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A critical aspect of a healthy diet is to consume fats, proteins and carbohydrates in the right proportions. All three of these nutrients supply energy for the body and help build and repair cells. Conversely, eating too much of any of these three energy sources can be detrimental to your health. For example, too many carbohydrates in your diet predisposes you to type 2 diabetes, whereas a high-fat diet is linked to atherosclerosis. By keeping track of how many fats, proteins and carbohydrates you eat each day, you can make sure you are eating these substances in the right amounts.
Set targets for fat, protein and carbohydrate intake. A balanced diet will consist of between 20 to 35 percent calories from fat, 10 to 35 percent from protein and 45 to 65 percent from carbohydrates, the Institute of Medicine states. Aiming for 30 percent, 20 percent and 50 percent of your calories from fat, protein and carbohydrates, respectively, will meet these guidelines.
- A critical aspect of a healthy diet is to consume fats, proteins and carbohydrates in the right proportions.
How to Calculate Kcal
Convert calorie targets into grams of fat, protein and carbohydrates. For a 2,000 calorie diet and the desired 30/20/50 distribution, this amounts to 600 calories from fat, 400 from protein and 1,000 from carbohydrates. Each gram of fat contains 9 calories, so this amounts to approximately 67 grams of fat per day. Protein and carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram, so this plan allots 100 grams of protein and 250 grams of carbohydrates.
Look up the nutrition information for all of the foods you eat. According to the American Diabetes Association, you can use nutrition labels to measure carbohydrate content. Nutrition labels also contain information about the amount of fat and protein in each serving of food. If you cannot find a nutrition label for a food item, you can use an online database, such as the USDA National Nutrient Database, to find the information.
- Convert calorie targets into grams of fat, protein and carbohydrates.
- According to the American Diabetes Association, you can use nutrition labels to measure carbohydrate content.
How to Calculate AMDR
Measure the number of servings of each food item you consume. Use measuring cups or a scale to calculate how many servings of each food item you consume.
Multiply the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrates in one serving of every food item you consume by the number of servings you ate.
Macronutrient Ratios
This article is about the calories from fat, protein and carbohydrates and the ratios of the macronutrients.
This information can come in handy when you are trying to track certain nutrition information.
It is also very useful when figuring out the Weight Watchers Points Plus values.
Often times you may find some nutritional information for a food item or restaurant menu item.
However, some of the pieces can be missing.
For example, a restaurant may publish the total calories, fat grams and carb grams.
Unfortunately they may be missing the protein grams.
If you are simply tracking calories, fat or carbohydrates, then this would not be a problem.
However, if you are trying to ensure you are getting the right mix of calories for the primary macronutrients (fat, protein and carbs), then the puzzle is not complete.
Additionally, with the new Weight Watchers points system, a primary factor (protein) would be missing to calculate the proper points value.
Finding The Missing Macrontrient
One method of filling in the missing piece is to use the 4-9-4 equation. What’s this you ask? Well, basically it means that the calories are made up of 4 cal. per gram of protein, 9 cal. per gram of fat and 4 cal. per gram of carbohydrates.
Macronutrient
Calories
Let’s take an example. If your food item contained 10 grams of protein, 10 grams of fat and 10 grams of carbs, then 40 calories would be from protein, 40 calories from carbs and there would be 90 calories from fat for a total of 170 calories.
Now in order to estimate one of the macronutrients you would have to work backwards from the total calories.
Let’s say that a menu item has 500 total calories, 50 grams of carbs and 15 grams of fat.
Since we have 2 of the 3 macronutrients, plus we have total calories, we can derive the answer to the missing piece.
The calculation would look like this.
Protein calories = (total calories) – (carb grams * 4) – (fat grams * 9)
Protein (g) = Protein calories / 4
By taking the total calories minus the calories from carbs and fat, this leaves the calories from protein. If you take the number of protein calories divided by 4, this will give you an estimated grams of protein in that menu item.
Why is this divided by 4? Remember we are using the 4-9-4 equation, so 4 calories per gram of protein contributes to the total calories.
