The American Heart Association recommends less than 30% of your total calories be made up of fat; while the National Institute of Medicine recommends between 20% and 35% of total calories be made up of fat.

So how do you know how much you are getting? The easiest way is to figure out how many grams of fat you want to have on a daily basis. There are 9 calories in each gram of fat. To figure out how many grams of fat you want in your diet, use this formula:

Total calories X desired percentage of fat divided by 9 = grams of fat

For example: Janet decides she wants to stay at 30% of fat or less per day in her diet. She has already decided that she wants to stay at 2000 calories per day. She would figure it out this way:

2000 X .30 / 9 = 66.7 (round up to 67)

This means that Janet will need to keep her grams of fat per day to less than 67 for days that she consumes 2000 calories. As she reduces her number of calories, she will reduce her number of fat grams too.

Here's a chart with the numbers already figured out to make it easier for you:

Now, how about protein and carbohydrates? How many grams of those are you supposed to have each day? Read on!