Weight-Loss how to get in healthy fats

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Hi Everyone, I have been working on being a little more picky when it comes to counting my calories and then dividing those calories up into calories from protein/fat/carbs.

I think I am going to shoot for the 30% protein, 30% fats, and 30% carbs and then 10% to be flexible with which I saw recommended somewhere else on the site.

It doesn't seem difficult to get the protein or the carbs, but I am a little stumped on how I can get the calories from fat to balance in with everything else.

It seems like 99% of the food that does contain fat, either has a higher amount of protien or a higher amount of carbs.

I will probably get some almonds as a start as i know they have a lot of good fat, but other then that, I am kind of at a loss as to where I can get more fat.

I use olive oil when I do cook with oil, but I don't use it too often (mainly just when I make stir fry) but even in making stir fry I would imaging that all of the veggies and chicken that I use will make the carbs and protien outweight the fat.

I don't like olives unless it's on a delux pizza :p

One thing that I can think of is that I tend to buy fat free cottage cheese, sour cream and the yoplait light yogurts. I don't consume a lot of any of these products but maybe the non-fat free versions are the better way to go to balance out my nutrition?

I'm just now getting into trying to balance this all out, so I still have a lot of items to look at and determine their calories from protein/fat/carbs, but so far it seems like I am not getting nearly enough fat into my diet.


What other foods are out there to help me get the fat into my diet? I like to cook so recipes are fine too. Does anyone else run into this problem.

Sorry for the long post. I am sure I will have more questions soon. Thanks in advance.
 
It's tough to balance everything out at first. I will suggest that it might be harder to get an even 30/30/30 split ... just because as you pointed out, things with high amounts of fat also have high amounts of protein. I go for a 40/35/25 split, and find it fairly easy to maintain.

But honestly some days it's like a puzzle ... take this out, put this in ... see what it looks like. Ooops. To many carbs, ditch that from the dinner plan, add this? Now it's too much fat. Juggle, juggle, juggle. :) You get used to it, but it takes time.

All that said, here are some sources of healthy fat:

Peanut butter
avocados
olive oil & olives
fish, especially salmon and tuna (lots of Omega3s)
nuts and seeds of all kinds (almonds have the most healthy fat, but walnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, etc. are all good sources of healthy fat)
dark or bittersweet chocolate (you have to be careful with this one cause the added sugars can be a problem - but a now and then treat of dark chocolate is good for you)

Dairy fats come lower on the list of healthy fats - the nut and veggie fats are better for you.

One thing you can do to add some healthy fat to your diet is to do things like drizzle some olive oil over your veggies or over a salad. You can even buy flavored or herb infused olive oil and use it as a salad dressing. Just a tiny bit - 1/2 tablespoon really adds a nice pop to steamed, roasted, or baked veggies ... or to a salad. In fact my favorite way to dress a salad is to use a tiny bit of olive oil and some red wine vinegar.

Another yummy thing to do especially in the summer is to make a sandwich or stuff pita bread with some chicken and veggies, and stick a few slices of avocado in there. Or make an avocado dip/guacamole type thing and spread that on your sandwich.

Peanut butter or almond butter on an apple or banana is a great snack - I eat pb on an apple frequently.

YOu can buy whole flax seeds and use them in your cooking or meals as well. They have a nice nutty flavor, and a tablespoon of them sprinkled in your yogurt is a good way to add fat.

I know you said you don't like olives except on pizza, but have you ever had Mediterranean style olives that are marinaded in oil? Or an olive tapenade? (It's like a ground up olive spread.) I love to put tapenade on my sandwiches instead of mayo or mustard - and the New Orleans style muffaletta is famous for using tapenade. It's really yummy and tastes totally different from the disgusting canned olives you get in the grocery store. :)

Hope that gives you some suggsetions.
 
KaraCooks said:
It's tough to balance everything out at first. I will suggest that it might be harder to get an even 30/30/30 split ... just because as you pointed out, things with high amounts of fat also have high amounts of protein. I go for a 40/35/25 split, and find it fairly easy to maintain.

But honestly some days it's like a puzzle ... take this out, put this in ... see what it looks like. Ooops. To many carbs, ditch that from the dinner plan, add this? Now it's too much fat. Juggle, juggle, juggle. :) You get used to it, but it takes time.