Another good example of when you might need to estimate one of the macronutrients is for total fat from calories. Often times you can find nutritional information for a menu item or food item. However, they list saturated fat as opposed to total fat.
While knowing the saturated fat is helpful, it still will not give you the overall picture of all the nutritional values.
Knowing the total fat becomes even more important with the new Weight Watchers points plus system. Since there is a heavier weighting on fat in foods to determine the total points value, having this as a missing piece means a poor estimation of the actual points value.
As another example, a food item has 200 total calories, 10 grams of protein and 10 grams of carbs. The total calories from fat (and fat grams) is unknown.
Fat Calories = (total calories) – (carb grams * 4) – (protein grams * 4)
Fat grams = Fat calories / 9
For our example, the calculation would be this;
Fat calories = (200) – (10 * 4) – (10 * 4)
200 – 40 – 40 = 120 calories from fat.
The total fat grams would then be;
120 / 9 = 13 grams of fat.
Macronutrients-Doesn’t Compute?
Sometimes using the 4-9-4 equation doesn’t add up as expected. This is because sometimes the publisher of the nutritional values will take into account the insoluble fiber in the carbohydrate grams.
Insoluble fiber does not convert to usable energy but rather passes through our bodies. Therefore, some manufactureres will deduct the insoluble fiber calories from the calories from carbs.
Unfortunately there is generally no way of telling how much of the total dietary fiber is from insoluble fiber versus soluble fiber. Therefore there is no quick calculation for you to determine the proper calories from fat, protein and carbs for these cases.
The good news is that even if these calories have been removed from the carbs calories, the impact on your overall estimation of the missing puzzle piece will be neglible in most cases.
If you are unsure when an item may or may not display the proper carbs calories, check the ingredients for these common sources of insoluble fibers.
Sources of Insoluble Fibers ; whole wheat, whole grains, wheat bran, corn bran, seeds, nuts, barley, couscous, brown rice, bulgur, zucchini, celery, broccoli, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, green beans, dark leafy vegetables, raisins, grapes, fruit, and root vegetable skins.
Alcohol and Calories from Fat, Protein and Carbohydrates
Another time when the 4-9-4 equation does not work is with aloholic beverages. This is due to the fact that the total calories includes the calories in alcohol. The calories from alcohol are not considered or addressed in the 4-9-4 equation.
Summing up Calories from Fat,Protein and Carbs
If you are tracking nutritional information, then using this equation can help you estimate your daily intake.
If you are following the new Weight Watchers points plus system, then calculating the missing nutrient will allow you to closely estimate the total points value.
Just keep in mind that this method will give you a good approximation of the actual values, but may not be the exact values due to insoluble fiber and/or alcohol content.
In addition to understanding calories from fat, protein and carbs, learn more about the new Weight Watchers points plus and how these nutrients are used in the calculation
Additional Articles
Counting Carbs or Making Carbs Count
Many people have gone from counting calories to counting carbohydrates in order to lose weight. Others will try to cut out all (or most) carbs for a faster weight loss. Read this article to make sure you make the right carb choices.
Weight Loss Journal
Use this free download to track your weight loss. The journal allows you to write down foods you eat, how you were feeling and more. Then review your journal and make adjustments to your diet as needed.
Being able to calculate the calories and grams in food is an important aspect of many diets. Many diets tell you to eat 40% protein or 15% fat, but what does that mean in terms of real food? Below is a guide to help you figure how many calories and grams of each food groups you should be eating.
How To Calculate Calories Based On Grams
If a 5’9 healthy female is eating 1600 calories and following the paleo diet with 60 % of daily calorie intake from fats, 30 % of daily intake from protein, and 10% daily intake of carbs.
