Fats for Bodybuilding and Muscle Growth: Tips, Recommendations & Top Foods

Let’s talk about the “F” word. No, not that one. I’m talking about fat. Dietary fat for bodybuilding, to be precise.

Key Points:

• You need fats to build muscle, produce hormones (including testosterone), absorb vitamins, and stay healthy.
• Most lifters thrive on moderate fat intake (20–35% of calories); more is OK, less is not (unless it’s for a shorter time).
• When you eat fats matters less than your total intake, and high-fat or keto can work for bodybuilding, but they’re not superior to high-carb diets.

This article is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for professional care.

Let’s Talk About Fat

If you were there in the 1970s to early 2000s, you probably remember how “low fat” was the way to go, both in guidelines for the regular Joe and in how many bodybuilders approached nutrition.

The logic was: eating fat makes you fat.

Well, it doesn’t. Things have changed, and we now know that eating too little fat is a big mistake and can mess with everything from your hormones to your health.

In this article, I’m going to chew the fat on why you need fats in your diet, which kinds will help you build muscle and look good naked, and which kinds belong in the trash.

What Is Fat?

Fat is the most energy-dense macronutrient you can eat. It provides ~9 calories (kcal) per gram compared to ~4 from carbohydrates or protein (and ~7 from alcohol).

It is also one of the essential macronutrients, meaning your body needs it in relatively large amounts to function, but cannot make it on its own (the other being protein – carbs can be very useful and perhaps conditionally “essential” for an athlete to function at peak performance, but there is no carb molecule your body requires to stay healthy).

If you completely cut fat from your diet (which is almost impossible, but hypothetically), you would eventually develop a deficiency that leads to dry scaly skin, hair loss, poor wound healing, and a compromised immune system. And eventually death.

You can survive without sourdough bread (sadly), but you physically cannot survive without fat.

Why You Need Fat (Besides Making Food Taste Good)

You cannot run your Fiat Multipla on fumes, and you can’t run a bodybuilder on zero fat.

Dietary fat gives you energy, keeps your cells and cell membranes intact and functioning as intended, and maintains brain and nervous system health.

In addition, bodybuilders are often extra interested in these effects:

Helps Your T

Cholesterol is one of the building blocks of testosterone, and eating a lot of fat could increase cholesterol, which in turn might increase testosterone production.¹ That might also be one of the reasons why testosterone levels are often higher with a ketogenic (high-fat, low-to-no-carb) diet.

Several studies show that low-fat diets can lead to lower testosterone levels compared to moderate or high-fat diets.²

So, if you want to maximize your natural anabolic hormone balance, you need to eat fat. You can reduce your fat intake for a while during a cutting diet (not because fat will make you fat, but because you must eat fewer calories, and you still want to keep protein high, so something has to go), but you don’t want to go too low for too long.

Allows You to Absorb Vitamins

Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble. If you’re chugging a multivitamin with a fat-free breakfast, you’re making expensive urine. You still absorb some of the vitamins, but significantly less than if you had eaten some fats with them.

No one has formulated an exact “this is how many grams of fat you need to absorb 100% of your vitamins” number, but you don’t need a huge amount per meal.

Research suggests at least 10% of your total calories from fat for vitamin absorption.³ However, that probably only applies if you eat an “average” number of calories (your vitamin requirements don’t go down if you’re on a low-calorie weight-loss diet). And some micronutrients work differently; for example, you absorb vitamin D better when you eat it with some fat, but not a boatload.⁴

As long as your meals aren’t fat-free and you’re not on a super-restrictive low-fat diet, you’re probably good as far as vitamins go.

Makes Food Taste Good

OK, I said “besides making food taste good,” but I changed my mind. It’s actually not a besides at all. If you’ve eaten a boiled, skinless chicken breast (and are you really a bodybuilder if you haven’t) and thought, “Wow, this tastes like cardboard,” you know what I mean. That’s because the fat was missing.

Many of the chemicals that give your foods flavor are fat-soluble, not water-soluble. So it doesn’t matter how many fat-free sauces you drench it in – that chicken breast will still taste cardboard-y.

