angie

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Anywhere between 25-60 g of fat is ok. I don't want people eating 1200 cals a day to be getting 60 g of fat because they aren't going to have much room for anything else. I don't want anyone going below 25 g of fat a day. Some people need more fat, others need less, and this varies depending on many different factors such as personal preference, whether they have a lot of weight to lose or not, whether they have PCOS or IR and a ton of other things. It is partly practicality/safety and partly because fat does seem to sway blue to some extent so hey, let's eat less of it than we were before.

My point is not and never has been, "eat 20-30% of your cals from fat or your sway will fail." It's just something that is meant to help, and if it doesn't help you, feel free to ignore it. As long as you're moving in the direction of less, you're swaying pink.

Thanks for the response!

I'm getting a little crazy about the diet (which I realize is bad and sways blue). To simplify things for myself do you think aiming for 1200-1500 calories a day, 40-50 grams of fat (regardless of how many calories in that range I eat) and 40-50 grams of protein works?

It's 10000% easier for me to wrap my head around 40-50 grams each of fat and protein rather than trying to balance my macronutrients as percentages each day. That being said if there is something magical about 20-30% fat than I don't want to eliminate that from my sway :)

yes that's perfectly fine!

The only "magic" about the 20--30% fat is that is what is considered a lower fat diet while still providing enough fat intake to keep fertility at a good level. Higher fat is not a low fat diet. Dropping below 20% fat is not good for fertility.

Whew! Thanks ;) I aim for 1500 cals a day, 40-50 g of protein, 42 g of fat (to 60). That's about all I track :P Oh, and, of course, weight loss.

Angie

Love it!!

I was in the same boat as you a few weeks ago. I'm overweight though by about 40-50 pounds & you probably aren't lol. But I'm taking in about 1300 calories per day & aiming to be under 45g of fat per day & my protein is also between 40-45. Now yesterday I only got 24g of fat but my protein was at 43 I believe. That wasn't so good for me but not too bad since I'm so heavy. Atomic had helped me tons bc I got the personalized sway plan. If you think it would help you the way it helped me I think you should try to get one. She's a ton of help & a book of knowledge! I don't know what I would do without her. Good luck!! :bighug:

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Originally Posted by bluebonnet22

Thanks for the response!

I'm getting a little crazy about the diet (which I realize is bad and sways blue). To simplify things for myself do you think aiming for 1200-1500 calories a day, 40-50 grams of fat (regardless of how many calories in that range I eat) and 40-50 grams of protein works?

It's 10000% easier for me to wrap my head around 40-50 grams each of fat and protein rather than trying to balance my macronutrients as percentages each day. That being said if there is something magical about 20-30% fat than I don't want to eliminate that from my sway :)

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