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
1 gram of protein= 4 calories
1 gram carbs= 4 calories
Take the daily calories (1600) divided by 100= and you get 16
To find the amount of calories needed from fat
- 16x 60 (the amount of fat per day) = 960 calories
To find the amount of calories needed from protein
- 16x 30 (the amount of protein per day)= 480 calories
To find the amount of calories needed from carbs
- 16x 10 (the amount of carbs per day)= 160 calories
How To Calculate The Number Of Grams Needed For The Same Person
Take the number of calories needed from fat (960) and divide that by the number of calories 1 gram of fat totals (9)
- 960 divided by 9 =106 grams of fat per day
Take the number of calories needed from protein (480) and divide that by the number of calories 1 gram of protein totals (4)
- 480 divided by 4 =120 grams of protein per day
Take the number of calories needed from carbs (160) and divide that by the number of calories 1 gram of carbs totals (4)
- 160 divided by 9 =40 grams of carbs per day
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Crumley Hill
Protein is an important part of any healthy diet. If you are on a low carb diet, a larger percentage of your calories should be coming from protein sources than if you are following a low fat diet. Calculating the percent of calories from protein in your daily diet is simple, requiring only some record keeping and basic math skills.
Step 1
Keep a daily food diary, recording everything you eat and drink. Record what you consumed, the amount you consumed, the total number of calories, and the number of calories that came from protein.
Step 2
If the nutritional information lists grams of protein rather than calories, determine the number of calories by multiplying the number of grams of protein by 4. Each gram of protein provides four calories. If a serving of food contains 6 grams of protein, it contains 24 protein calories.
Step 3
Total the number of calories you have consumed at the end of the day, along with the number of calories that came from protein.
Step 4
Plug those numbers into a percentage calculator (see Resources) or do the math manually: multiply the number of protein calories by 100, then divide that sum by the number of total calories. The result is the percentage of calories in your diet that day that came from protein. For example, if you ate a total of 2,000 calories and 700 of those calories came from protein, the resulting equation would be (700 x 100) divided by 2,000 = 35 percent of calories from protein.
Things You’ll Need
You can use your food diary to record other information as well, such as fat or carbohydrate content. If the food you are eating has no nutritional information listed, check the USDA National Nutrient Database (see Resources).
Warning
If you are under a doctor’s care for kidney disease, check with your doctor regarding the amount of protein that is safe for you to consume.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Jill Corleone, RDN, LD
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Petrie
Making smart food choices is the key to maintaining a healthy and balanced diet. It can also be extremely helpful when you’re trying to lose weight.
Do you want to lose weight or be healthier? Join MyPlate Calorie Counter and get access to free meal plans, healthy recipes and at-home workouts. You’ll also get daily calorie and macro goals for your fitness journey. Don’t miss your chance for amazing results. Sign up today!
While most people know how to count calories, that doesn’t always tell you the whole story. Calculating the percentage of calories you’ve eaten from fat, carbs and protein helps you stay healthy and keeps your diet well rounded.
Tracking Your Intake
Before you worry about the percentages, the first step in monitoring your food intake is to track how many calories you have consumed. The easiest and quickest way to determine your daily caloric intake is by using a calorie percentage tracker or online nutrition tracker, such as LIVESTRONG.COM’s MyPlate app. This resource also helps you track your carb, protein and fat consumption throughout the day.
Although it’s more time-consuming, you can also tabulate your total calories and track your carb, protein and fat intake in a food journal using food labels and online nutrition databases — such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Composition Databases.
Calculating Calories Per Gram
Any food type that is required for normal growth and development, such as carbs, fats and proteins, is called a macronutrient. These foods contain specific amounts of calories in each gram of the substance.
For example, there are 9 calories per gram of fat and 4 calories per gram of protein and carbohydrate. To tabulate the total calories of each macronutrient you have consumed, multiply the grams of the macronutrient in the food by its calories per gram.
For example, if you ate a 3-ounce chicken breast with 27 grams of protein, you would multiply 27 grams by 4 calories per gram to determine that your chicken contained 108 calories from protein.
Percentage of Calories
Once you have calculated the total numbers of calories that you’ve consumed from fat, protein and carbohydrates, you can figure out the percentage of your total calories that have come from each macronutrient. To do this, divide the number of calories from each nutrient by the total number of calories you’ve eaten that day and then multiply this number by 100.