So, why choke down dry chicken breasts and rice (unless perhaps you’re at the end of a bodybuilding prep and every calorie counts) when you can make your meals actually edible and get the fats your body needs at the same time?

Good and Bad Fats

Not all fats are created equal. It’s true. Some are better for you than others. However, these days, there is less of the black-or-white mentality of decades past, when many experts vehemently claimed that some fats (like saturated) are almost always bad.

Unsaturated Fats

Unsaturated fats are generally considered the “good” fats. They include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and are the ones nutrition guidelines tell you to eat more of to keep your heart and cholesterol levels healthy.

• Monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) are linked to improved heart health and insulin sensitivity.⁵ Bodybuilders like a good insulin sensitivity because it means your body gets better at shuttling nutrients into muscle cells instead of storing them as body fat.
• Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) include omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. They are essential, which means your body can’t make them, so you have to eat them.
  • Omega-3s reduce inflammation and increase protein synthesis (perhaps not so much in muscle but in many other cells).⁶
  • Omega-6s are found in vegetable oils, and you need some, but the modern diet often has too much. They are often believed to be pro-inflammatory (although some new research does not support that claim).⁷

You’ll find unsaturated fats in foods like olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish.

Saturated Fats

For many decades, saturated fat was public enemy number one.

However, current research is a bit more nuanced. While there is little benefit to pounding sticks of butter, saturated fat is not necessarily the heart-attack demon many used to believe.

A 2025 review of 17 trials with more than 66,000 participants found no benefits from reducing saturated fat intake if you have a low cardiovascular risk.⁸ But if you’re already at risk, eating a lot of saturated fat can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase heart disease risk. In that case, reducing saturated fats and replacing them with polyunsaturated fats sounds like a good idea.

Most health organizations recommend keeping saturated fat to a moderate portion of your total fat intake, and that sounds like a plan for bodybuilding purposes as well. That means you can eat your butter, cheese, cream, and red meat without worrying about your ticker as long as your overall diet is balanced.

Trans Fats

Trans fats are the only true bad guys of the bunch.

They are artificial fats created by pumping hydrogen into vegetable oil. They lower your good cholesterol, raise your bad cholesterol, increase inflammation, and have zero benefit for muscle growth.⁹

If you see “partially hydrogenated oil” on a label, consider it unfit for bodybuilders (or humans in general, in fact).

Note: You also find naturally occurring trans fats in dairy and meat from cows, sheep, and goats. They are produced by bacteria in the stomach(s) and are not a health concern. Only industrial trans fats promote inflammation and bad cholesterol.¹⁰

How Much Fat Should You Eat?

General recommendations for athletes are to keep fat intake somewhere between 20% and 35% of your energy intake.¹¹ If you’re eating 2,500 calories, that means roughly 500 to 875 calories from fat.

Those are good numbers for most bodybuilders as well, especially during the off-season.

Dropping below 20% for a long time might put your testosterone levels at risk, as we talked about earlier. Going above 35% is fine, but it leaves less room for the carbs you need for leg day.

Most research is on male athletes, but these recommendations work for females as well, with a 2025 review stating that female lifters ideally should get at least 20% of their energy from fats.¹²

When on a cutting diet, however, you might simply not have room for that amount of fat in your diet. Temporarily reducing your fat intake to 15% or even 10% can be OK for a while.^{13 14}

But long-term, I advise against going that low, especially when you’re trying to add lean mass.

When you’re bulking, you can be more liberal. Fat is calorie-dense, and if you’re having a hard time eating enough food to grow, adding fats is the easiest way to boost calories without feeling like you’re going to explode.

In short, for most lifters, a moderate fat intake is a great place to start. More than average doesn’t hurt, but too little might.

Calculating Your Fat Intake

Here is your cheat sheet to figuring out exactly how much the above means for you.

Before we do the math, remember that 1 gram of fat = 9 calories.

Method 1: Percentage of Calories

This is the standard approach.

