nutrition labels

Nutrition labels are a blessing and a curse. They provide you with nutrient information for what’s in the food or drink but it also provides lies. Pretty hard to believe? 

Nutrition labels are aloud to be off +/- 20 percent. When you look at the calories and it states that one serving has 100 calories, it could really have 80 to 120 calories. So how do you figure out what is actually the caloric makeup of this food or drink you’d like to consume? 

If you read my nutrition 101 then you may remember that protein has 4 calories per gram, carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram as well and fats have 9 calories per gram. When you look at a nutrition label you can take the grams of protein and multiply it by 4, take the carbohydrates and multiply it by 4 and take the total fats and multiply by 9. Then you take the results of those 3 and add them together and you get your total calories for one serving. 

The tricky part comes with fiber. You can subtract your fiber from your total carbs and you can subtract sugar alcohol too to get net carbs then you multiple that times 4 and get your calories from carbs. 


Here’s a few examples for you:


White bread (great value brand):

4g of protein 

24g of carbs

1.5g of fat

And it says 120 calories for 2 slices

4g of protein x 4 calories/gram of protein = 16 calories from protein 

24g of carbs x 4 calories/gram of carb = 96 calories from carbs

1.5g of fat x 9 calories/gram of fat = 13.5 calories from fat

16+96+13.5= 125.5 calories per two slices of bread. 

This is pretty close. 5 calories is pretty negligible. Does it add up? Sure, but it’s not life changing. 


Halo top (peanut butter cup):

Going to use this example because it is a healthier ice cream as compared to like Ben and Jerry’s. And I’m going to do it for the whole container because who’s going to eat 2/3 of a cup or 87g and not the whole pint? If you have that kind of control, you’re a saint. Anyways. 

21g of protein per container 

63g of carbs per container 

12g of fat per container 

18g of fiber per container

24g of sugar alcohol per container 

330 calories per container 

21x4= 84 calories from protein 

63x4= 252 calories from carbs

12x9= 108 calories from fat

18x4= 72 calories of fiber

24x4= 96 calories from sugar alcohol 


So now we can take the carbs and subtract the fiber and sugar alcohol because our bodies don’t digest those. 


252-72-96= 84 calories from carbs


Now that we have our carbs figured out we can add carbs, protein and fat together and figure out our total calories. 


84 protein + 84 carbs + 108 fat = 276 calories for the whole container 

330-276= 54 calorie difference. And that is a 16 percent error but in our favor since it’s less than the advertised nutrition label. 


Some only do subtract fiber from carbs but this particular sugar alcohol, erythritol, is digested a lot like fiber so it can be subtracted from carbs in a similar fashion as fiber. Other sugar alcohols like malitol, sorbitol, isomalt, and glycerin are only partially digested by the body so it’s recommended to to use half of the sugar alcohol on the label and subtract from carbs as opposed to the whole value. And to figure out what type of sugar alcohol it is, just look down to the ingredient list and if it should tell you. 


Here’s one last example, maybe more to come in the future but for now this should get you all started in your quest for figuring out nutrition labels. 


Quest cookie (peanut butter): 

15g of protein per cookie 

22g carbs per cookie

13g fat per cookie

12g fiber per cookie

5g sugar alcohol (erythritol) 

220 calories per cookie

15x4= 60 calories from protein 

22x4= 88 calories from carbs

13x9= 117 calories from fat

12x4= 48 calories from fiber 

5x4= 20 calories from erythritol 


88-48-20= 20 calories from net carbs 


20+60+117= 197 calories. 

Or to figure net carbs you can do 22-12-5= 5 carbs

5 carbs x 4 calories per carb is still 20. Both ways work. 



As you can see this example comes out under too. Takes a few minutes but if you really want to know for sure what you are putting in your body for macro based food tracking then can’t go wrong with this. You can go off the label for they provide for calories and it’ll get you in the ball park but if you want to be exact and get the most precise calorie tracking and know what you’re eating then this is the way to go. 

Thanks again for taking time out of your day to read up on the fun and exciting topic of nutrition labels. I hope it was helpful and that we learned something from this and can now reach our goals effectively. Be sure to check out nutrition 101 if this is your first stop. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beginner Fitness Advice

 Welcome to the fitness section! This is the fun section here, maybe you already read through nutrition and realized just how crazy this is going to be. Well boys and girls, put your seatbelt on because we are in for a trip. Rule #1: you can’t outwork a bad diet. I’ve tried it, it can’t be done. Maybe you’ll get jacked or lose weight but you won’t have the definition you want amongst other things. You are what you eat.  Rule #2: we all got to start somewhere. If that means bench pressing the bar for three sets of six then that’s what you gotta do. Ain’t nobody gonna walk in and bench 315 right out of the gate.  Rule #3: your heart is more important than your biceps. Do your cardio.  Now that we got all that figured out and laid out we can really dive into the deep end here. So  how does a new person or any person go to the gym day in and day out and make any kind of progress? Well, one of the easiest ways to really make some progress is to find a program that wo...
weightsandnutrition.com/nutritionlabels

Acronyms you may see in the fitness world

       Here are some acronyms and definitions with examples to hopefully give some idea on what to do when you see these in your workout program. EMOM - Every minute on the minute - essentially every minute on the minute you start the next set. Lets say you are doing push ups and you're doing 15 reps and 5 sets at EMOM, so at the top of the minute you start your set and knock out 15 push ups then you rest for the remainder of the minute and start all over till you complete all sets. There is variations to this like a set number of sets or do it till you can't get all the reps in in a minute. AMRAP - As Many Reps As Possible - this could look something like leg raises 3xAMRAP. You would do 3 sets of leg raises to failure each set, so the first set could be 20 and then rest for a period of time and maybe the next set you get 18, and the last set you get 19. This is where you go to failure regardless of form, you don't want to get too sloppy but a little slop is acce...
weightsandnutrition.com/nutritionlabels