How Many Grams of Fat Per Day Should You Eat? Your Guide to Smarter Fat Intake

How to Calculate Your Personal Fat Needs

Online tools can help you calculate your personal fat needs. However, working with a registered dietitian is the best way to determine your personal fat needs. Calorie and fat needs differ from person to person, depending on health status and goals.

Sample calculations by calorie levels

Each person has different nutrition needs. However, someone who consumes 2,000 calories per day could get 396 to 702 calories (44 to 78 grams) from fat daily. Your target fat grams will adjust if your calorie needs are lower or higher. 

What Types of Fat Should You Prioritize?

Some fats are better than others. 

Unsaturated fats to include daily

There are two main kinds of unsaturated fat: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated:

• Monounsaturated fats are found in foods like olive oil, avocados, peanuts, peanut butter, and other nuts and nut butter. 

• Polyunsaturated fats include omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3-rich foods include fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, anchovies), flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, and fish oil. Omega-6s are found in many oils, nuts, and seeds.

Prioritize healthy unsaturated fats to help with satiety and support bodily functions. Research shows that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats reduces the risk of heart disease. Replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fats like omega-3s has a more pronounced effect on heart health, but any substitution can significantly affect your health.

Contrary to what you may hear in the media, replacing saturated fat sources like tallow and butter with unsaturated vegetable and seed oils is associated with a 30% reduction in cardiovascular disease. 

Fats to limit

Some fats should be consumed less often.

Trans fats

As mentioned earlier, you want to avoid consuming trans fat. Any foods that contain partially hydrogenated oils will contain trans fats. Review the nutrition facts panel of packaged or ultra-processed foods to double-check that they don’t contain any trans fats. 

Trans fats are linked to elevated cholesterol, which increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. Cholesterol contributes to plaque build-up in your arteries, preventing blood from easily moving through the body.

Foods that contain saturated fats include the following:

• Beef

• Lamb

• Pork

• Poultry with skin

• Beef fat (tallow)

• Lard

• Cream

• Butter

• Cheese

• Ice cream

• Coconut

• Palm oil

• Palm kernel oil

• Baked and fried foods

Saturated fats

Saturated fats are primarily found in animal products and tropical oils like palm and coconut oil. Butter, lard, beef fat, chicken skin, bacon, sausage, high-fat cuts of red meat, cream, whole milk, full-fat cheese, and coconut and palm oil contain saturated fat.

Research indicates that saturated fat increases LDL cholesterol, raising heart disease risk over time. Because of this, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend keeping saturated fat intake at 10% of your daily calories or less. A 2,000-calorie per day diet amounts to less than 120 calories or 13 grams of saturated fat.

The American Heart Association encourages restricting saturated fat to less than 6% of your daily calories. On a 2,000-calorie per day diet, this amounts to less than 120 calories or 13 grams of saturated fat.

Fat Intake on Popular Diets: Keto, Low-Fat, and Intermittent Fasting

Many popular diets manipulate fat intake, increasing or reducing it for weight loss or other health benefits.

Keto fat guidelines

Traditionally used to treat children with epilepsy, the ketogenic or keto diet has risen in popularity. Under normal circumstances, your body uses glucose from carbohydrates as its primary energy source. But with the keto diet, your body switches to using ketones as its primary energy source. Ketones are molecules produced during fatty acid synthesis. You must significantly limit carbohydrate intake to get your body to produce ketones.

The keto diet relies on high fat, moderate protein, and low carbohydrate intake. Generally, fat comprises 55 to 60%, protein 30 to 35%, and carbohydrates five to 10 percent of intake. On a 2,000-calorie per day diet, this amounts to roughly 20 to 50 grams of carbs per day. For reference, one cup of cooked penne pasta contains approximately 33 grams of carbohydrates. The fat intake would be 1,100 to 1,200 calories (122 to 133 grams), and protein 600 to 700 calories (150 to 175 grams).

Low-fat adjustments

A low-fat diet means you consume less than 30% of your overall calories from fat sources. On a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet, this amounts to roughly 600 calories or 67 grams of fat per day. This percentage of fat falls within overall healthy guidelines for dietary fat intake. 

Still, variations of low-fat diets exist, with some restricting fat intake to 15% of overall calories. However, many organizations, like the AHA, do not recommend limiting fat intake to 15% due to the risk of nutrient inadequacy or other health issues.

Low-fat foods contain three grams or less of fat per 100-calorie serving. Meals labeled low-fat must contain fewer than 30% of calories from fat.