First, calculate how many calories you need. Our calorie calculator makes it easy:

Then:

1. Take your total daily calories.
2. Multiply by your chosen percentage (e.g., 0.30 for 30%).
3. Divide that number by 9.

Example: Let’s say you eat 2,000 calories a day and want 30% from fat.

• 2,000 x 0.30 = 600 calories from fat.
• 600 / 9 = 66 grams of fat.

Method 2: The Bodyweight Shortcut (Easiest)

If you hate percentages and just want a concrete number to aim for, use your body weight. This method is great for lifters who prioritize protein first and just fill in the rest.

A fat intake of between 0.3 g to 0.5 g of fat per pound of body weight is a reasonable range for most people.

Example: You weigh 180 lb.

180 x 0.4 = 72 grams of fat.

Quick Cheat Sheets

Calculator app not working? I got you. Here are estimates based on 20%, 25% and 30%:

Daily Calorie Goal	Calories from Fat (20%)	Daily Grams of Fat
1,500	300	33 g
1,800	360	40 g
2,000	400	44 g
2,200	440	49 g
2,500	500	56 g
3,000	600	67 g

Daily Calorie Goal	Calories from Fat (25%)	Daily Grams of Fat
1,500	375	42 g
1,800	450	50 g
2,000	500	56 g
2,200	550	61 g
2,500	625	69 g
3,000	750	83 g

Daily Calorie Goal	Calories from Fat (30%)	Daily Grams of Fat
1,500	450	50 g
1,800	540	60 g
2,000	600	67 g
2,200	660	73 g
2,500	750	83 g
3,000	900	100 g

Nutrient Timing: When to Eat Fat

Your fat timing is way less important than your total daily fat or calorie intake. Your body doesn’t really care when you eat fats for bodybuilding and performance, as long as you’re getting enough of it.

That being said, there are a few times when eating a lot of fat can be a downright bad idea, at least for some.

• Pre-workout, it’s a good idea to avoid loading up on a fat-rich meal. You usually don’t want a stomach full of slow-digesting peanut butter when you’re trying to squat. Some people might not be bothered, but it can make you feel heavy, sluggish, or even sick to your stomach, which is the last thing you want during a workout.
• Post-workout, general recommendations are to keep fat intake minimal, so your body can absorb protein and carbs really fast to spike insulin and start recovery. Fat does blunt that response, but does it really matter for bodybuilding? Meh, probably not. Protein timing around a workout isn’t as important as we once thought. But if you don’t absolutely have to eat a lot of fats right after training, it is, theoretically, better to focus on carbs and protein hitting your muscles fast.
• Eating fats with protein before bed could slow down nutrient uptake and give your muscles protein for longer, but a lot of fat before you sleep is associated with sleeping worse.¹⁵ Sleep is more important than when you eat your avocados, so don’t go overboard if it upsets your Zs.

The rest of the day? Go wild. Distribute your fat intake how you like.

The 7 Best Fats for Bodybuilding

If you are heading to the store, here are the fatty staples that should be in your cart:

1. Whole Eggs

If you are throwing away the yolk, stop it. Nature pre-packaged the perfect muscle-building sphere, and you are tossing half of it in the trash.

The yolk contains the majority of the egg’s micronutrients, including choline, cholesterol, and most of the vitamins. And the fat itself is healthy (~60% unsaturated), with some research suggesting that free-range eggs are even better.¹⁶

In addition to the fats, you get one of the best proteins for building muscle. Eggs give you all the amino acids you need in perfect proportions. Before protein powders with 100 artificial ingredients, bodybuilders ate (or drank!) eggs to get both their proteins and fats.

Also, one study found that eating whole eggs after a workout increased muscle protein synthesis more than the same amount of protein from egg whites alone.¹⁷ So, eat the yolk to get yoked.

2. Salmon (And Other Fatty Fish)

I knew a bodybuilder in the ’90s who used to blend a salmon fillet into a shake, with water, a banana, and some salt. You don’t have to go that far, but with salmon and other fatty fish, you get a neat two-in-one: some of the best fats and excellent protein for building muscle. It’s the best source of omega-3s.

