We want to make counting macros easy, which is why we created these macro cheat sheets for you!
If only there was financial compensation for those of us that grew up in the 1990’s and were fear mongered over the simple act of eating foods that contained fat.
Never forget eating endless amounts of nasty egg whites and fat-free yogurts thinking it was “healthier” for us because of all the harmful (and untrue!) messaging that “fat is the devil” and “eating fat makes you fat.”
What I quickly learned while coaching others on their nutrition is that while many of us eventually came to learn the importance of getting enough healthy fats in our diet daily, there’s still a large population of people out there who are still avoiding fat in their diet out of fear and misguidance.
Eating fat does NOT indeed make you fat. In fact, not getting enough healthy fats in your diet can contribute to numerous symptoms, including: dry skin, hair loss, hormone and menstrual cycle issues, joint pain, fatigue, depression, and more.
Fats are also an important source of energy, can help make food super tasty, help keep us feeling full between meals, and are crucial for absorbing the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.
To ensure you’re getting enough fat, here’s two macro cheat sheets that cover 34 different ways to get more grams of fat!
How Much Fat Do You Need?
Current recommendations support getting 0.7-2.2 grams of fat per kilogram of body weight. That’s ~0.32-1.0 grams per pound body weight (or target body weight).
^ In English: if someone weighs 120 lbs, that’s getting anywhere from 38-120 grams of fat per day.
While I have no issue with the upper threshold proposal, the minimum proposal is a little too low for my liking. In my personal experience, it can be common to see period problems and/or hormones issues in menstruating women when eating that little fat per day.
Usually it’s whenever someone is dieting for lengthy periods and consistently averaging something like ~30-50g of fat per day (note: this doesn’t always happen and certainly everyone is different, but just something to keep in mind!)
A better goal / better rule of thumb might be no less than 20-25% of your daily calories from sources of fat.
Especially if you are active, love working out, and/or are working to maximize your health and hormones, you may feel best aiming closer to that ~25% of daily calorie minimum (if not more).
Of course, these recommendations are referring to when we’re eating at maintenance calories. We may end up temporarily eating lower fat when dieting and such, but hopefully this gives you a good basis to get started.
Enjoy these macro cheat sheets with more ways on how to get the job done!
Want More Nutrition Help?
Check out my e-book, The Ultimate Guide to Nutrition, Muscle Gain, & Fat Loss for everything you need to know about fats and the other macronutrients (:
We’re also always posting nutrition tips on our Paragon Training Methods Instagram page. Follow along for some free workouts and tips for enhancing your routine!
