question about food labels

[Slovation]

Something that I have noticed lately on certain labels is that the fat/protein/carb content doesnt seem to match up with the total calorie count. For example I eat natures own whole wheat bread and the say each slice is 50 cals, however each slice has 10c, 4p, 1f which should all add up to 65 cals. I know u can round but I thought it was to the nearest 5 or so. Anyone know the answer to this?

Also I noticed on the sugar free syrup i was having it says its 20 cals a serving but has 8 carbs which should be 32. Since it is sugar alcohol does it add up differently?

[DanTheManB]

Ask Layne about this. It's something to do with legality I think he said. They're allowed to round within certain percentages or parameters. Oatmeal containers don't add up either

[thepacman]

Besides the whole rounding thing, the bread most likely does not include fiber in the total calorie count and I believe they can count sugar alcohols as 1/2 or 3/4 the calories of a regular carbohydrate.

[mrkdrt]

Yeah I noticed this too. What bothers me/is harder to know the right way to go is when there are measurements in weight and volume and they don't add up

Example - Oats 1/3 cup (80g) on package - in reality 1/3cup weighs at 95g :mad: which is it?!

How do you guys go about this?

Tougher with bread too...

[Barn01]

Yeah I noticed this too. What bothers me/is harder to know the right way to go is when there are measurements in weight and volume and they don't add up

Example - Oats 1/3 cup (80g) on package - in reality 1/3cup weighs at 95g :mad: which is it?!

How do you guys go about this?

Tougher with bread too...

You get a gram scale and you weigh it ... everytime!

[Slovation]

so would I count the slice of bread as 65 cals instead of 50? What about the syrup?

[thepacman]

so would I count the slice of bread as 65 cals instead of 50? What about the syrup?

You should count the bread as 10c/4p/1f and the syrup as 8c per serving. It's more optimal to count macros and not calories. Set your caloric goal and then break it down into your macronutrients and just rely on hitting your target macros.

[jth16]

I've noticed people don't know how to hit their numbers exactly without the use of a website like fitday.com or unless the label matches what they want exactly.

Take food X
Food X is your main carb source for this meal
You need 36g of carbs from food X

Food X has the following on the label:
82g
2g Fat
14g Carbs
6g Protein

36X82/14 will give you the weight in grams you need to hit 36 grams of carbs.
In this case you need 210g of food X to get 36g carbs.
That's 36 times 283, then the product is divided by 14.

Similarly, say you're a bodybuilder that counts the fat, protein and carbs from all sources.
You do your calculation above and get 210g of food X. To get the fat and protein contained in 210g of food X you do the following...

210(the weight)X 2(The grams of fat on the label)/ 82(the weight in grams on the label)
The total is 5.1g fat in 210g of food X. Likewise, if you want the carbs, you just plug the carb number from the label where the fat is.

36=X
14=82

Cross multiply and divide.

[bwelch1985]

<----will stick w/ fitday:D

i wouldn't trust myself w/ daily calculations like that....especially towards the end of prep when brain function can be less than stellar.

[jth16]

<----will stick w/ fitday:D

i wouldn't trust myself w/ daily calculations like that....especially towards the end of prep when brain function can be less than stellar.

http://www.gasitup.co.uk/savings_calculator/images/calculator.jpg

:D

Check the numbers twice and after a few days of doing it you memorize the numbers so you can practically do it from memory.

[mrkdrt]

You get a gram scale and you weigh it ... everytime!

What about bread? Just tear chunks off until it makes label weight?

[Barn01]

I've noticed people don't know how to hit their numbers exactly without the use of a website like fitday.com or unless the label matches what they want exactly.

Take food X
Food X is your main carb source for this meal
You need 36g of carbs from food X

Food X has the following on the label:
82g
2g Fat
14g Carbs
6g Protein

36X82/14 will give you the weight in grams you need to hit 36 grams of carbs.
In this case you need 210g of food X to get 36g carbs.
That's 36 times 283, then the product is divided by 14.

Similarly, say you're a bodybuilder that counts the fat, protein and carbs from all sources.
You do your calculation above and get 210g of food X. To get the fat and protein contained in 210g of food X you do the following...