The American Heart Association recommends eating fatty fish at least twice a week. Why? Because doing so on a regular basis is associated with better heart health and a lower risk of heart failure and stroke.

If you’re wondering which fish to buy, just remember the acronym SMASH:

• Salmon (wild-caught is usually leaner but with more omega-3s, but farmed still contains plenty)
• Mackerel
• Anchovies
• Sardines
• Herring

They all contain plenty of omega-3s and are relatively low in mercury.

Tuna is great, but you want to be careful with the big guys (like bluefin or albacore), as they tend to contain a lot of mercury. Light chunk tuna is a safer bet (too lean to be a good fat source, but great for protein).

3. Avocado

The fattiest of the fruits, the avocado! A single one comes loaded with up to 30 grams of fat (if it’s a big sucker), mostly monounsaturated, and has a surprising amount of fiber, potassium (more than a banana) and close to 20 other vitamins and minerals.

And they’re good for the old ticker. A recent study with more than 100,000 men and women found that eating more avocado was linked to a lower risk of heart disease.¹⁸

The only bad thing about avocados is that their ripeness window is smaller than the anabolic window after your leg workout. Either it’s hard enough to use as a weapon or mushy enough that you don’t have to blend it to use it in a smoothie. And when you find a perfect avocado, you have exactly four hours to eat it.

4. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Extra virgin olive oil is one of the best fat sources of all and known to improve many different aspects of cardiovascular health. A 2025 review concluded that it can “improve protection against inflammation, oxidative stress, blood clotting, high blood pressure, endothelial function, and lipid dysfunctions,” among other things.¹⁹

It is mostly oleic acid (a MUFA) and loaded with polyphenols (antioxidants). One of them, oleocanthal, has anti-inflammatory properties as potent as ibuprofen.²⁰

The “extra virgin” is more than a fancy label to charge you three extra dollars. It means you get the fresh juice of the olive with all the antioxidants and health benefits intact.

Like all fats, extra virgin olive oil clocks in at 9 calories per gram (about 120 calories per tablespoon), so you cannot chug it like water and expect to get shredded. But in moderate amounts, you’d be cold-pressed to find a healthier fat.

5. Nuts and Nut Butters

Nuts are calorie- and nutrient-rich little guys filled with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, fiber, and plenty of different minerals. They also provide plenty of protein (not the highest quality, but still).

Most nuts are good, but walnuts are the only nut with a significant amount of ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), which is a plant-based omega-3. Regularly indulging in walnuts has been shown to improve endothelial function (the lining of your blood vessels).²¹

If you’re not dirty bulking, you might want to keep an eye on how calorie-dense these little guys actually are. A handful of nuts is super easy to eat but gives you something like 200 instant calories. And “a handful” varies wildly depending on how big your hand is and how hungry you are.

Nuts are healthy, but if you sit down with a “healthy” bag of almonds to watch a movie, 20 minutes later, you have accidentally consumed 800 calories.

6. Full-Fat Dairy

When I was young, dietary guidelines said that eating full-fat dairy was essentially begging for clogged arteries.

However, most modern studies show that full-fat dairy has a neutral or even slightly protective effect on cardiovascular health. It does not seem to increase the risk of heart attacks or strokes compared to low-fat dairy. In addition, some fatty acids found in dairy are linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.^{22 23 24 25}

Milk and other dairy products (yogurt, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, cheese, and so on) also contain some of the absolute best muscle-building proteins of all.

Perhaps most importantly, cheese makes you happy!²⁶

7. Beef

I debated for a while whether I was going to include red meat like beef in a list of the best fats for building. I do like me some red meat, but I think of it primarily as a protein source, even if it often brings a significant amount of fat along for the ride.

Whether you treat it as a protein or a fat source depends on the cut you buy. A top sirloin is a lean protein source. A ribeye or 80/20 ground beef? Now that’s a fat source that happens to have plenty of quality protein in it, too.

