How much fat do I need to eat?

[not2late]

Hi everyone. I'm getting a bit concerned about how much fat everyone thinks we need to eat.

During Atkins Induction, we receive 65% of our total daily calories from fat, 30% from protein and 5% from carbs.

All animal protein contains fat. That fat is figured into the 65% fat calories for the day. "Lean" meats contain fat. Per fitday.com, 3 ounces of a broiled, boneless, skinless chicken breast contains 2.97 grams of fat.

Here's a example of a meal of chicken breast and 1 cup of green beans with a tablespoon of butter.

4 oz broiled boneless skinless chicken breast: fat grams = 3.97 grams, calories from fat = 35.6
1 cup green beans: fat grams = 0.132 grams, calories from fat =1.19
1 tablespoon butter: fat grams = 11.52 grams, calories from fat = 1.03

For this meal, fat makes up 45% of the total calories.

2 tablespoons of mayo has 21.9 grams of fat, and 197 calories from fat.

If you add 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise to this meal, the fat calories are up to 67%. In fact, the fat/protein/carb ratio for this meal is 67/29/4 which is pretty close to the 65/30/5 ratio.

How much is 2 tablespoons? It's not a large quantity at all. If you use standard cooking measures, 2 tablespoons is roughly the size of 2 tea bags. Many of us don't measure properly to begin with and probably stick a spoon in a jar and scoop out a "heaping" tablespoon. A "heaping" spoon is usually estimated as twice the spoon size. In other words, a heaping teaspoon is about 2 properly measured teaspoons and a heaping tablespoon is about 2 properly measured tablespoons.

You don't need to "drown" your food in mayonnaise, olive oil or butter to do Atkins properly---especially if you eat higher fat proteins.

Let's look at this meal of 4 ounces broiled skinless chicken thighs and 1 cup of green beans with 1 tablespoon butter.

4 ounces broiled skinless chicken thighs: fat = 12 grams, calories from fat = 135
1 cup green beans: fat grams = 0.132 grams, calories from fat =1.19
1 tablespoon butter: fat grams = 11.52 grams, calories from fat = 1.03

For this meal, the fat makes up about 60% of the total calories. In other words, you don't need to add anymore fat to this meal. And if you wanted to anyway, you wouldn't need to add 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, oil or butter.

I hope this helps everyone get a better idea of the amount of fat you need to add to any particular meal.

By the way, the ratios are for the daily total calories. So you don't have to make the ratios for every meal/snack you eat.

[Brook]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

[Peytonn]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

here's dukes:





http://www.dukesmayo.com/

[not2late]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

Dang Brook! you're fast, I didn't spend more than 2 minutes editing the original post and you've already replied....

[Brook]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

Heh. They call me "Quick Post McGraw" 'round these parts, doncha know!

[Peytonn]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

GOD!!! wrong thread... ignore the mayonaise link..

[Elsie150]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

Would love to hear more discussion on this. My first week I was concerned that my calories were to low as they were well below my BMR. This week I am trying to work on getting my fat down as it is averaging in the 70's. I will admit 4 oz of chicken and a cup of green beans doesn't sound like the wonderful meals Atkins promised us we would be eating but I am interested in hearing about other balanced meals. My 1 cup romaine, 1 oz cucumber, 1 oz tomato, 2 T(.8 carb per T) garlic dressing salad has me at 85% fat.
Hope others post to this!

[cleochatra]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

I would sticky this to the top of the page, but I'm afraid it would be lost. So I'll give it a *hip bump* instead.

[Finelly]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

Elsie - you are at 85% fat for that particular meal. You are aiming for 65% overall.

Actually, I tend to stay in the 70% range, 'cause I eat so little meat. And that's not bad....in fact, people in stalls usually try to eat more fat to see if that will help.

[cleochatra]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

Actually, I tend to stay in the 70% range, 'cause I eat so little meat. And that's not bad....in fact, people in stalls usually try to eat more fat to see if that will help.

Quite True! And that's partially because even protein can break down into sugar in the blood stream and cause problems for people from time to time, which is why it is important to keep the protein ratio to not more than 30-35% of our overall intake each day.

[Elizellen]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

My 1 cup romaine, 1 oz cucumber, 1 oz tomato, 2 T(.8 carb per T) garlic dressing salad has me at 85% fat.