210(the weight)X 2(The grams of fat on the label)/ 82(the weight in grams on the label)
The total is 5.1g fat in 210g of food X. Likewise, if you want the carbs, you just plug the carb number from the label where the fat is.

36=X
14=82

Cross multiply and divide.


Mind = BLOWN!!!


What about bread? Just tear chunks off until it makes label weight?

You do what you gotta do. Either that or count what your putting in your mouth and take it from somewhere else later in the day. This is why I love the Lose-it app for the iPhone :)

With my app and a scale I just put whatever it is I'm eating on and record the food and weight. It tells me the cals and macro's for that weight and that food and logs it. There is no guessing anymore. I just adjust my macros and cals in the app to suit what my needs are. Then pick foods that fill the needs :)

[mrkdrt]

You do what you gotta do. Either that or count what your putting in your mouth and take it from somewhere else later in the day. This is why I love the Lose-it app for the iPhone :)

With my app and a scale I just put whatever it is I'm eating on and record the food and weight. It tells me the cals and macro's for that weight and that food and logs it. There is no guessing anymore. I just adjust my macros and cals in the app to suit what my needs are. Then pick foods that fill the needs :)

Yeah this is what I do with digital pocket scale and fitday. So helpful!

[jth16]

Mind = BLOWN!!!



You do what you gotta do. Either that or count what your putting in your mouth and take it from somewhere else later in the day. This is why I love the Lose-it app for the iPhone :)

With my app and a scale I just put whatever it is I'm eating on and record the food and weight. It tells me the cals and macro's for that weight and that food and logs it. There is no guessing anymore. I just adjust my macros and cals in the app to suit what my needs are. Then pick foods that fill the needs :)

It really is simple once you do it for a few meals, but it sounds like the app you have does the calculations for you.

[Slovation]

I normally just calculate total cals through macros when Im writing on paper but I decided to enter it in on Fitday to make it easier this past week and was in a rush and just copied the label. I noticed my numbers were all out of whack so I went through all the foods and thats what I came across. So now Ill count it as 65 cals and not 50.


I've noticed people don't know how to hit their numbers exactly without the use of a website like fitday.com or unless the label matches what they want exactly.

Take food X
Food X is your main carb source for this meal
You need 36g of carbs from food X

Food X has the following on the label:
82g
2g Fat
14g Carbs
6g Protein

36X82/14 will give you the weight in grams you need to hit 36 grams of carbs.
In this case you need 210g of food X to get 36g carbs.
That's 36 times 283, then the product is divided by 14.

Similarly, say you're a bodybuilder that counts the fat, protein and carbs from all sources.
You do your calculation above and get 210g of food X. To get the fat and protein contained in 210g of food X you do the following...

210(the weight)X 2(The grams of fat on the label)/ 82(the weight in grams on the label)
The total is 5.1g fat in 210g of food X. Likewise, if you want the carbs, you just plug the carb number from the label where the fat is.

36=X
14=82

Cross multiply and divide.

[Barn01]

So now Ill count it as 65 cals and not 50.

Ya the macro's are just a number if you ask me. I enter those in my app of course but really what matters is the cals/gram of the product. I enter in exactly what the serving size on the label is in grams if I can or in the closest related serving size (tbsp, packet, blah blah..) Then when I go to eat that food I either put it on the scale and enter in the grams for that food and it works out the right cals and macros based on the weight (or serving size ... 1/2 packet, 2/3 tbsp). At the end of the day I have the most accurate cal count I can make and still preserve all the macro's according to the label. This is why I basically can get away with eating "freely", I know what my cal limit is and the app always tells me where I'm at and how much I have left to eat today. Plus I know what macro% I want to hit so I pick foods that fit the cal and macro criteria.

I think it's been a HUGE success. I'm mentally in a better place than last cut. I've held more strength in the gym and I'm leaner than last time. I owe it to being able to have a MUCH larger variety of food in my daily diet and being less deficient in something due to being stuck with repetitious foods followed off a piece of paper.

