Fat
The next macronutrient we are going to talk about is fat. If you haven’t read the protein overview you can find that here.
For a long time fats had a bad reputation and people frequently sought out low fat options in the grocery stores and restaurants. With the recent gain in popularity for high fat diets like keto, fat has circled back around and is seemingly less scary than it was once made out to be. With that being said, there is still a lot of nuance around the macronutrient and while I won’t go into too much detail on any one specific aspect of fat, I will do my best to help you make a more informed decision regarding what to look for when you are choosing different diet options.
What is fat and how much should you be eating?
Fat is one of the 3 macronutrients found in food. It is made up of a glycerol backbone with some hydrocarbon chains hanging off of it. We won’t dive into that today, but the main takeaway is fat molecules are big, and since they are big they contain a lot of energy. Fats contain 9 calories per gram, compared to 4 calories per gram contained in protein and carbs. In other words, one gram of fat has over double the amount of calories as one gram of fat or protein. Depending on your goals with respect to health, it is typically recommended that you consume 0.7-1.2g of fat per lb bodyweight each day. This number will vary based on your goals (if you are trying to lose weight you might be closer to 0.7, if you are trying to gain weight you might be closer to 1-1.2). Additionally, women typically require a little bit more fat than men to help sustain adequate hormone production. For both sexes, less that 0.65-0.7g of fat per bodyweight is not reccomended as it may start to adversely affect your production of necessary hormones.
Types of fat- Saturated
Fat has two main types, saturated and unsaturated. Without overcomplicating it, a saturated fat has all of its hydrogens present in the hydrocarbon chains, which makes the chains straight and therefore allows the molecules to pack in tightly next to one another. This causes the fat to be stiff, and typically it is important to limit the amount of saturated fat you consume. When fats are metabolized they are used for long term energy but your body also uses fats to form the walls of cells. Too many saturated fats cause the walls of your cells to stiffen, and this doesn’t allow for natural fluid movement of the cells around one another. Imagine your veins and arteries being stiff, compared to being able to flex and move around.
Types of fat- Unsaturated
Unsaturated fats are missing hydrogens from their hydrocarbon chains, which simply put, makes them kink and bend. The bending and kinking allows for more space between the fat molecules, thus allowing for more fluid movement. This is important especially for fats that are used to make the cell walls. You want your cell membranes to be fluid and flexible, so that cells can bend and move around. Omega fatty acids which most people recognize as good fats, are unsaturated. The omega refers to the shape formed by the hydrocarbon chain, and the number refers to where on the chain the bend happens. To make an analogy for saturated vs unsaturated fats, imagine a forest. Saturated fats would make a forest that is very densely packed with pine trees. Pointing straight up, each not 2 feet from the next, you could imagine how hard it would be to move and squeeze through such a densely packed forest. These pine trees represent the straight and tightly packed hydrocarbon chains found in saturated fat. Now imagine a forest filled with oak trees. The large spans in the air don’t allow the oak trees to grow too close to one another as they all need space to grow and thrive. You could imagine the forest would be easier to navigate as there is more space between the trees. The bent hydrocarbons are like the tree canopy, giving space between the fats (the trees) allowing for smoother, faster, and more fluid movement.
Fat sources
Everybody is different so experimentation is vital in determining which fat sources work best for you. Healthy fat sources include fat from meat, nuts, avocados, olive oil, grass fed butter and ghee, and tallow. Some people find they feel more vitality when consuming primarily animal fats, whereas some people prefer plant based fat sources and feel better with those. It will be up to you to experiment and determine which is best for you.
Fat timing
In terms of when to consume fat, it will largely depend on your metabolism. Since fat is a larger molecule the metabolism of the macronutrient is slower. The energy is denser and is released over a slower period of time. Because of this, people find that fat helps them feel satiated, however for that exact reason they also might experience GI discomfort during workouts if a high fat meal is consumed before exercise. Personally, I like for all of my meals to have about the same amount of fat, with the exception of whatever meal I am eating before a hard workout, in which case I will eat a lower fat meal so that I don’t have anything in my stomach while I am exercising.
