There are many different ways to look at fat. One is on our bodies -- how’s yours? Another is the fat in the food we eat, and that’s what this article is about. The fat you eat isn’t necessarily fat that you’ll wear on your body. Fat from food gives us calories which are units of energy. If we use those calories for physical activity, the fat won’t show up on our bodies. If we eat bon-bons and lie around all day watching TV soap operas, that fat will probably turn into body fat. So, dietary fat will provide energy; but we must use that energy somehow or we’ll get fat!

Fat can be pretty hard to understand and manage when it comes to living a good Nutrition Power lifestyle. Fat can cause harm if you have liver trouble, or if fat malabsorption makes you crampy, gassy and miserable. Also, fat is usually a stranger to other nutrients. But, fat's fun too; it carries flavor. That's why many of our favorite foods contain lots of it. If you don't believe me, look around you. There are a lot of fine dining establishments like McDonalds and Wendy's that generously serve up fat -- high-fat foods are big sellers because of the flavor thing. These clever business people know that if you like what you eat, you'll come back for more. Staying away from this type of high-dose fat can be really hard to do -- it tastes so good!

Fats can also confuse our nutrition lifestyle. There's the question of what amount we should eat, what type to eat, a breakdown of fat between good fat, bad fat, and flabby body fat -- overhang (called "love-handles" by our more sensitive friends). About the amount we should be eating, we need preliminary information. Get some answers to important math questions now; if you’re math-impaired like me, you’ll need a calculator!

It depends. For rough guidelines, first calculate what’s called your ideal body weight (IBW). For men, use the 106-plus-six system: your first five feet of height count for 106 pounds; add 6 more pounds for each extra inch of height. For women, its a 105-plus-five method: 105 pounds for the first five feet, then five pounds for each additional inch.

There's more -- now calculate your Nutrition Power "Recommended Body Weight" (RBW): Add from 10 to 20 pounds of extra weight -- both for men and women living with HIV/AIDS. Towards this purpose, we must build the life-saving lean body mass -- fat-free muscles. Calories from any source will provide the energy we need to work ourselves into the Nutrition Power exercise requirement: If you’re going to be lean and have energy to store away, then lean mass is what your body should be wearing and any source of energy, including dietary fat, will provide the energy you’ll need to pack it in. Build muscle mass; it’s critical! If fat-eating produces bulges, consult a fitness trainer who's HIV- knowledgeable.

Now you can compare your current weight with the Nutrition Power RBW. But having done that, scales are otherwise not a good idea. The problem is, they don't know one kind of weight from another. Water weight (state of hydration) can make as much as a 20-pound difference. And then there's weight from lean muscle versus fat reserves. Far better than weighing all the time, get a body-composition analysis. Many HIV doctors use Bio-Impedance Assessment (BIA) machinery. This is pretty definitive on how well you’re doing.

For a more down-home, seat-of-your-pants method, try this. When you’re at your best weight (RBW), get out the clothes that fit you best -- pants work well for this. From now on, use your clothes as your primary gauge to see how you’re doing. How do they fit? Too loose? Maybe you need to gain weight. Too tight? Maybe you need to lose a little -- or replace the flab with muscle mass. How are you doing? The answer is in your pants. Pants won't be fooled as easily as that old scale, and they can be a powerful reminder to use the remedies available from the Nutrition Power lifestyle of eating and energizing for lean mass accumulation.

And adding muscle mass is the best way to prevent wasting. The HIV-infected body uses this muscle mass as a "calorie reserve," while Negative body uses extra body fat for calorie reserves. For HIV purposes, building energy-storage muscle now can provide for any future time during which we don't eat regularly due to illness. We need to "hunk out" -- on the arms, legs, abdominal and other muscle groups (yes, women too). I call it "muscle preserves." Next summer, look like you belong in that cute little tank top.

So gaining weight doesn't mean you'll look fat! As it turns out, since muscle is heavier that fat, it takes up much less space on our bodies. Weighing more as muscle is the best thing you can do for yourself. And you don't have to be fat just because you weigh more. I recently read in the very reliable "National Enquirer" that Oprah, at 5' 7" weighs 150 pounds and fits a perfect size 8. Since we know this is true (after all, consider the source), we also know that Oprah works out daily and is highly muscled. She's got 10-20 pounds or so of "our" RBW muscle preserves -- and looks great! Men do have it easier; there's more underlying muscle mass to start with than women normally have. So we women have to work harder. But if Oprah can do it, we can too!

With RBW in mind, let's talk daily calories. For your own personal suggested calorie level, multiply your RBW times 15. Exact precision is unnecessary here. It would be neurotic to count each and every calorie so that we can be perfect every day, but we can look for weight changes, or trends; a better indicator anyway. In case of malabsorption or hypermetabolism, more calories are needed. How many? It depends -- get back into the pants (the ones that replaced the scale) and find out.

Researchers and other nutrition scientists call fats "lipids". (Ever hear of "lipo"-suction?) Though this isn't a science course, it is a good idea to understand and know the L-word to make it possible for you to understand science-speak; use it to impress your friends. Fat is important for our health; every cell of all our bodies’ is surrounded by a fat-type linkage (bi-lipid membrane) which protects it against unwanted entry, at the same time admitting oxygen and other necessary things like nutrients.

Also, fat travels through our bloodstream. Fat there is linked to our blood-test specimens as "triglycerides" that often show up high in lab test results. I describe this as "pieces of fat floating in the bloodstream" -- instead of getting inside of cells where they belong, making energy. Eating or not-eating fat doesn't seem to make much difference in this situation, but changing type of fat can make a world of difference, read on ---

Sometimes, fat gets released from fat stores (cheeks, for example -- yes, those cheeks too), and is sent to the liver to be made into usable energy, which the liver can usually do. But sometimes things get messed up. Often, the liver's "self-made" fat circulates in the bloodstream and is delivered into cells for energy. But, other times, for fat to gain entry to cells for energy-making, it needs a carrier called Carnitine. Carnitine works on fat like insulin works on sugar; it carries fat into cells for energy production -- just like insulin carries sugars into cells.