[Slovation]

Ya the macro's are just a number if you ask me. I enter those in my app of course but really what matters is the cals/gram of the product. I enter in exactly what the serving size on the label is in grams if I can or in the closest related serving size (tbsp, packet, blah blah..) Then when I go to eat that food I either put it on the scale and enter in the grams for that food and it works out the right cals and macros based on the weight (or serving size ... 1/2 packet, 2/3 tbsp). At the end of the day I have the most accurate cal count I can make and still preserve all the macro's according to the label. This is why I basically can get away with eating "freely", I know what my cal limit is and the app always tells me where I'm at and how much I have left to eat today. Plus I know what macro% I want to hit so I pick foods that fit the cal and macro criteria.

I think it's been a HUGE success. I'm mentally in a better place than last cut. I've held more strength in the gym and I'm leaner than last time. I owe it to being able to have a MUCH larger variety of food in my daily diet and being less deficient in something due to being stuck with repetitious foods followed off a piece of paper.

sounds like a cool app. I wonder if they have something similar for blackberrys.

[Zarazen]

sounds like a cool app. I wonder if they have something similar for blackberrys.

Livestrong has an app for blackberries.

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/1068

[Slovation]

Livestrong has an app for blackberries.

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/1068

sweet thanks!

[zcholla]

Call me crazy. If you want, But if the pack says 1/2cup, I grab my measuring cup and measure half cup, if its 10grams off, your splitting hairs that arent not going to lead to the ends you would expect. When I weigh out my chicken, If i throw it on the scale and it lands between 6-7 oz then its a 6oz piece. Now of course its all added up through the day so I have a good running estimate and total but I dont care who you are, the exact amount of calories you consumed in a day are NOT going to be EXACTLY what you think.

[jth16]

Call me crazy. If you want, But if the pack says 1/2cup, I grab my measuring cup and measure half cup, if its 10grams off, your splitting hairs that arent not going to lead to the ends you would expect. When I weigh out my chicken, If i throw it on the scale and it lands between 6-7 oz then its a 6oz piece. Now of course its all added up through the day so I have a good running estimate and total but I dont care who you are, the exact amount of calories you consumed in a day are NOT going to be EXACTLY what you think.

I'd go nuts, haha. I measure everything down to the gram.

[Dnarts]

Well I don't think it's necessary to count every gram of every macro nutrient because it does not make a difference in the long run as long as your consistent with what you do. I think it all comes down to consistency really, it doesn't matter if your consuming different calories compared to what fitday says since it's just a guess but it's consistent and you're progressing.

[jeffisdabest]

just for reference i am relatively sure that on your bread they add the fiber to total carbs, but dont count fiber in the cals because well its fiber..and sugar alcohols aren't the same general 4 cals per gram that most carbs are so viola 8 carbs becomes x cals it isnt mislabeling or trickery its just the way they do it :p do just to prove my point on the bread 10 carbs - 2 for fiber = 8x4=32 +16 for protein because it has 4 grams,and it has 5 cals from fat so some simple math shows us 32+16+5=53 rounded down and we have our magic number of 50cals per slice of bread :) and sugar alchohols all have a different range of cals per gram like erythirytol (sp?) has .2 cals per gram *its what they use as a filler in truvia lol*


p.s i use the same bread and think i use the same syrup therefore i already looked into most of this ;) you can thank me l8r l0l

[jth16]

Well I don't think it's necessary to count every gram of every macro nutrient because it does not make a difference in the long run as long as your consistent with what you do. I think it all comes down to consistency really, it doesn't matter if your consuming different calories compared to what fitday says since it's just a guess but it's consistent and you're progressing.

I don't really think it's necessary either, but it gives me that extra layer of mental relief. If I allowed myself room and then for one week didn't drop weight I would stress thinking it was, because I was off on my measurements.

[dcflex]

sounds like a cool app. I wonder if they have something similar for blackberrys.

I use Carlorie Counter by FatSecret for BB. It's free and available through AppWorld.

[zcholla]

Loseit App for the iphone, The best thing about lose it is i can create my own custom food and meals and its real fast to open it and say Boom I ate _____ again today and be done with it.

Loseit.com

[co1e_train]

I use sparkpeople.com Has a database full of many foods, even some items from restaurants. Plus you can add foods in or complete meals etc. I just go by what the label on the package says however, is there any real better benefit in calculating the individual macros opposed to food labels?