How to add your macros to get total calories

July 11th, 2014 by
I have a lot of people asking me if this or that will fit into their plan, and I teach them to add up the macros on the label so they know what they are really getting. Often times companies will have labels that are deceptive in their totals. this is especially true with diet foods claiming low carb.

Here is a great example of how to make sure that you are really getting what the label says.Every macro has a set calorie amount tied to it.
Protein is always 4 cals per gram
Carbs are 4 cals per gram
Fat is 9 cals per gram

When eating high fiber foods (8g or more), you can subtract fiber. While fiber is considered a carb source, it only has 2 cals per gram instead of 4.

Some companies trick you by subtracting all the fiber on their label and only give you calories for what is left. They call this “net carbs”. It isn’t true though, so you have to be careful.

Here is an example for you.

Double Chocolate Chunk Quest bar (my favorite!)

Label Says
160 calories
6g fat
25g Carbs (they only account for 8g in the calories)
16g Fiber
20g Protein

When you actually do the math
230 calories
6g Fat is 54 calories
25g carbs is 100 calories (including fiber)
20g protein is 80 calories

So as you can see they have subtracted all of the fiber from their calories.

We allow you to subtract 1/2 of the fiber calories. As noted before, fiber is in the carb totals.
16×4=64 calories. Minus half of that is 32. So the fiber adds 32 calories to the label that is unaccounted for by the company.

Actual bar totals
198
6g fat=54 calories
17g carbs=68 calories (subtracted 1/2 of the fiber)
20g protein= 80 calories

The easiest way to do this is to look at the fiber total of the food, cut it in half, subtract that number from the total carbs, then do the math following the calories per gram of macro paragraph above.

Now this doesn’t mean you have to exclude these foods, just be aware that you may be getting more calories than you budgeted for.

c/o Curls & Whey Training