To build on the previous example, if you ate 108 calories from protein during a 2,000-calorie day, you would divide the first number by the second which comes to 0.054. If you take this number and multiply it by 100, you get 5.4 percent which is the percentage of your day’s calories that came from protein. Exactly the same calculation is used to determine the percentages for fat and carbs.
Recommended Percentages of Each Macronutrient
According to an article published in March 2015 by U.S. News & World Report, the American Heart Association recommends that no more than 30 percent of your daily calories come from fat. Of these calories, only 10 percent should be saturated fat, which is found in foods like milk, cheese and processed meats.
Complex carbohydrates, which are found in starchy vegetables, legumes and whole-grain bread, should make up 40 to 60 percent of your total calories. The remaining 20 to 30 percent of your calories in a day should come from lean proteins like chicken or fish.
Following these simple ratios can help you maintain a healthy weight while still allowing you to enjoy a wide variety of foods. Be sure to speak to your doctor or nutritionist if you have any questions or concerns about monitoring your macronutrient intake.
The free LIVESTRONG MyPlate calorie tracker app for iPhone and Android has helped millions of people lose weight the healthy way — by getting support from an active community as they track their eating and exercise. Consistently a top-rated app, MyPlate offers the latest technology in an easy-to-use tool that includes millions of foods and recipes, five-minute in-app workouts and a robust support community.
- 1 gram of fat = 9 calories
- 1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories
- 1 gram of protein = 4 calories
Here’s the math:
- 12 grams of fat x 9 calories per gram = 108 calories
- 25 grams of carbohydrates x 4 calories per gram = 100 calories
- 3 grams of protein x 4 calories per gram = 12 calories
108 + 100 + 12 = 220 calories
The following box is sometimes shown on a food label. It tells you there are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat, 4 calories in 1 gram of carbohydrate, and 4 grams in 1 gram of protein…always.
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About the Author
FitnessforWeightLoss.com was created by Stephanie Averkamp, a recognized health and fitness professional and sole-author of the content on this website. Stephanie’s approach to weight loss emphasizes making small, realistic, and permanent lifestyle changes. Read more.
Our Approach: Short-term solutions (like dieting) are unrealistic and ineffective because at some point they end. As soon as a diet or program ends, so do the results. Permanent weight loss is a journey; it’s not a race or competition and there is no finish line. Read more.
Protein, Carbohydrate & Fat Intake Calculator
This Nutrition (Protein, Carbohydrate & Fat) calculator is based on the Mifflin St Jeor Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) Equation. It takes your gender, height, current weight, desired weight and calculates the calorie needed by the body every day. Based on the calculated calorie, protein, carbohydrate and fat quantities are calculated.
Using the Protein, Carbohydrate & Fat Intake Calculator
- Select your Gender .
- Select your Age .
- Enter your Height either in centimeters or in feet.
- Enter your Current Weight either in kilograms or in pounds.
- Select your Activity Factor .
- Then, click the Calculate button.
Every Day Protein, Carbohydrate & Fat Needs
Protein, carbohydrates and fat are few of the major nutrients required by the human body every day. The below chart gives you the recommended percent of protein, carbohydrates and fats needed to be in every day food intake. This percentage of major nutrients needs to be maintain even when you are in the process of reducing weight.
| Nutrients | Requirement / Day | Calories / Gram |
|---|---|---|
| Carbohydrates | 45% to 65% | 4 Cal/gm |
| Protein | 10% to 35% | 4 Cal/gm |
| Fat | 20% to 35% | 9 Cal/gm |
Example
Consider a person needs 2100 calories per day to maintain the current weight. The food intake should have the below quantities of protein, carbohydrates and fat.