Grass-fed beef is leaner (less total fat and much less saturated fat), and it has more omega-3 fats and a lower omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio, which is considered beneficial for cardiovascular and inflammatory health.²⁷

However, grain-fed beef contains more monounsaturated fat, especially oleic acid (the same fat that’s in olive oil), which is also associated with positive health effects.²⁸ Grain-fed beef isn’t “unhealthy” as far as fat goes, just different from grass-fed.

So, you get healthy fats from both grass-fed and grain-fed beef. And you get a ton of other important nutrients in red meat. You do get saturated fats as well, but they can be part of a healthy diet, no problem.

What About Keto?

If you’re doing or switching to a ketogenic diet, everything I just told you about moderate fat goes right out the window.

In a “normal” diet, carbs stored in your muscles fuel your high-intensity sets. When you’re on keto, you force your body to become “fat-adapted,” meaning you use ketone bodies for energy.

Your lifts will suffer for the first few weeks. As your body switches enzyme machinery from burning sugar to burning fat, you feel flat and weak and maybe even dizzy and nauseous.

This is expected and will pass. Once you are fat-adapted, your energy stabilizes, and you’ll be back to normal performance.

For bodybuilding on keto, you should set your protein intake independently of your fat intake. That means about 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, or 1 gram per pound per day.

Once you’ve got protein figured out, fill the rest of your calories with fat.

A high-protein diet will not kick you out of ketosis if you eat plenty of fats, have a decent amount of muscle mass, and lift. You can check your status with keto sticks to be sure, though.

Anyway, when you’re doing keto, it’s goodbye skinless chicken breasts, egg whites, and white fish, and hello chicken thighs with the skin on, ribeyes, whole eggs, salmon, and 80/20 ground beef.

On a ketogenic diet, fat is more than calories. It always is, but even more so on keto. And fat quality is at least as important, if not more so, as with a typical, carb-rich bodybuilding diet. You want to prioritize fats that are good for insulin sensitivity and low systemic inflammation, like extra virgin olive oil, avocados, whole eggs, grass-fed, fatty fish, and some nuts, in addition to common keto protein sources like red meat. Poor-quality fats can hurt your results even if your macros look right.

I’ve gone full keto for about two years straight, and it worked just fine after the first couple of weeks. I didn’t notice any drop in performance (if anything, it was more stable), and my muscles stayed intact. Give it a go if you want to; there are no inherent super benefits for bodybuilding, but it doesn’t seem detrimental either.²⁹

Frequently Asked Questions about Fats for Bodybuilding

Final Rep

That’s it! Thank you very much for reading. I hope you enjoyed this little guide and gained some insights into not only the whats and hows of fats for bodybuilding, but also the whys.

Good thing we aren’t living in the low-fat 90s anymore, right? Because if you want to see some serious gains and keep your health topped up, you can’t treat fat like it’s radioactive.

Besides, life without peanut butter and cheese is a tragedy I don’t want to be a part of.

Want More Bodybuilding?

If you’re looking for a good bodybuilding routine to take your gains to the next level, feel free to check out our extensive library of bodybuilding training programs.

From plans for beginners to advanced routines for high-level bodybuilders and everyone in between, I’m sure you’ll find something that tickles your fancy.

And remember to track your lifts. If you don’t know exactly what you lifted last week, you’re just guessing today, and guessing leads to stagnation.

Give StrengthLog a try and see for yourself. The app and the core logging features are completely free and ad-free, which is rare these days. And all our bodybuilding programs are there at your fingertips.

You can download StrengthLog for your device here:

Want even more?

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get notified of new articles and get weekly training tips!

