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How Much Fat for Optimal Hormone Function?

I often read between 20%-35% of total calories but, what if you are eating in a surplus to gain muscle? What if you are really active for example an endurance athlete vs someone who is sedentary. Percentages do not make sense. Is there a gram/pound suggestion?

Answer

You should probably eat at least 30% of your Maintenance level calories in fat.

If you are eating above maintenance, it would be a good idea to make your surplus calories mostly fat and protein anyway.

Carbs are necessary for peak performance for most athletic people. But if you are trying to eat 200-500 extra calories per day, I would not do that by consuming a bunch of extra carbs. You will have problems with insulin sensitivity and water retention, which is counter-productive to people who are trying to build muscle and presumably look better aesthetically.

TLDR: Just take your maintenance calories (highly variable from person to person), and multiply it by .30. That is the amount of calories you should eat from fat. Divide that by 9 and you will get the amount of grams of fat to eat per day, since 1 gram of fat = 9 calories.

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Example: 2800 Calorie per day maintenance -> 840 cal of Fat -> 93g per day