I'm rather confused as to which is really the thing to avoid in terms of intake. I'm trying to lose body fat, but I feel energy deprived and I'm eating close to what I should be eating as far as calories go. My question is, is it okay to consume more calories than I'm suppose to if it doesn't have a high fat content? Or is the only way to lose body fat, no matter how much or little fat is in the food, you have to burn more calories than you consume.
These are great questions.
You need to remember not all fats are alike. I eat fats like olive, flax, and grape seed oils. Fats are important for hair,nails,your nervous, skin,and other things.
I follow a thing called BMR/ TDEE
Take your time and figure out what yours is.
Go to this site and this will give you your calories you burn at rest
Then you multiply by the activity level at the bottom and that will give you your TDEE. Decrease by ~500-750 Remember 3500 cal burned is a pound so eat less than what you come up with just don't go crazy and starve yourself.
sedentary activity total daily energy expenditure TDEE
1.2 x BMR - television or office work
light activity total daily energy expenditure TDEE
1.375 x BMR - exercise workout or sports 1-3 days per week
moderate activity total daily energy expenditure TDEE
1.55 x BMR - exercise workout or sports 3-5 days per week
high activity total daily energy expenditure TDEE
1.725 x BMR - exercise workout or sports 6-7 days per week
extreme activity total daily energy expenditure TDEE
1.9 x BMR- exercise workout or sports two times per day
I do 15% fat, 50% carbs, 35% protien of my cal. There is a great book called food counts and it gives you this info on food. And you can carry the book with you and I also recommend writting down what you eat if don't already.
I really hope this helps