Without carnitine, floating fat can't get into the energy-making machinery of cells, so it gets sent back to the liver for re-structuring. It can become a back-and-forth cycle that seldom stops repeating itself. Worse, each pass through the cycle is an energy drain; calories are getting burned up just to feed the cycle. That's how "futile cycling" (which can lead to wasting) got it's name -- the body abusing the energy-making potential of fat by sending it back and forth not making energy -- a futile task; an energy drain!

This concludes the science section on body fat. Now, let's do diet -- what you eat.

Ordinarily, in our food plan there are two concerns about fat: amount and type. How much fat should you eat? Current health recommendations call for a daily fat-eating limit somewhere around "20-30%" of total calories. These percentages can drive you crazy if you don’t do math too well! I think it's easier to give ourselves a fat "budget." This isn't a "rule," it's just a good Nutrition Power guideline. And to get your own guideline number, you do need to know how many calories you need each day. If you’re still with me, you’ve already calculated your daily calorie requirement. Now, you can use this "big picture" information to find out your own personal fat budget.

Use the calculator once more and multiply a few numbers to get your Nutrition Power fat-gram ranges. Use your Recommended Body Weight (RBW) calorie number (RBW x 15) and multiply by 20%. This the low-end of your fat calorie budget. If you multiply by 30%, you’ll have your upper limit target. To figure out how many fat grams that is, divide by 9 -- if you have a calculator handy. Or just use 10, 'cause it's close enough and it's so easy!

Food fat comes in various forms. The more familiar ones are polyunsaturated (an immune challenge), monounsaturated (the most benign fat) and saturated (often called "bad" fat). [Then there's also fish-oil fat, but that's another article. Suffice to say that eating fish is good; taking fish pills probably won't get you very far and they'll cost you money that you could spend more wisely. And they all seem to leave you with that "fishy" body aroma. When your friends back off, take it as a silent notice that the pills really aren’t such a good idea -- eat the fish instead! Tuna and salmon are the best -- be sure it’s cooked well, or canned (the canning process uses heat so canned fish is always well-done-safe).]

Most of the fat-types we eat are called Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs). These are found in vegetable oils, baked foods, and many recipes. Sources include sunflower, safflower, soybean, cottonseed, corn, and peanut and sesame seed oils. These are considered to be immune-suppressive because they are quick to oxidize (that means that they decay easily). They should be stored in the refrigerator after opening, and sniffed before using. If the sniff-test is thumbs-down, the oil has probably been oxidized -- who wants to eat rotten food?

Another food fat is Monounsaturated Fatty Acid (MUFA). These aren't easily oxidized, reducing rot risk, and they're one of our best bets for fats. Unfortunately, food sources are limited. Sources are canola oil, olives and olive oil, avocadoes, and macadamia nuts and oils. That's all. And for olive oil, no matter how virgin, or extra light olive oil is, it still has the same calories as, say, dark sesame oil -- the word "light" refers to the color! As to virgin or extra virgin olive oil, I don't know much about virginity.

Last, but certainly not least, the fat that every "non-HIV" American wants to avoid: Saturated Fatty Acids (SFAs) These have a bad reputation because they can lead to heart attacks in this population group. But, with HIV/AIDS, "sat fats" are hardly oxidized at all so they won’t rot quickly. Found in meats, dairy products, cheese, butter and margarine, they also include the so-called tropical oils: coconut, palm kernel and palm oils. This leads to a specialized group of sat fats called medium chain triglycerides.

Medium chain triglycerides are just about all there is in coconuts! MCTs are not hard to process by the liver, and they are easily admitted into cells without carnitine for immediate energy. So they won't float in the bloodstream as in futile cycling -- they do exactly what we want them to do -- give direct, immediate and useable energy at the cellular level. They're the best, and a fat type to eat if you need to gain weight, have liver trouble, high blood triglycerides, or fat malabsorption.

Rare though these fats may be, they are so good that I recommend seeking, finding, and buying MCT food products like "soul-food" macaroons, coconut milk, some protein powders and a few nutraceuticals (meal-in-a-can-type products). HeavyWeight Gainer 900 protein powder is full of MCTs. Also, nutraceuticals like Lipisorb, Nutren and Peptamen are all MCT-containing products. Twin Labs even sells MCT oil as such, called "MCT FUEL" -- try some to be sure you can handle the flavor.

These may be an improvement over the older model, but they do take some getting used to. I think the best number to get from labels is the number of grams of fat. Then your "fat budget" can be monitored more easily; just count your fat grams. Don't go nuts -- (full of polyunsaturated fats, by the way) -- with the percentages; use the fat-gram-counting technique.

Don't forget who you are. Use information like this when you need it! Maybe ordinary fat's a good answer for you. You're probably OK if your triglycerides are normal, and if your "stool" samples are normal. But when something goes south on you, get the fat figured out and start feeling fine with Nutrition Power.

As always, first do no harm. If any advice here is, or seems to be connected with adverse consequences, contact your doctor or dietitian/nutritionist.

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Nutrition Power is a Registered Trademark of Health and Nutrition Awareness. Copyright 1996 Jennifer Jensen, MS, MBA, RD.

All Rights Reserved.

Other versions of this article have appeared with permission in Being Alive Newsletter, Arts & Understanding Magazine,and other newsletters.