On this episode of the Ask Prof Noakes we answer Gill Ramsden’s question. We’ve spoken extensively on the podcast about how many grams of carbohydrate you should be eating on the low carb high fat diet, but Gill wants to know how many grams of fat should you eat per day on the LCHF diet?

Prof Tim Noakes: That is a fabulous question. All I can tell you is I know exactly how many grams of carbohydrate I need to eat and how many grams of carbohydrate other people need to eat. That is the key. The key driver is that once you get the carbohydrates right, the rest follows.

Gill may have asked because she may be worried about putting on weight with eating fat on the LCHF diet. I think for most of us, just cutting the carbs is enough. That will get everything right. If it doesn’t then you need to restrict a little bit on the fat and make sure you don’t overload on fat. It is very easy to eat a handful of macadamia nuts without realising that there are a huge number of calories in there. Cheese and dairy are also full of calories.

Loading up on fat on the LCHF diet

Most people can’t load up on coconut oil or avocado, you just wouldn’t eat much. But when you are eating the avocado, the dairy, the macadamia nuts and the coconut oil, it is very quick that you are able to eat an enormous amount of fat.

My suggestion would be to count the carbohydrate grams and if you get down to below 100 grams or even 50 or 25, which I am on because I need to be that low, but if you get below 100 you should lose substantial amounts of weight. If you don’t, it is then because you are overeating fat and then you also have to count the fat calories or fat grams. You then just need to work out exactly what works for you.

As long as the scale is going down, you’re then in negative calorie balance and you’re eating less than you need to and eventually you will plateau. If that plateau is at the weight you want to be at then that’s great and everything else is going well then that is the amount of fat you should be eating.