- Carbohydrate intake should be a minimum of 45% (945 calories) and a maximum of 65% (1,365 calories). I.e. between 236 and 341 grams of carbohydrates / day
- Protein intake should be a minimum of 10% (210 calories) and a maximum of 35% (735 calories). I.e. between 53 and 184 grams of protein / day
- Fat intake should be a minimum of 25% (420 calories) and a maximum of 35% (735 calories). I.e. between 47 and 82 grams of protein / day
Make sure your food intake should have a balanced quantities of carbs, protein and fat. If you try to completely avoid any of the nutrients, the metabolism will be affected
For some this might be yet another post on how to figure out how much to eat of what and when, but for others this could possibly be the tool to help them on their way.
In this article I’ll explain as simple as possible how to calculate your daily requirements that go with your desired result.
Uh, what are macros?
Ok, so you might be a bit new to this, but that’s ok. Macros is short for macronutrients:
- – Protein (4 calories per gram)
- – Fat (9 calories per gram)
- – Carbohydrates (4 calories per gram)
There is technically a 4th, alcohol, but I’m not going into that one specifically. However if you drink alcohol, you should know that 1 gram of alcohol has 7 calories and they do count. They just won’t build muscle.
1) Determine your goal
When setting up a macro goal, this can be for 2 reasons:
- lose weight
- gain weight (muscle)
What’s important, is to actually find out how much you’re eating now. This can simply be done by keeping track of your food intake for 2-4 weeks. An excellent tool for that is MyFitnessPal. Weigh yourself before and after.
Did you lose weight? Then you are not eating enough. Did you gain weight? Then you are eating too much. No change in weight? Then you are eating enough (but I’m sure you figured that out by now)
In all cases it’s handy to calculate your daily caloric intake. Simply add up all the calories you’ve consumed and divide them by the days. This will give you a daily average.
Also, by documenting your current eating habits, you can assess more easily what types of changes you need to make, or find out if you were already on the right track.
2) BMR & TDEE
A BMR is the Basic Metabolic Rate, this is the amount of energy your body needs to survive each day. This energy is needed for breathing, your heart beating, nails growing, digestion, you get the idea.
On top of that, you need energy for daily activities, like walking, weightlifting, running, etc. These 2 combined are called the Total Daily Energy Expenditure, TDEE. This is different for everyone, since it depends on gender, height, weight and activity level.
There are easy tools to help you calculate these numbers. The one I like is 1percentedge.com. This tool is pretty accurate with calculating the BMR & TDEE.
Why still calculate this you ask?
If you compare the numbers in step 1 with the numbers in step 2, you can get the most accurate number possible in order to set your macro goals. It’s simply eliminating as much error as possible.
3) Calculating the Macros
This depends on your goal in step 1. The drop-down in the tool will give you options. The – or + numbers indicate how much % you need to be below or above your TDEE. The tool will do the calculating for you, don’t worry.
Which option to choose? Again, this depends on you goal, but good options are:
- Lose weight: Weight Loss (-20/0)
- Gain Muscle: Lean Massing (-10/+20)
Both options are in a safe range, Weight Loss will cause a slower, gradual weight loss, Lean Massing will ensure a slower gain without too much fat gain.
4) Keeping track
This is where it really starts. Assuming you are using MyFitnessPal, you can enter the desired calories, protein, fats & carbohydrates in your profile:
Now it’s up to you to track what you eat every meal, every snack, every day.
This may sound tedious, but after a few times this becomes a habit quickly.
You may have guessed it, but if you want to be as accurate as possible, a kitchen scale is an essential tool. At some point you will get better a estimating portions without the scale, but in the beginning you will need one for sure.
There are of course multiple tools out there to keep track of your food intake, but MyFitnessPal is used by most peaple (including athletes), has a huge database of foods (that you can scan the barcode of as well) and also provides an overview on how your progress is during the day and if you are on the right track:
The graph on the left gives an easy overview on the macro intake during the day, the summary on the right gives a more detailed overview of both macro- and micro-nutrients.
This way you can tweak your food intake as you go along, and you won’t run into surprises at the end of the day, when you might have gone over your target, or perhaps are still way under.
5) Measuring progress
This is very important to define right from the beginning. How are you going to measure your progress? If you want to lose weight, the scale is a logical option, but should not be the only way to measure your success. The scale can give conflicting results as well.
