Why can a person only have 65 grams of fat a day without getting fat?

Question

I figure if you just don't go over the 2,000 calorie limit total, you'd wouldn't get fat no matter how much fat you eat. But for some reason, it doesn't work like that. As I heard, both fat and carbs are used for energy. Maybe someone could give me a better understand on how the body works.

Answer 1

To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. You can Google search something like "Swimming calories" to find a list of calories burned for a given exercise. Use the list to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones.

If you are interested, I have more detailed thoughts on this in my 360 Blog from September 10.

Aloha

Answer 2

My diet is around 25mg of fat a day. The bottom line is;
A. Total calories
B. Total fat (and what type of fat).
C. How much do you exercise?

Every ones metabolism is different. Speak to a registered dietitian at a local hospital. They can give you a more precise (and correct) answer.