Should I count cooking oil?

Yes. Please measure out the oil used during cooking for optimal results. To make life easier, try grilling or cooking with calorie-free non-stick sprays instead.

Check out our cookbooks for some great low-fat recipes!

Can I add creamer or milk to my coffee?

Yes. If you need a tablespoon of creamer or milk, that’s perfectly fine. Stick with low calorie creamers and sweeteners, and sugar substitute instead of actual table sugar. Steer clear of high calorie creamers when dieting to lose fat.

Why are healthy fats important?

Although it is important to not overconsume fats, there are many benefits to consuming fats.

In fact, fats are essential for healthy hormone production. The only reason they are last on our list is that, as long as you consume enough to hit your health minimums, fats will have the least amount of impact on your body composition and physical performance.

In other words, if you chose to reduce calories on a fat loss diet by reducing fat intake, it would not impact muscle maintenance like cutting protein would or impact performance like cutting carbs would. Again, this is assuming you don’t drop below your minimum intakes for health:

Make sure you get at least 1/3 your pounds of body weight in grams of fat per day on a fat-loss diet for healthy hormone production (that’s around 50g per day if you weigh 150 lb). When not trying to lose weight, you should probably aim a bit higher to be safe.

It’s important to note that fats have 9 calories per gram, which makes them over twice as calorically dense as protein/carbs. Because of this, fats are not especially filling compared to proteins and carbs. There are also different types of fat that should make up more or less of your fat intake. Get most of your fats from nuts, avocados, and vegetable oils for best health!

Can I eat other sources of fat not on the RP verified foods list?

The list of fat sources provided is very inclusive. As long as the other source you find is a source of unsaturated fat (heavy in monounsaturated) - NOT trans fat - it should be OK. You can occasionally eat sources high in saturated fat, but please keep this to no more than 1 meal a day on the regular. Coconut oil can be used on occasion, but is NOT generally a “healthy fat” we recommend for mass consumption. If your chosen fat source is not on the list, please count all of the macros in the fat source toward your meal totals.