For example, if you are also doing weight training, you will gain muscle mass, which results in more bodyweight.
To make sure you can truly see results, do the following:
– Take before & after pictures. Take them preferably at the same location, at the same time (heck, even wear the same underwear) to really see the difference.
– Take measurements. Muscle tissue may weigh more than fat tissue per square cm, but takes up less space.
So get out a measuring tape and measure up. The most common areas to measure:
Last note
The tutorial above is intended for those that have a specific goal in mind, whether that is losing fat, gaining muscle mass or both, but is not intended to turn you into an obsessive calorie counter. But to be realistic, calories DO count.
Simply saying “I want to lose weight, so I’m going to eat less” will perhaps work for a while, but sooner or later you will hit a plateau and without insights into your eating habits, things could get a lot more difficult. To be honest, the more I talk to people about nutrition and calories, the more I realize that most people have no clue on how much they’re eating. This study comes to an interesting conclusion on that very issue.
Better Health Information from Doctors.
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- Ways on Calculating Calories You Need and Burn
Calculating the number of calories you need versus the amount of calories you eat each day will help you determine how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Learn here.
Calories are a measure of energy, specifically the energy the body needs to function. Age, gender, height, weight, body mass and level of activity can all have an impact on the number of calories you need to take in each day. Taking in these factors and learning what calorie levels you can get from consuming different foods will help you determine how to count calories properly to maintain your overall health.
How to Calculate Calories You Need Per Day
- Apply Online Calculators. There are a variety of online calculators that can help you determine the number of calories you should be eating each day. Some of these are designed to help manage your overall health while others are designed to assist with weight loss, but they all largely work the same. Enter any relevant personal data such as your gender, age, weight and height and then choose the type of measurements you would like to work with to get a count of the number of calories you should be eating. You can find a BMR calculator to use at
- Calculate Your Own BMR. Online calculators work with the BMR or basal metabolic rate. This calculates the amount of energy necessary to perform essential functions like breathing, digestion or heartbeat. Men calculate the BMR by multiplying 12.7 times their height plus 6.23 times your weight (lbs.) minus 6.8 times your age. Then add 66 to determine your total BMR. Women follow the same formula but multiply their height by 4.7, their weight by 4.35 and their age by 4.7, then add 655 to get their total BMR.
- Use Harris Benedict Formula. This formula helps to determine your calorie needs based on the BMR and activity level.
- Those that perform very little exercise should multiple their BMR by 1.2 to determine their daily calorie need.
- Those that take part in light exercise daily should multiply their BMR by 1.375.
- People who participate in sports or moderate exercise at least 3-5 days each week should multiply the BMR by 1.55.
- Those that participate in hard exercise or strenuous sports 6-7 days each week should multiply their BMR by 1.725.
- Those that have a very physically demanding job or participate in very hard workouts like 2-a-day training schedules every day should multiply the BMR by 1.9 to determine their daily calorie needs.
- Think Muscle-to-Fat Ratio. Bodies that contain more muscle require more calories than those that do not have a high muscle mass. Because they weigh more, obese people tend to overestimate the number of calories they need, leading to additional weight gain.
- Get Help from Dietitians. If you are still unsure how to proceed you can work with a professional dietician to better understand the number of calories you should be consuming to maintain your dietary needs.
How to Calculate Calories You Burn Per Day
- Determine Your BMR. You can calculate your BMR by hand as outlined above or you may use a BMR calculator on line. Simply apply your height, weight and any other relevant data to the BMR formula to determine the minimum amount of calories you need to achieve basic bodily functions.
- Calculate Calories Burned during Activity. Your BMR only shows you the calories you are burning performing activities like digesting food and breathing. You will need to determine the calories you are burning performing other activities throughout the day to determine how many calories you are burning throughout the day. Calorie calculators can help you determine an approximate value for the amount of calories you might burn performing different activates. They are typically broken down into two groups.
- Moderate Exercise. This is defined as activities which burn 3.5-7 calories a minute. Some form of this activity should be performed at least five times a week.