All that said, here are some sources of healthy fat:

Peanut butter
avocados
olive oil & olives
fish, especially salmon and tuna (lots of Omega3s)
nuts and seeds of all kinds (almonds have the most healthy fat, but walnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, etc. are all good sources of healthy fat)
dark or bittersweet chocolate (you have to be careful with this one cause the added sugars can be a problem - but a now and then treat of dark chocolate is good for you)

Dairy fats come lower on the list of healthy fats - the nut and veggie fats are better for you.

One thing you can do to add some healthy fat to your diet is to do things like drizzle some olive oil over your veggies or over a salad. You can even buy flavored or herb infused olive oil and use it as a salad dressing. Just a tiny bit - 1/2 tablespoon really adds a nice pop to steamed, roasted, or baked veggies ... or to a salad. In fact my favorite way to dress a salad is to use a tiny bit of olive oil and some red wine vinegar.

Another yummy thing to do especially in the summer is to make a sandwich or stuff pita bread with some chicken and veggies, and stick a few slices of avocado in there. Or make an avocado dip/guacamole type thing and spread that on your sandwich.

Peanut butter or almond butter on an apple or banana is a great snack - I eat pb on an apple frequently.

YOu can buy whole flax seeds and use them in your cooking or meals as well. They have a nice nutty flavor, and a tablespoon of them sprinkled in your yogurt is a good way to add fat.

I know you said you don't like olives except on pizza, but have you ever had Mediterranean style olives that are marinaded in oil? Or an olive tapenade? (It's like a ground up olive spread.) I love to put tapenade on my sandwiches instead of mayo or mustard - and the New Orleans style muffaletta is famous for using tapenade. It's really yummy and tastes totally different from the disgusting canned olives you get in the grocery store. :)

Hope that gives you some suggsetions.
Click to expand...

Great post.

One question: Is it true that you have to ground up the flax seeds because or body just passes them through without breaking them down?
 
in the store you can get crushed/powdered flaxseed so i usually add a tablespoon of that to my morning oatmeal (plus 2tbs of natural wheat bran)....i also take a one-a-day cod liver oil tablet since i don't eat as much fish as i'd like to. anything else i can think of has been mentioned above.

-i've actually just ordered online a small jar of virgin coconut oil, as soon as it arrives i'll start taking one tablespoon a day...i guess it's still not considered as being healthy by some since it's mostly saturated fat but since it's a medium chain triglyceride multiple health benefits have been found (at least from what i googled anyway)....i haven't heard anyone mention coconut oil on the forum so was wondering if anyone out there uses it?
 
YOu know ... I've heard contradictory things about flax seed. I've heard that you should grind them to process them better and I've also heard that if you buy them ground, a lot of the benefits wind up being lost because they've sat in packaging for so long. Kinda like how if you're going to drink juice, you shoudl drink it fresh, rather than letting it sit?

I honestly don't know. I buy whole flax seeds and sprinkle them on salads, but I also sometimes throw them in smoothies where they get ground up. So I guess I'm hedging my bets! :D

Maybe someone else will chime in on this one.

Re: Coconut oil. I've heard good things about it, but honestly I use my coconut oil for a sugar body scrub rather than eating with. I like my homemade girly bath stuff! :)
 
hmmm, after having read your post i think i'll get some whole flaxseeds as well and alternate with the crushed seeds just in case.

lol! i know what you mean about the coconut oil, in the past i've also used it on my skin and even hair, so it'll be the first time i'll actually ingest it...guess i'll be my own guinea pig :piggy:

KaraCooks said:
YOu know ... I've heard contradictory things about flax seed. I've heard that you should grind them to process them better and I've also heard that if you buy them ground, a lot of the benefits wind up being lost because they've sat in packaging for so long. Kinda like how if you're going to drink juice, you shoudl drink it fresh, rather than letting it sit?

I honestly don't know. I buy whole flax seeds and sprinkle them on salads, but I also sometimes throw them in smoothies where they get ground up. So I guess I'm hedging my bets! :D

Maybe someone else will chime in on this one.

Re: Coconut oil. I've heard good things about it, but honestly I use my coconut oil for a sugar body scrub rather than eating with. I like my homemade girly bath stuff! :)
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for all of the great ideas so far everyone. I looove peanut butter so I have a hunch I will be using that to get more fats in.

I think I will try a little olive oil over my veggies soon and also see about some of the seeds that were mentioned.

