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!