- Vigorous exercise. This is defined as activities that burn more than seven calories a minute. Because these activities are more strenuous they only need to be performed three times a week.
Here is an activity calorie calculator you can use:
Chances are you’re doing it wrong. I’m sorry.
However, if you don’t care about the caloric information of anything ever, then feel free to just breeze on by and come back for cookies later! But for us humans who want to know this monumental secret I will most likely be referring back to for a long time, I recommend sticking around. Good thing I’m totally not biased or anything.
I cannot tell you how many questions/comments/emails/moderately panicked calls for help I get regarding this very topic. People (most often times very politely, so thank you) point out that my nutritional information is wrong, and that the actual stats are higher. It’s not wrong, folks. I just happen to know this little secret on how to correctly count calories, and I’m ready to let you all into the loop.
Ready? Okay. There’s this magical concept called a “net carb”, which is often used by people on diets such as Atkins or Paleo when carb counting, but it usually just ends there. I, on the other hand, have taken it a step further with the subsequent “net calorie. ”
First, some interesting/dorky background on biology and the composition of calories. The four major classifications of biological molecules are proteins, carbohydrates, lipids (fats), and nucleic acids (but we won’t be dealing with these today). You probably encounter the first three a lot in everyday life, especially on nutritional labels.
The calories in food come from proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. A gram of protein has 4 calories, a gram of carbohydrate has 4 calories, and a gram of fat has 9 calories. With a bit of simple math, you can verify that on any food label. Sometimes there is a discrepancy, and I always honor the caloric product I got after I plugged in my formula.
Let’s practice! This is a nutritional label from Regular Better ‘n Peanut Butter.
Does it work? Grams of protein x 4 (16) + grams of carb x 4 (52) + grams of fat x 9 (18) = 86 calories! Sometimes there are actually fewer calories than stated because the company overcompensates. That’s very respectable of the company, and a happy accident for us consumers!
However, it doesn’t always work like that. Here is a label for Fiber One Original.
Let’s try it again: Grams of protein x 4 (8) + grams of carb x 4 (100) + grams of fat x 9 (9) = 117 calories. Hmm. That’s way off from the stated 60! Why is Fiber One allowed to say that? The FDA allows for a 20% discrepancy in food labeling, but this is much farther off than 20%. What gives?
So back to biology, there are many different kinds of carbohydrate molecules, and saying that they ALL have 4 calories a gram is simply incorrect. One of the reasons celery is such a low calorie food is that it contains a significant amount of cellulose, a fibrous carbohydrate that is indigestible by the human body. Therefore, if your body cannot break something down, it can’t absorb any energy from it. Calories that your body actually absorbs are called net calories.
You know how fiber is nature’s broom? That’s true too. Fiber “sweeps” through your system, cleaning out any unneeded particles and, because your body does not break fiber down, it goes out the other end. Your body does not absorb the calories from fiber either.
However, the traditional calorie counting formula does not take this into account. It would multiply ALL of the carbs in the product by four, instead of just the ones your body actually absorbs (total carbohydrates – dietary fiber). Behold, my modified and correct calorie counting formula!
This concept is relatively widely accepted here in the US, but the FDA has not taken a stance on the subject. (For reference, here is a Hungry Girl article on this very topic.) In the meantime, this gives companies selling products in the United States free rein to take the initiative and use this concept to their advantage. Some companies, such as Fiber One, do just that.
And now for your first application of your new favorite formula. Please contain your enthusiasm and hold your thunderous applause until the end. Grams of protein x 4 (8) + grams of fat x 9 (9) + grams of total carbohydrates – grams of fiber x 4 (44) = 61 calories (rounded down to 60 on the label). Whoa. Considering we thought the exact same serving of the exact same product had 117 calories just a minute ago, this is big. Huge.
Now you can start applying this to your daily life! Remember not to eat too much fiber as that is very hard on your GI track (and gives you plenty of gas; fun for all!), and do this, as well as everything else you do, in moderation.
