FAT FAT Everywhere!

[elcee 3,341]

I have never journalled my food before but decided to do it out of interest for a couple of days just to see approx what I am eating.

I have tried using fitday via the lapband site but it doesn't work for me as many of the Australian foods are not listed. This is a pity as it seems to be very good and give very accurate breakdowns.So I have used calorieking.com.au as this lists local foods. The downside is it doesn't give very good info.

I seem to be averaging about 1000 - 1200 calories a day.What horrifies me is the percentage of these that come from fat. It seems that about 35% of my daily calories come from fat! Does this mean I am stuffing my face full of unhealthy foods like butter, cream, cheese etc? No - I eat a varied balanced diet including all food groups. I am just amazed at the fat content of foods that you would think had little or no fat in them. E.g oats. I had oats for Breakfast this morning(cooked with water). Apparently 22% of the calories in oatmeal come from fat! With stats like these I don't know how it is possible to stick to a low fat diet.

For those that low carb the figures must be far worse.

For me this is a good reason to give up journalling, relax and just eat what I think I should be eating. If I don't I think I might become obsessive and stressed out trying to get my fats down to a reasonable level.

[crzytchr 3]

I have never journalled my food before but decided to do it out of interest for a couple of days just to see approx what I am eating.

I have tried using fitday via the LAP-BAND® site but it doesn't work for me as many of the Australian foods are not listed. This is a pity as it seems to be very good and give very accurate breakdowns.So I have used calorieking.com.au as this lists local foods. The downside is it doesn't give very good info.

I seem to be averaging about 1000 - 1200 calories a day.What horrifies me is the percentage of these that come from fat. It seems that about 35% of my daily calories come from fat! Does this mean I am stuffing my face full of unhealthy foods like butter, cream, cheese etc? No - I eat a varied balanced diet including all food groups. I am just amazed at the fat content of foods that you would think had little or no fat in them. E.g oats. I had oats for Breakfast this morning(cooked with water). Apparently 22% of the calories in oatmeal come from fat! With stats like these I don't know how it is possible to stick to a low fat diet.

For those that low carb the figures must be far worse.

For me this is a good reason to give up journalling, relax and just eat what I think I should be eating. If I don't I think I might become obsessive and stressed out trying to get my fats down to a reasonable level.

Something didn't sound right about the oatmeal, so I looked it up on fitday. It is listed there, regular oatmeal, cooked as having 2.4g of fat or 4%. I would think unless you are adding whole milk or butter to it, there couldn't possibly 22% fat. I am sorry that fitday doesn't have many of the foods you eat. I really like using it.

[Jachut 487]

35% of calories from fat actually aint that bad. Most dieters are recommended to get about 30% on your standard low fat high carb diet.

I think time has proven fat is not the weight loss enemy we used to think it was, but you have to make sure that you get the right sort of fat - fat from processed foods is almost always bad fat!

You're now at goal weight!! And if you know you're bloodwork is OK then its really not much of an issue. We need fat in our diets, its as important as Protein for satiety and you'll have better hair and skin as a result too. Just get lots of fat in the form of olive oil, avocado, oily fish, nuts etc and not very much butter, palm oil etc.