Do Healthy Fats Help You Build Muscle?

If you’ve ever tried to get lean, you’ve probably heard the same advice: Cut back on fat.

On the surface, that makes sense. Fat contains more than twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbohydrates, so eliminating high-fat foods may seem like the easiest way to reduce calories and keep body fat off.

But if your goal is to build muscle, avoiding dietary fat is a big mistake.

Fat doesn’t provide the amino acids that directly build muscle tissue, but it supports many of the processes that allow muscle growth to happen. It supplies essential fatty acids, supports hormone production, helps your body absorb fat-soluble vitamins, and provides the energy needed to fuel hard training and recovery.

That’s why fat comes immediately after protein on my checklist of muscle-friendly nutrition priorities.

My Fat Intake Rule

Here’s my simple recommendation for daily fat intake:

Aim for about half a gram of fat per pound of body weight every day.

For a 180-pound person, that means consuming about 90 grams of fat per day. If you weigh 200 pounds, aim for roughly 100 grams. A 150-pound person would target approximately 75 grams.

This provides ample fat to support muscle growth, health, and performance without giving you a license to eat unlimited amounts of every high-fat food you can find (which is tempting, because peanut butter and coconut are so delicious!).

Once you’ve consistently hit your protein and fat goals, you can adjust your carbohydrate intake based on your training, goals, and how your body responds. (More on carbs in the next article in this series.)

Why Fats Matter for Muscle Growth

Protein may be the raw material for building muscle, but dietary fat helps create an environment in which your body can put that protein to work.

For one, certain fats are essential, meaning your body can’t produce them on its own. You have to get the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids your body needs from food. These fats contribute to cell-membrane structure and are involved in signaling processes throughout the body.

Fat also helps your body absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K. These fat-soluble vitamins support functions ranging from immune health and bone strength to normal muscle function.

Finally, fat is a concentrated source of energy. Each gram supplies about 9 calories, compared with 4 calories per gram of protein or carbohydrates. If you’re trying to eat enough to support a demanding training program and add muscle, including ample fat can make it much easier to meet your energy needs

Don’t Slash Fat—You Need It For Hormones

Fat also plays an important role in hormone production, which is one reason extremely low-fat diets can be counterproductive for lifters.

Research in resistance-trained men has found positive relationships between resting testosterone levels and the intake of total fat, monounsaturated fat, and saturated fat. Controlled feeding research has also shown that switching from a higher-fat diet to a very low-fat diet can reduce testosterone levels in men. The last thing anyone should want (male or female) is lower testosterone levels! 

That doesn’t mean eating more and more fat will continue raising testosterone—or automatically produce more muscle. It simply means you shouldn’t cut fat so aggressively that you compromise the normal hormonal environment needed to support health, recovery, and training.

The goal is ample fat, not unlimited fat.

Get a Mix of All Three Types of Fat

So, what type of fats should you consume? This is a question that very few nutrition experts and influencers address with any clarity. Most just say “unsaturated fat” and leave it at that. 

I disagree with that simplistic stance. 

What I recommend is this: Divide your fat intake evenly among the three primary types—monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fat.

That means aiming for approximately:

• 33% monounsaturated fat
• 33% polyunsaturated fat, with an emphasis on omega-3s
• 33% saturated fat

Do you have to hit 33/33/33 exactly on the nose? Of

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