Leave this field empty if you’re human:

Last reviewed: 2026-01-28

References

1. Nutrients. 2021 Sep 25;13(10):3375. Manipulation of Dietary Intake on Changes in Circulating Testosterone Concentrations.
2. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2021 Jun:210:105878. Low-fat diets and testosterone in men: Systematic review and meta-analysis of intervention studies.
3. Eur J Clin Nutr. 1999 Apr:53 Suppl 1:S84-8; discussion S88-93. Response to and range of acceptable fat intake in adults.
4. J Bone Miner Res. 2013 Aug;28(8):1778-83. Meal conditions affect the absorption of supplemental vitamin D3 but not the plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D response to supplementation.
5. Clinical Nutrition, Volume 23, Issue 4, August 2004, Pages 447-456. Dietary fat, insulin sensitivity and the metabolic syndrome.
6. Nutr Rev. 2025 Feb 1;83(2):e131-e143. The effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on muscle and whole-body protein synthesis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
7. Nutrients 2025, 17(13), 2076. Red Blood Cell Omega-6 Fatty Acids and Biomarkers of Inflammation in the Framingham Offspring Study.
8. Ann Intern Med. 2025 Dec 16. Effect of Interventions Aimed at Reducing or Modifying Saturated Fat Intake on Cholesterol, Mortality, and Major Cardiovascular Events : A Risk Stratified Systematic Review of Randomized Trials.
9. Foods. 2021 Oct 14;10(10):2452. The Effect of Trans Fatty Acids on Human Health: Regulation and Consumption Patterns.
10. Advances in Nutrition, Volume 11, Issue 3, May 2020, Pages 697-708. Mechanisms of Action of trans Fatty Acids.
11. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: March 2009 – Volume 41 – Issue 3 – p 709-731. Nutrition and Athletic Performance.
12. Strength Cond J. 2025 Dec;47(6):619-629. Optimizing Performance and Health: Nutrition Considerations for Female Athletes in Strength and Conditioning.
13. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Volume 11, 2014 – Issue 1. Evidence-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: nutrition and supplementation.
14. J Hum Kinet. 2020 Jan 31;71:79–108. Nutritional Recommendations for Physique Athletes.
15. SLEEP Advances, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2024- The association between timing of dietary macronutrient and sodium consumption and sleep duration and quality.
16. Animals (Basel). 2024 Apr 4;14(7):1099. Comparison of Fatty Acid Profile in Egg Yolk from Late-Age Hens Housed in Enriched Cages and in a Free Range System.
17. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017 Dec;106(6):1401-1412. Consumption of whole eggs promotes greater stimulation of postexercise muscle protein synthesis than consumption of isonitrogenous amounts of egg whites in young men.
18. Journal of the American Heart Association, Volume 11, Number 7. Avocado Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in US Adults.
19. Nutrients 2025, 17(11), 1843. Exploring the Benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on Cardiovascular Health Enhancement and Disease Prevention: A Systematic Review.
20. Nature. 2005 Sep 1;437(7055):45-6. Phytochemistry: ibuprofen-like activity in extra-virgin olive oil.
21. Circulation. 2004 Apr 6;109(13):1609-14. A walnut diet improves endothelial function in hypercholesterolemic subjects: a randomized crossover trial.
22. Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2017 Dec 18;31:110. The dairy fat paradox: Whole dairy products may be healthier than we thought.
23. Front Nutr. 2024 Jul 29:11:1386257. Full-fat dairy products and cardiometabolic health outcomes: Does the dairy-fat matrix matter?
24. Am J Clin Nutr. 2025 May;121(5):956-964. Regular-fat and low-fat dairy foods and cardiovascular diseases: perspectives for future dietary recommendations.
25. Circulation. 2016 Mar 22;133(17):1645–1654. Circulating Biomarkers of Dairy Fat and Risk of Incident Diabetes Mellitus Among US Men and Women in Two Large Prospective Cohorts.
26. Nature Human Behaviour, Volume 8, Pages 1798–1809 (2024). Mendelian randomization evidence for the causal effect of mental well-being on healthy aging.
27. Foods 2022, 11(5), 646. Nutritional Benefits from Fatty Acids in Organic and Grass-Fed Beef.
28. Food Sci Anim Resour. 2022 Jan 1;42(1):18–33. Fatty Acid Composition of Grain- and Grass-Fed Beef and Their Nutritional Value and Health Implication.
29. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 3;19(19):12629. Effects of the Ketogenic Diet on Muscle Hypertrophy in Resistance-Trained Men and Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.