Fat Intake Calculator
With calories a day 2000 kcal, share of calories from fat 30 percent, fat intake comes to 67 g — fat a day. It is reached in 8 steps, the last of which is 600 / 9, and each one is printed on the page with its numbers filled in. The formula is the one published by Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025, not an approximation fitted to it.
How many grams of fat a day your calorie intake allows, inside the 20-35% range the Dietary Guidelines set, with the saturated fat ceiling separately.
Formula and sources checked · How we check
Calories a day 2000 kcal, Share of calories from fat 30
67 g
Fat a day for the example below. Editing a field recomputes the calculator below; this figure holds the answer the page was loaded with.
It is written into the HTML rather than drawn by a script, so a search engine reading this page without running JavaScript still finds an answer.
- Calories from fat
2000 * 30 / 100600 kcal- Fat a day
600 / 966.667 g- Bottom of the guideline range, 20%
2000 * 0.2 / 944.444 g- Top of the guideline range, 35%
2000 * 0.35 / 977.778 g- Saturated fat ceiling, under 10% of calories
2000 * 0.1 / 922.222 g- Leaving this much unsaturated
max(0, 66.666667 - 22.222222)44.444 g- Across three meals
66.666667 / 322.222 g- That much fat as tablespoons of oil
66.666667 / 144.762 tbsp
Worked example
2,000 calories a day at 30% from fat is 600 calories, which is 66.7 g — a gram of fat carries 9 calories rather than the 4 in protein or carbohydrate. The guideline range at that intake runs 44.4 g to 77.8 g, and saturated fat should stay under 22.2 g.
How to work it out yourself
- 1.Start from the calories you actually eat, not a round number. The gram figure is a share of that, so a 2,600-calorie day allows a third more fat than a 2,000-calorie one at the same percentage.
- 2.Watch the saturated line rather than the total. The guidelines put no ceiling on unsaturated fat inside the range, and every major body caps saturated fat under 10% of calories.
- 3.A tablespoon of any oil is about 14 g of fat and 120 kcal, which is the quickest way to sanity-check a day: three tablespoons of cooking oil is most of a 2,000-calorie allowance.
Fat grams by calorie intake, at 20%, 30% and 35%
| Calories a day (kcal) | Fat a day | Bottom of the guideline range, 20% | Top of the guideline range, 35% | Saturated fat ceiling, under 10% of calories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1200 | 40 g | 26.67 g | 46.67 g | 13.33 g |
| 1500 | 50 g | 33.33 g | 58.33 g | 16.67 g |
| 1800 | 60 g | 40 g | 70 g | 20 g |
| 2000 | 67 g | 44.44 g | 77.78 g | 22.22 g |
| 2200 | 73 g | 48.89 g | 85.56 g | 24.44 g |
| 2500 | 83 g | 55.56 g | 97.22 g | 27.78 g |
| 2800 | 93 g | 62.22 g | 108.89 g | 31.11 g |
| 3000 | 100 g | 66.67 g | 116.67 g | 33.33 g |
The middle column of the answer moves with the share you set; the outer two are the guideline range itself.
The formula
- Calories from fat
2000 * 30 / 100 - Fat a day
600 / 9 - Bottom of the guideline range, 20%
2000 * 0.2 / 9 - Top of the guideline range, 35%
2000 * 0.35 / 9 - Saturated fat ceiling, under 10% of calories
2000 * 0.1 / 9 - Leaving this much unsaturated
max(0, 66.666667 - 22.222222) - Across three meals
66.666667 / 3 - That much fat as tablespoons of oil
66.666667 / 14
Source: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 — acceptable macronutrient distribution ranges and the saturated fat limit, FDA — nutrition facts label, daily values
Questions people actually ask
- How many grams of fat should I eat a day?
- Between 20% and 35% of your calories, which on 2,000 calories a day is 44.4 g to 77.8 g. The answer above puts 30% at 66.7 g. A gram of fat carries 9 calories, more than twice what a gram of protein or carbohydrate carries, which is why the range is stated in percentages rather than grams.
- How much saturated fat is too much?
- The Dietary Guidelines put the ceiling under 10% of calories — 22.2 g on a 2,000-calorie day. The American Heart Association goes further for people managing cholesterol, at 6%, which is about 13 g.
- Is a low-fat diet better?
- Not below the range. Fat carries the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and supplies essential fatty acids the body cannot make, and diets under about 20% of calories tend to be short of them. What the evidence supports is replacing saturated fat with unsaturated, not cutting fat as a category.
Related
- Calorie Needs CalculatorDaily calorie target for a weight goal, and the number it becomes after the first five, ten and fifteen pounds come off.
- Macro CalculatorGrams of protein, carbohydrate and fat from a calorie target and a diet split. With protein per kilogram, the number a split is judged on.
- Protein CalculatorDaily protein from body weight, with the floor the DRI sets and the higher range the training literature uses, kept apart.
- TDEE CalculatorHow many calories you burn in a day, from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation and an activity multiplier, with cut and bulk targets beside it.
- Calories Burned CalculatorEnergy burned by an activity from its MET value, body weight and duration. Net of what you would have burned sitting still, which trackers leave in.
- Weight Loss Timeline CalculatorThe date you reach a goal weight at a given intake, with the deceleration the flat 3,500-calorie rule leaves out.
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