How much fat do I need per day?

Fats, also known as lipids, are an essential macronutrient, and whether you want to gain muscle mass or lose fat mass, you need them.

Unless you don't want to have good results.

Fats play several fundamental roles in the human body, and have a strong impact on the hormonal system.

They are also the most caloric nutrient, and therefore, knowing how much to ingest can be vital to the success of a diet.

To gain muscle mass, extra calories can come in handy, but to lose fat, a small slip can hinder your progress.

So, do you know how many fats you should eat per day?

Number of calories

There are two mandatory initial steps to determine the amount of fat you need daily.

The first is to know what you want.

Do you want to gain muscle mass?

Lose fat?

After defining your goal, you must know how many calories to consume to achieve it.

Without knowing how many calories you should eat per day, you won't be able to calculate the ideal amount of fat for your diet.

And how do you know this?

It's simple.

See This article and follow the instructions to calculate the calories you need to lose weight.

If your goal is to lose weight, you don't need to change anything.

If, on the other hand, your goal is to gain muscle mass, then you should make a small change.

In the final step, instead of reducing calories, increase them.

Instead of reducing between 200 and 300 kcal, you should increase between 200 and 300 kcal.

Amount of fat

Now that you know how many calories you need per day, you can move on to calculating fat.

There is no exact number, but there are approximate values that work for most people.

Obviously this number varies according to your objective.

Objective to gain muscle mass

If your goal is to gain muscle mass you need calories.

Fats are an excellent source of calories, as they are the densest macronutrient.

Each gram of proteins and carbohydrates provides you with 4 kcal, but fats provide you with 9 kcal for each gram.

Not to mention the essential role they play in the hormonal system, and beyond.

So, how many grams of fat should you eat to gain muscle mass?

Reserve between 20% and 30% of your daily calories for fat.

As you know, each gram of fat contains 9 kcal, so the calculation is not difficult.

Example.

Alfredo wants to gain muscle mass and discovered that he needs 3000 kcal to achieve this.

He chose to use 30% of this value in fat, which corresponds to 900 kcal.

To find out this, Alfredo multiplied the number of calories (3000) by the percentage of fat he intended to use (0.3).

3000 x 0.3 = 900 kcal

Therefore, 900 kcal of Alfredo's diet will be fat.

How many grams of fat does this represent?

Just divide this number by 9, which is the number of calories per gram of fat.

900 : 9 = 100g

In other words, Alfredo will include 100g of fat per day in his diet to gain muscle mass.

Goal to lose fat

You may want to lose weight and fat, but that doesn't mean you should eliminate lipids from your diet.

In fact, it would significantly harm your results.

You should just reduce the amount used.

The method for knowing how many grams you should ingest is similar to that used to gain muscle mass.

What changes?

The percentage of calories that should come from fat.

If your goal is to lose weight and fat mass, you should use between 15% and 25% of fat per day.

Follow the method presented above but multiply by a value between 0.15 and 0.25.

Then, as above, simply divide the result by 9 to find out how many grams of fat this corresponds to.

Attention, 15% is a low value, and if you use it, leave it for a final phase of fat loss, and only for a short period.

Conclusion

Is it difficult to calculate the amount of fat you need?

No.

It's quite simple as you may have noticed. And useful too.

Attention, these values are approximate, and you should pay attention to your results.

There are those who feel better, and achieve better results, with higher fat percentages.

But there are also those who prefer lower values.

Above all, don't eliminate fats from your diet. They are essential.

Use these values as a guide, and adjust if necessary.

To find out how much protein you need per day, go through here.

If you have any questions, use the comments area below.

Here are two articles that may be useful to you.

• What to eat to lose fat
• What to eat to gain muscle mass

Sources.

The values presented in the article are those used by authors Eric Helms, Andrea Valdez and Andy Morgan in the book The Muscle and Strength Pyramid Nutrition.