With the Lean Body^® Meal Plan, your fat calorie intake is limited to less than 20% fat by calories for the day. This means you have to watch out for hidden fats if you eat packaged food. Here’s an easy formula to figure out the percentage of fat in any given food. First, look on the “Nutrition Facts” panel of the package, and then do a little math:

1. Take the grams of “fat per serving” and multiply by 9. If there are 10 grams of fat, you’ve got 90 fat calories. (Fat contains 9 calories per gram.)

fat grams x 9 = fat calories

2. Divide those fat calories by the “total number of calories” per serving. Let’s say there are 200 calories in a serving. Divide 90 by 200, and you get 45%. This means that the product in your hands is essentially 45% fat by calories. Yikes. Put that food down!

You don’t need a calculator. It’s possible to “guesstimate” right there in the supermarket. As long you have your two vital numbers (total calories and the calories from fat) you can quickly figure out the fat content. If the total calories is 100, it’s easy; the fat calorie number will be your percentage. But in general, the greater the distance between the two numbers, the better. For example:

300 CALORIES
260 CALORIES FROM FAT