How Much Fat to Eat?
Ideally 15-20% of total calories. Most authorities say from 10 to 40%! But you will find you don’t need so much fat as you eat healthier. I find 10% too low and people’s skin tone lacks luster, 30% or more is just not healthy.
Overeating even on healthy fats will fatigue you and your liver. Most authorities on healthy fats recommend from 10-40% of calories from fats, ideally 15-20% seems best. So let’s examine what that really means.
On average a person consumes about 2,000 Calories total in a day. 15-20% would be 300-400 calories from just fats. On average there are 120 calories per tablespoon of fats from oils.
All fats are calorie-dense (9 calories per gram), so 2 tablespoons of most oils at lunch and 2 at dinner are the raw healthy fat limit for one person on an average day. ½ cup of almonds in a day would be 20% of an average person’s total fat for one day. 1 ¼ avocado would be a total for a day and so on. See the chart below for calorie totals.
Ideally eating Whole Food Fats are much healthier than consuming calorie rich oils which lack whole food fibers and other nutrition. I highly recommend eating WHOLE Raw Nuts, Seeds, Olives, Avocados and coconuts as your fats on a daily basis. Consuming raw oils is fine 1-2x a week as a treat. Eating olives is much more nutritive than just consuming the olive oil!
FOOD | Amount | Fat Grams | CALORIES |
Oil:Coconut Oil, Flax, Hemp, Olive | 1 tablespoon | 14 | 125 |
1 cup | 216 | 1,910 | |
Avocado1 medium | 173 grams | 30 | 305 |
Olives | 8 medium | 4 | 26 |
Seeds: Sunflower, Pumpkin, Sesame | 1 tablespoon | 8 | 45 |
1 ounce / 28grams | 13 | 155 | |
Macadamia | 1 ounce / 28grams | 22 | 205 |
Almonds | ¼ cup | 17.5 | 198 |
Coconut | 1 cup | 27 | 285 |
Raw Cream | ¼ cup | 22 | 205 |
Raw Whole Milk | 1 cup | 8 | 150 |
Raw Butter | 1/8 cup | 12 | 101 |
Raw Goats Milk | 1 cup | 10 | 165 |
Fats, Oils, Calories & Weight Loss
Fats (1 gram = 9 calories) are more than twice as calorie-dense as carbohydrates or protein ( 1 gram = 4 calories). Also all oils, no matter how healthy, are dense in calories (1 tbsp = 125 calories). In addition, many processed foods and fast foods are high in fat, especially saturated fat. It is virtually impossible to become overweight even eating healthy fats as long as you eat over 80% raw foods. I ate 2-6 avocados a day for over 2 years and did not become overweight! Please do not overeat even raw fats. I did this and nearly permanently damaged my colon and liver!
Raw Dairy
If you want to drink milk, eat butter, cheese or cream, please make sure it is RAW. Pasteurized dairy has no lipase enzymes, but raw dairy has lipase enzymes so it can be broken down much better and will not cause excess weight gain! For the sake of your health, please eat raw, healthy fats and Live Forever Healthy!