Adherence to low-fat diets: fat intake during a self-monitoring period

Consistency of meeting dietary goals is important in dietary intervention studies. In this study, healthy women participating in a 12-week dietary intervention study (N = 36) were taught how to follow a low-fat diet by daily monitoring of fat intake in grams. The goal fat intake was 15% of energy from fat. Dietary intakes from the week 7 self-monitoring records and the week 8 4-day food records were analyzed using the Nutrition Data System nutrient analysis software. Fat intake calculated from 4-day food records kept during week 8 was 31.3 g/d, and this was slightly above the goal of 27.6 g/d. The self-tally of fat intake during self-monitoring was slightly lower at 26.7 g/d. Nutrient analysis of the self-monitoring food records, however, indicated a mean fat intake of 35 g/d, which was significantly higher than the goal intake and the intake by self-tally. The underestimation of fat intake by 8.3 g/d using self-tally is a sizable percentage of the goal intake, and this has implications for dietary counseling strategies.