Real Nutrtion: The basic recommendation for total fat is that a person’s diet should average about 30% fat calories. This means that some foods will be more than 30% fat calories and some less. The %Daily Value (%DV) for fat that is listed in the Nutrition Facts on a food label is based on this guideline. Since the %DV reported in the Nutrition Facts Box is for a 2000 calorie diet, if a person eats more or less than 2000 calories a day, this number will change. So if someone adds up the % DV for fat for a total day and is following a 2000 calorie diet, the amount should be close to 100%. To estimate the % fat calories in a food, you need to divide the fat calories by the total calories. If you want to know the number of fat grams you need for a particular calorie level, multiply the total calories by .3 (30%) and divide by 9, which is the number of grams of fat per calorie. Try not to eat more than this number of fat grams per day.
Real Life: I try to stay around 50 g of fat per day. This is about 75% DV. So when I look at a food label for a particular food, I think in terms of 20% DV fat for breakfast, 20% for lunch and 35% for dinner. Cutting it down into smaller amounts helps.