That is because the veggies are low in calories and so work out at a very low percantage of your overall intake. If you are not eating any protein with this meal/snack then perhaps have less dressing - maybe only one Tablespoon with that amount of salad, I bet that would change the proportions appreciably.

[not2late]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

Would love to hear more discussion on this. My first week I was concerned that my calories were to low as they were well below my BMR. This week I am trying to work on getting my fat down as it is averaging in the 70's. I will admit 4 oz of chicken and a cup of green beans doesn't sound like the wonderful meals Atkins promised us we would be eating but I am interested in hearing about other balanced meals.

Marinate the chicken with 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil and a teaspoon of minced ginger root and stirfry it with a clove of garlic and the green beans---you'll have something that will rival the gloppy, gooey stirfries at Chinese carry outs.

Or saute the chicken with oil and minced shallots. Add a tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley or tarragon. And serve it with the green beans.

My 1 cup romaine, 1 oz cucumber, 1 oz tomato, 2 T(.8 carb per T) garlic dressing salad has me at 85% fat.
Hope others post to this!

Okay, if you have a fitday account, plug those numbers in and add 3 ounces of any cooked meat you like (tuna, chicken, beef, pork). You'll see the fat % will decrease. Add another 1 ounce of the meat and the fat % will decrease even more. That's why Dr. Atkins said to eat combinations of fat, protein and carbs with your meals.

It only takes very little changes in the amount of fat and protein we eat to see large changes in the percentages.

[not2late]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

Here's another example of a meal:

1 cup romaine lettuce shredded
3 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup sliced cucumbers

With a dressing of
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice

The total calories for this salad is 268 and the fat/protein/carb percentages is 91/3/7

The protein is low so you decide to add a hard boiled egg to this salad.

The total calories is now 345 with the percentages of 85/9/6.

So you decide to add 3 ounces of roasted turkey breast, no skin. The total calories is 477, and the percentages is 68/28/4

What happens if you think you are eating "too much" fat and decide to use only 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the dressing? The calories decrease to 357 and the percentages look like this 56/36/6. Using 1 tablespoon less of olive oil caused a 12 percentage point drop in the fat percent.

What happens if you use 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil? The calories are 417 and the percentages are this 63/32/5.

Look how much 1/2 tablespoon of fat changes the percentages! Again, if you think 1 tablespoon of olive oil is "alot", then measure it out with a standard cooking measuring spoon to see what it really looks like. In the book, Dr. Atkins suggests really measuring the foods because one person's "2 tablespoons" might really be 1/4 cup or a 1/2 cup. And as you can see, these little measuring errors can have a big impact on your calories and percentages.

What happens if you think you to eat "alot" of meat during Atkins and decide to use 5 ounces of turkey for this salad?

The percentages for the fat and protein change dramatically: 59/37/4. Total calories increase greatly too: 617. So how do you correct that? Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil for a total of 2.5 tablespoons. The percentages become 66/31/3.

Just remember 3 ounces of meat is approximately the size of a standard deck of playing cards. So, 2 playing decks is about 6 ounces, alittle less than 1/2 pound.

The other fun thing to do is to measure out a "normal" portion of protein that you would eat in your pre-Atkins days, to see how much you were eating "alot" back then....

[loser4life]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

I am glad I saw this post! Thanks for posting it! I was afraid I was eating too much fat... but today my percentages are 4/29/68. I think thats good right? yeah for ADBB members! You guys are full of great info!!!

[Sveltesse]

Re: How much fat do I need to eat?

Hi All. Have just joined this site to see if there were any tips! Wow! So much information!. I have been on induction for 13 days now and thought I would have lost more weight/inches. If i'm honest I have only lost 5 pounds (which I think was water retention anyway from TOM) and probably only about an inch if that from my body. I didn't realise I had to eat so much fat, i'm finding that a bit hard to stomach. Any foods high in fat already I can eat without adding spoonfulls of Mayo you can recommend? I bet lamb is a good one. I have only cheated on induction once when I put lentils in my homemade chicken soup! No fruit, very little veg so I can't understand my slow loss. I have DA's book so have read that but still to no avail. I must confess to my lack of water intake though, I have started to drink 2.5 litres of water in the last 3 days so maybe I will see a change then.
Thanks for reading all, and oh, should I therefore stick on induction for another 2 weeks minimum and see how I get on then? Obviously no alcohol either yet right?
HELP!