Weight-Loss Fat vs. calories

Weight-Loss
Hm, never tried apples and peanut butter.

lol I eat apples with apple butter though.

What's the real difference between natural peanut butter and stuff like Skippy (the kind in my pantry)? Aside from the fact that it's natural, obviously.
 
Look at the ingredients. Natural peanut butter ingredients should read as follows: Peanuts.

Skippy, Jiffy, Kraft, etc. have added fats (hydrogenated - VERY unhealthy) to keep them solid at room temperature and other ingredients to modify the flavour.

Natural peanut butter needs to be stirred when bought and stored in a fridge to maintain it's consistency. It does taste a bit different, but I only really notice it when I eat it alone which I rarely ever do. My peanut butter comes with some strawberry jam or honey. :D
 
I found natural peanut butter to be a bit bitter when I first started eating it, but I hardly notice that anymore. It tastes fantastic on some multigrain toast.
 
Even now that I know about that, my daily fat intake is still less than 10 grams a day, which I know is probably horrible for me. I just don't want to increase and suddenly balloon.

Hi 11Firecrackers,

I just stumbled onto this thread and thought I could add a little insight. There have already been many good comments regarding fat and its importance in your diet, so I don't want to rehash those. Instead, I thought it might help you to figure out how much fat is appropriate for your diet. In general, our diets should be comprised of around 25-30% fat. Therefore, if you know how many calories you need daily (use Harris-Benedict equation to figure if you don't already know), you can easily calculate your fat needs. Remember that fat has 9 cals/gm.

Here's a sample calculation for an individual who needs 1500 calories per day:

1500 calories x 30% (0.30) = 450 calories
450 calories per day / 9 calories per gram = 50 grams per day

1500 calories x 25% (0.25) = 375 calories
375 calories per day / 9 calories per gram = 42 grams per day

Therefore, this individual needs about 42-50 grams of fat per day.

I included this calculation NOT because I think you need to start counting every gram of fat you eat, but I thought it might help to alleviate your fear of fat a bit and show you that your diet could definitely stand to use more fat.

As far as good ways for you to add fat, I would agree with others who've mentioned olives/olive oil, avocado, canola oil, peanuts/peanut oil, walnuts, oily fish, seeds, and other unsaturated fats. Also, if you will begin to choose more "light" or "reduced-fat" products instead of "fat-free" ones, you'll gradually inch up your fat intake.
 
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