Fat grams, calories or percentages: Which are more important?

A lot of people are at a loss as to how to assess the fat contents of their food. Some experts suggest that fat grams are the better benchmark while other said that calories and percentages should be used to determine the quality of the food. Technically, all these three are equally important and you should correlate all them to be better informed on how to lose weight!

Although fat grams, calories and percentages are all useful in gauging the health benefits of food, all these numbers can be quite confusing. To simplify things, we should familiarize themselves with at least one of these benchmarks and then use this particular benchmark to determine as to whether or not out diet is healthy.

Understanding the Use of Fat Grams

Of the three benchmarks, the fat grams is perhaps the most complicated to use since this involves some mathematical conversions. For instance, according to the Institute of Medicine, healthy adults derive 20 to 35 percent of their total calorie needs from fat. To get the correct amount of fat grams needed a person who needs 1,800 calories will have to take in about 70 grams of fat. How did we arrive at that figure? We multiply 1,800 by 35% then divide the product thereof by 9 which is the amount of calories per gram of fat. Sounds complicated? Not really, once we get used to these mathematical operations, things become simpler.

Using Calorie and Percentages

Using the calorie counter to determine as to whether or not our diet is healthy is a bit easier than using the fat gram. You see most food labels already list the number of calories of the food so all we need to do is read the label and see to it that you do not exceed your daily fat requirements. Like calories, percentages can also be found on food labels. Most food labels use percentages in comparison with the Daily Value (DV) based on a typical 2,000 calorie diet.

It’s not easy, we do agree with that. But one of the easiest ways to lose weight is by just tracking what you eat. Just avoid all processed foods and skip eating anything that makes you feel guilty and you should be fine!