Tamales are Mexican traditional food consisting of a mixture of nixtamalized maize flour, fat, and water, kneaded into batter (masa). Energy consumed in excess of an individuaĺs requirements can contribute to the development of overweight and obesity, and to the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. There is a drive to improve the “healthiness” of traditional foods such as tamales. In turn, this motivates the need of evaluating the physicochemical transformations occurring during tamales preparation. This work studies the effect of using pork lard (AF) and hydrogenated vegetable shortening (VF) on the physicochemical properties and digestibility of tamales, as both type of fats are used in artisanal and mechanized production. VF imparts better viscoelastic properties to masa and better textural properties to tamales than AF. Both types of fat participate in the formation of amylose‐lipid inclusion complexes, but higher resistant starch (RS) contents occur with VF than for AF, and are reflected in lower digestibility rates. An increase in readily digestible starch fraction is also detected, and is of about 40% when using AF. Both fats negatively effect the digestibility of protein. The results show that the fat type determines the digestibility properties of tamales.