All and all though, a lot of the stuff mentioned doesn't sound to appetizing to me (I'm actually kind of leary about the olive oil over veggies... just doesn't sound good) but I'm gonna try it.

Here's a question though? How bad is butter or margarine? I have almost completely stopped using it since I have began to loose weight. The only time I have it is when I have a baked potato (which has been very rare). When I do use it I use the Country Crock with Calcium. I know that at least the margarine I use has some Polyunsaturated Fat and Monounsaturated fat (those are good fats right?) What is your thoughts on adding some to my veggies to get more fat into my diet? I have learned to love corn (another veggie i don't have to often) without butter but I must admit it does taste better with it. I assume broccoli and other veggies would taste really good with some margarine or butter too. Anyways, I wanted to get everyone's oppinions on this.

I guess while I am here too, am I correct in saying that corn and potatos aren't the best veggies for me? I know they are high in carbs but I think I have mainly cut them out since they are not green. They are my 2 favorite veggies. I'm still new to all of this counting calories and carbs/fat/protein so bare with me while I get everything figured out :p
 
ARGH. I had a great detailed response typed, hit the "back" key, and lost the whole thing. So here goes again ... maybe a little shorter.

Last question first:
Technically potatoes and corn are veggies, but they're very carb/starch heavy, so most diet plans count them as carbs. A small (SMALL) white potato with the skin can be a great addition to a diet, but you need to carefully weigh what you're eating and remember that it has more carbs than it does veggie nutritional value. (I'm with you on loving potatoes and I have to be really careful 'cause I'll eat them in vast quantities in any form - baked, boiled, fried, whatever.) Corn is the same way ... it's a starchy veggie, so it more counts for carbs than veggies. You have to measure and consider how many carbs you're eating and I personally don't count corn as a serving of veggies, when I'm figuring out how many veggies I've eaten.

Ok, now butter vs. marg. There are a lot of schools of thought here. Yes, butter is higher in saturated fat than marg. So a lot of people go with margarine over butter. I am a big believer in eating REAL food. For me, margarine is more processed than I want to put in my body. Butter is ... butter. It's cream that's been agitated until the solids settle out. There is no chemical reaction required to make butter. It's pretty much straight from the cow. Margarine is vegetable oils and stabilizers and preservatives. I personally prefer to avoid those things. So ... even though butter has more saturated fat than margarine, I'd rather budget the calories and fat grams for the butter, and have less of it, than eat margarine. It's very much a personal choice, however. I"m also the person who would rather eat 1 oz of real sharp cheddar cheese, than 4 oz of whatever "light" cheese is on the market.
 
ARGH. I had a great detailed response typed, hit the "back" key, and lost the whole thing. So here goes again ... maybe a little shorter
Click to expand...

lol, I've done that too :p

I may start going with the butter too. I really don't use it often, at least not right now.

I just started using sparkpeople today and am hooked on it. I love the nutrition/meal planning section. I think with the knowledge I have picked up on this forum it is just the tool I need to easily calculate my calories from carbs/fats/protiens. I'm finding out a lot, and am realizing that it's not as hard as I thought to get the fats in, but at the same time, I do need to replace some of my fats with healthier fats.

You mentioned cheese. I am pretty sure they don't contain healthy fats but I am not sure. That leads to my next question though... If I aim for 20 - 30 % of my calories to come from fat. What percentage of my fat calories should come from the healthy fats mentioned? I eat skinless chicken breasts almost daily which has a little fat (and I'm sure its not the healthy fats either) and I do love cheese and wouldnt mind throwing a little into my diet as a snack or even with a meal. I don't think its possible for me to enjoy my food (at least not for too long) if 100% of my calories from fat come from the healthy fats mentioned. I hope my question makes sence. If not let me know and I will try to clarify.

Thanks
 
Makes total sense. I personally don't pay all that much attention to healthy fats vs. unhealthy fats as far as the percentage goes. I just make sure that I limit my cheese/butter/milk fats each day to a couple of servings - 3 at the most. For example, I might have yogurt for breakfast and cheese for a snack and a bit of butter with dinner, and then I ditch the dairy in favor of olive oil or avocado.

But I'm not obsessive about it. I use olive oil every day practically, so I know I"m getting a good bit of healthy fat in there.

It's kinda hard for me to define because I don't set a hard and fast limit.
 
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