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How to Calculate Your Fat Intake

By: Lynn Grieger


We all know that lowering your dietary fat intake is highly desirable for good health and body weight. Your total fat consumption should be no more than 30% of your total calories. But how do you apply the numbers in real life?

Take a box of crackers with 8 grams of fat and 150 calories per serving.

Step One:
Fat contains 9 calories per gram.
8 fat grams x 9 = 72 calories from fat.

Step Two:
To find the percentage of total calories from fat,
divide fat calories by total calories.
72 / 150 = .46 x 100 = 46% calories from fat.



Although this exceeds the recommended 30%, you can still reduce your total fat intake with lower-fat foods:

Food/Amount Fat Calories Total Calories
1 serving crackers 70 150
1 raw apple 0 60
1 cup skim milk 0 80
totals: 70 290

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