Fat Intake Calculator
Pick one of two ways to get a daily fat figure. Daily target takes your age, sex, height, weight, activity level and goal, estimates your daily calories and sets fat at 25% of them, with protein and carbs beside it. Your own percentage takes your calories and any share you want from fat. It shows the grams, the 20% to 35% adult range, and your saturated fat limit in grams at 10% and at 6% of calories.
How to use the Fat Intake Calculator
- Pick Daily target or Your own percentage above the form.
- In Daily target, enter your age, sex, height, weight, activity level and goal, then press Calculate Macros.
- In Your own percentage, enter your calories and the share of them you want from fat, then press Calculate.
- To try other numbers, change any value and press the button again.
How the calculator sets fat
Daily target: Fat (g) = calories × 25% ÷ 9 · · · Your own percentage: Fat (g) = calories × percent ÷ 100 ÷ 9 · · · Saturated fat limit (g) = calories × 10% ÷ 9
Fat has 9 calories per gram. In Daily target, calories come from the Mifflin–St Jeor equation times your activity factor, with 500 taken off for weight loss or added for weight gain. Fat gets 25% of that total. Protein is 2.2 g per kg of body weight, and carbs fill the calories that are left. In Your own percentage, you enter the calories yourself, and every figure is rounded once to whole grams.
Worked example
Your own percentage: at 2,000 calories and 30%, fat is 2,000 × 0.30 ÷ 9 = 67 g, or 600 calories. The 20% to 35% range is 44 to 78 g, and the saturated fat limit is 2,000 × 0.10 ÷ 9 = 22 g at 10% and 13 g at 6%. Daily target: a 28-year-old man, 5'10" and 170 lb, moderately active, with the goal set to maintain: 2,708 calories and 75 g of fat. Set the goal to lose weight and calories drop to 2,208, so fat drops to 61 g. At 30% of 2,708 calories, fat is 2,708 × 0.30 ÷ 9 = 90 g.
Frequently asked questions
What is the saturated fat limit?
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 say saturated fat should in general not exceed 10% of total daily calories, and the World Health Organization also says no more than 10%. The American Heart Association aims lower, under 6%. At 2,000 calories that is 22 g and 13 g. The Nutrition Facts label uses a Daily Value of 20 g. Saturated fat counts toward your total fat, and this page does not know your cholesterol, so ask your doctor or a dietitian which limit fits you.
Can I choose a different fat percentage?
Yes, in Your own percentage. Enter your calories and the share you want, and the calculator multiplies them and divides by 9. At 2,208 calories, 20% is 49 g and 35% is 86 g. Daily target always uses 25%.
What share of my calories should be fat?
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 list a range of 20% to 35% of calories for adults, and the result says whether your share is inside it. The World Health Organization says that keeping total fat to 30% or less may help prevent unhealthy weight gain in adults. These are general figures and promise no result, so a share inside the range is not automatically right for you.
Why does my fat target change with my goal?
In Daily target, fat is a share of calories, so anything that moves calories moves fat too. The lose and gain settings shift calories by 500, which is 500 × 25% ÷ 9 = about 14 g of fat a day. Protein stays the same on every setting.
Why is the fat number so much smaller than carbs?
Fat has 9 calories per gram, against 4 for protein and carbs, so a gram of fat carries more than twice the calories. In the Daily target example, 75 g of fat is 675 calories, and 338 g of carbs is 1,352.