Intermittent fasting adjustments

Intermittent fasting (IF) is not about what you eat but when you eat. Common IF patterns, like the 16:8 method, have you fast for 16 hours and eat only during an eight-hour window each day. Alternate-day fasts take a 5:2 approach, meaning you eat regularly five days a week and have a very low-calorie intake two days a week. 

Intermittent fasting does not require any change to fat intake. There are no specific fat percentage rules with IF. Instead, standard healthy recommendations like those set by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines apply. Aim for a fat intake of 20 to 35% of daily calories.

Healthy Ways to Incorporate More (or Less) Fat Into Your Day

According to one large analysis, replacing 10 grams per day of butter (the equivalent of less than a tablespoon) with the same amount of plant-based oils was associated with a 17% reduction in total mortality (death).

Using unsaturated oils instead of saturated butter has significant health ramifications. 

Smart swaps to boost healthy fat

Small substitutions can shift your fat intake toward healthier sources. Here are some swaps to more healthy unsaturated fats and reduce less healthy fats.

• Use plant oils instead of butter in cooking and baking. When baking, you can often replace a portion of butter with heart-healthy oil or use recipes that incorporate oil instead of solid fat​.

• Add avocado or olives to your salads and sandwiches instead of bacon or cheese.

• Choose nuts or nut butter over processed snacks. 

• Swap creamy dressings for olive oil vinaigrettes. Many creamy salad dressings (like ranch or Caesar) are high in saturated fat. Opt for dressings made with olive or sunflower oil, or simply drizzle your salad with olive oil and vinegar.

• Eat fish twice a week. Plan for fatty fish (like salmon, tuna, mackerel, or trout) in place of red meat at dinner at least two times per week. This swap lowers saturated fat (since fish is leaner than steak) and boosts omega-3 intake, which is linked to heart and brain benefits.

• Cook with herbs and spices, not just fat. Rather than dousing vegetables in butter or cream sauce for flavor, use garlic, herbs, spices, lemon, or vinegar.

Tips to cut excess fat without going low-fat

You can reduce excess fat in your diet without sacrificing flavor or foods you love. 

• Choose lean meats and dairy: Opt for lean cuts of meat (like skinless chicken breast, turkey, pork tenderloin, or beef cuts like sirloin, round, or loin) and trim any visible fat​. Drain off grease after cooking ground meats. 

• Cook with less fat: You don’t always need the full amount of oil or butter a recipe calls for. Try using half the fat in baked goods or sautés—often, you won’t notice a big difference in taste. Non-stick cookware, air-fryers, baking, grilling, or steaming are cooking methods that require little or no added fat. When you do use oil, measure it with a spoon instead of pouring straight from the bottle.

• Healthy recipe substitutions: You can often swap high-fat ingredients for lighter ones. Examples: use two egg whites in place of one whole egg (you get the protein with no fat/cholesterol)​; use plain nonfat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream in dips and baked potatoes (it’s thick, tangy, and high-protein, with a fraction of the fat); try mashed banana or applesauce to replace some butter or oil in baking recipes for muffins and quick breads. When making burgers or meatloaf, mix in ground turkey or extra veggies in place of some ground beef. 

• Watch out for “hidden” fats: Many extras like sauces, dressings, gravies, and spreads are sneaky sources of fat. Use them sparingly, or choose lighter versions. Ask for sauces on the side to control how much you use.

Final Thoughts: Fat Intake Isn’t About Elimination — It’s About Balance

Remember that the goal is balance, not elimination. Your body needs fat to function optimally—it’s a source of fuel, helps build cells, makes hormones, and absorbs vitamins. Removing fat from your diet entirely (without medical recommendation or oversight) can lead to adverse health effects. Conversely, overconsuming fat, particularly saturated or trans fat, can harm health. Instead, aim for a moderate fat intake, mostly from healthy sources. 

If you’re unsure of where to start or want guidance tailored to your health history, preferences, and lifestyle, a Season registered dietitian can help.  Get started with personalized nutrition care

FAQs (Limit: 3)

Q1: How many grams of fat per day is considered healthy?
Aim for 20 to 35% of your calories to come from fat. On a 2,000-calorie diet, this amounts to 44 to 78 grams of fat per day. How many grams of fat you consume each day will depend on your health, goals, and lifestyle.

Q2: How much saturated fat is too much?
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting saturated fat to less than 10% of your daily intake, or less than 22 grams per day on a 2,000-calorie diet. The American Heart Association has stricter recommendations, encouraging people to limit saturated fat to 6% of their daily intake. This translates to approximately 13 grams of fat on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet.

Q3: What happens if you eat too little fat?
Some fat is necessary to help the body absorb fat-soluble nutrients and synthesize hormones. Consuming too little fat may negatively affect nutrient stores, hormone production, and energy levels.