Hidden Carb Calculator

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Hidden Carb Calculator
Posted on December 10, 2009 by Amy_Dungan in blog, Low-Carb, Support & Inspiration

To many of you this may be old hat, but for our newest low-carb friends this little tool can be a real eye opener. Watch those sneaky carbs!

Hidden carbs are very easy to find. All it takes is the nutrition label and a little math. Here’s an example of how it works:

The Great Value Heavy Cream nutrition label says it has 50 calories, 5 grams of fat, 0 carbohydrates, and 0 grams of protein per 1 tablespoon. To see if this is accurate we simply use the following formula:

fat x 9 calories + carbs x 4 calories + protein x 4 calories = total calories per serving.

So here’s how this works. Each gram of fat contains 9 calories. Each gram of carabohydrate contains 4 calories. Each gram of protein contains 4 calories. (Now you know what that little line at the bottom of the nutrition label means!) In our example above, our fat should be worked like this:

5 grams of fat x 9 calories = 45 calories.

That accounts for most of the calories in this product. But we still need to find out where the other 5 calories are coming from. So we continue on..

0 Carbohydrates x 4 calories = 0 calories.

0 Protein x 4 calories = 0 calories.

Now we have a problem. There are 5 calories unaccounted for. Most likely those are attributed to carbohydrates. So while the label says there are 0 carbs per 1 tablespoon, in all likelyhood there are actually 1.25 carbs per tablespoon.

5 left over calories divided by the 4 carb calories = 1.25

How do the food industry get by with this? In most cases all they have to do is keep the serving small enough that the carb count is below 1. It could be .9 carbs and they can still list it as 0 because it isn’t technically a full gram of carbs. Do you see how easy it can be to ingest more carbs that you realize? Now this isn’t meant to make you paranoid about everything you eat. It’s just a little tool you can use to help with those items you just aren’t so sure about.

Post Tagged with helpful tools, Low-Carb

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Oz-09

Amy, The number of calories/gm of fat, carb, and protein used by Industry and everyone else ie, 9, 4 and 4 are only approximate. They are not exactly 9,4 and 4. You can read about it on a USDA website: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/Classics/ah74.pdf but it’s really complicated.

Then, most creams have added stabilizers and other junk. Maybe they should also be factored into the total calorie count you give?

Examples of the 9, 4, 4 being rounded: the USDA nutrition database gives 0.31 g protein/T, 5.55 g fat/T and 0.42 g carb/T for heavy whipping cream for a total 52 calories. Using rounded values of 4, 9, 4 the total calories would be 52.87.
Similarly, the protein, fat and carb for light cream are 0.41 g, 2.90 g and 0.55 g respectively giving 29.94 calories total for 1T. but their database gives 29 calories. I know it’s because the numbers are rounded
Organic Valley Cream has a pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) heavy whipping cream which is just cream. This product has 0.37 g carb/tablespoon (according to the company) but this isn’t on the label ie, carb again = 0. It has 6 g fat/T which should = 54 calories, but the label says there are 50 calories/T.
Oz-09

Amy, The number of calories/gm of fat, carb, and protein used by Industry and everyone else ie, 9, 4 and 4 are only approximate. They are not exactly 9,4 and 4. You can read about it on a USDA website: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/Classics/ah74.pdf but it’s really complicated.

Then, most creams have added stabilizers and other junk. Maybe they should also be factored into the total calorie count you give?

Examples of the 9, 4, 4 being rounded: the USDA nutrition database gives 0.31 g protein/T, 5.55 g fat/T and 0.42 g carb/T for heavy whipping cream for a total 52 calories. Using rounded values of 4, 9, 4 the total calories would be 52.87.
Similarly, the protein, fat and carb for light cream are 0.41 g, 2.90 g and 0.55 g respectively giving 29.94 calories total for 1T. but their database gives 29 calories. I know it’s because the numbers are rounded
Organic Valley Cream has a pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) heavy whipping cream which is just cream. This product has 0.37 g carb/tablespoon (according to the company) but this isn’t on the label ie, carb again = 0. It has 6 g fat/T which should = 54 calories, but the label says there are 50 calories/T.
http://www.healthylowcarbliving.com Amy Dungan

Hi Oz,

Thanks for the clarification. I know several products all vary in nutritional value depending on the brand, so it’s a good idea to read the labels of every product you are considering buying. (I’m not great with all the scientific jargon or technical stuff.)

I realize the above formula is not an exact science by any means. When it was taught to me several years ago, it was just to show that not everything on the labels are exact and that we should never underestimate our choices/portions sizes or we could be undermining our efforts. It has helped me avoid exceeding my carb counts (maybe it’s even helped me get less than I thought I was getting?) so I’m hoping it might be of some help to others in the same way.
I do have to ask though,would the stabilizers, etc, assuming they weren’t already added into the counts, have calories? I was under the impression that calories can only come from 3 sources – protein, fat and carbohydrate. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Amy_Dungan

Hi Oz,

Thanks for the clarification. I know several products all vary in nutritional value depending on the brand, so it’s a good idea to read the labels of every product you are considering buying. (I’m not great with all the scientific jargon or technical stuff.)

I realize the above formula is not an exact science by any means. When it was taught to me several years ago, it was just to show that not everything on the labels are exact and that we should never underestimate our choices/portions sizes or we could be undermining our efforts. It has helped me avoid exceeding my carb counts (maybe it’s even helped me get less than I thought I was getting?) so I’m hoping it might be of some help to others in the same way.
I do have to ask though,would the stabilizers, etc, assuming they weren’t already added into the counts, have calories? I was under the impression that calories can only come from 3 sources – protein, fat and carbohydrate. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Merrilee Hoyer

Some really good info here thanks. I like many other people have been trying for longer than I care to remember to loose weight. The Doctor keeps telling me to do something about and (and give up smoking) and although I do try, I just can’t stick to it. My girlfriend is trying the new Fat Burning Furnace diet which she reckons is working really well and she has lost 5lbs in only a week – has anyone around here tried it and has it worked for you?

Hi Merrilee,
Glad your girlfriend is doing well. Never heard of that diet. I took out the links due to my spam policy. Thanks!
Amy
Merrilee Hoyer

Some really good info here thanks. I like many other people have been trying for longer than I care to remember to loose weight. The Doctor keeps telling me to do something about and (and give up smoking) and although I do try, I just can’t stick to it. My girlfriend is trying the new Fat Burning Furnace diet which she reckons is working really well and she has lost 5lbs in only a week – has anyone around here tried it and has it worked for you?

Hi Merrilee,
Glad your girlfriend is doing well. Never heard of that diet. I took out the links due to my spam policy. Thanks!
Amy
http://www.mrblogg.com MrBlogg

Nice post..Keep them coming :) Thanks for sharing.

Thanks so much for visiting me!
Amy
http://www.mrblogg.com MrBlogg

Nice post..Keep them coming :) Thanks for sharing.

Thanks so much for visiting me!
Amy
http://www.bluedefense.com body armor

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http://www.bluedefense.com body armor

This is one of my most visited sites. Excellent job moderating. And very insightful articles. Rarely does a site causes me to bring it up in coversation. Happy Holidays.

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