How much fat should I be eating?

If you’re looking to lose weight, you should watch your fat intake carefully, because fat is high in energy. However, you mustn’t eliminate it from your diet altogether...

What type of fat should I be eating? 
To stay in shape as well as to stay healthy, you’re better off limiting animal fat from meat, butter and cheese, and avoiding pre-prepared, refined foods which often contain lots of saturated fat (chocolate, cakes and pastries, crisps, ready-meals, etc). Without going over the top, try and get your fat from oily fish and vegetable oils as far as possible.  

How much? 
According to the recommended daily allowance, we should take 30-35% of our daily intake from fat. This means : 100-150g of meat two or three times a week, fish at least three times a week, 30g of cheese once a week, 10-20g of butter and 2 tablespoonfuls of oil (a mixture of vegetable, olive, etc) every day.

Further advice
Be on the alert and make sure you read food labels thoroughly, because a lot of refined and pre-prepared food is really high in fat.

As a rule, go for food containing less than 8% fat.

Try and go for simple, un-prepared foods that you can add the fat to yourself: you’ll be in control of what fat you eat and how much you eat.