I’m not going to lie… it still is pretty fun to do. You’re like Sherlock with a nutritional label. (I told you tweed would look awesome with your eyes!) Let’s take another look at the peanut butter label!
Grams of protein x 4 (16) + grams of fat x 9 (18) + grams of total carbohydrates – grams of fiber x 4 (44) = 78 calories. People. That’s 39 calories a tablespoon. Go forth and preach, grasshoppers.
I hope that clears things up! This is the method I use when calculating the nutritional information for all my recipes. Feel free to use it for whenever you want, but please slip my name into the conversation if at all possible… nudge, nudge. Spread the word! This is big!
What do you think? Do you have any nutrition questions or knowledge you’d like to share? Let the (friendly) discussion begin!
When it comes to changing your weight and improving your body composition you must pay attention to your calorie needs and macro breakdown. It’s these 2 factors in conjunction with a progressive strength training plan that will bring about the changes you want.
However, it’s not always easy to sift through the sheer amount of information available to find out exactly what you need to know. So, if you’ve been left second-guessing what exactly calories and macros are, why you need them and how to figure it all out, you’re in the right place.
What Are Calories & Why Do You Need Them?
Calories are the energy currency your body uses to function. However, not everyone will have the same calories need as the total number you need per day are influenced by a number of factors;
Basal Metabolic Rate: Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories you need at rest to allow your body to function at its most basic level. The term, BMR is often used interchangeably with resting metabolic rate (RMR) and makes up the largest part of your daily calorie needs.
The Thermic Effect of Food: In addition to your BMR, there is also the thermic effect of food, which is the technical way of saying, the calories your body uses to digest the food you eat. This process accounts for a small portion of your daily calorie expenditure.
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT): Next up is NEAT, which is all the activity you do which is not related to sleeping, eating or exercising and relates to the type of job you work, how much you move during the day, housework and how fidgety you are. (1) It can account for a large amount of additional calorie output daily and explains why some people can eat a lot and still lose weight, but others can’t.
Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC): EPOC, also known as oxygen debt, is the amount of oxygen your body needs after exercise to restore itself to normal resting levels of metabolic function. Its effect is greatest with high-intensity exercise but in general, the overall impact on calorie burn is not significant.
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE): TDEE for short is the total amount of calories you expend each day, inclusive of the above and any exercise you do i.e. playing sports or resistance training.
As you can see whether you’re at rest, work or play your body is constantly using calories to provide itself with the energy it needs to not only perform but also survive.
Calories are used to keep your heart beating, lungs breathing and brain thinking. Without sufficient calories, your body would cease to function. When you exercise or workout your calorie (or energy) output is increased in order to allow your body to perform the tasks you require of it.
If your calorie input is higher than its output, you will gain weight and if your input is lower than your output you will lose weight. This change in energy is called the energy balance equation.
The energy balance equation, also known as the law of thermodynamics and commonly referred to as calories in vs. calories out and is the relationship between the number of calories we eat and the number of calories we use as energy.
It has 3 outcomes which obey the law of thermodynamics which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. This means calories must be either used for energy or stored for future use, they can’t and won’t just disappear, (no matter how much we might want them to).
In case you’re wondering ‘calories in’ refers to everything you eat and drink that has calories in it. Whereas, ‘calories out’ is everything you do that uses energy, from simply being alive (heart beating, lungs breathing, digestion) to walking, talking and working out.
The relationship between the input and output of calories dictates whether you gain, lose or maintain weight. For example;
Calories In > Calories Out = Calorie Surplus & Weight Gain – If the number of calories you eat is greater than the amount of energy you use, you will have a surplus of calories and will gain weight.
Calories Out – Calories In = Calorie Balance & Weight Maintenance – If the number of calories you eat is the same as the amount of energy you use, you will achieve calorie balance and maintain your weight.
A calculation of the percentage of calories that come from fat, carbohydrates and protein requires you to know the specific amounts of each of these calorie sources. This information is available in the nutritional label, which is generally required for most types of food. The percentage of calories that come from fat, carbohydrates and protein is important information if you’re on a diet that limits you to specific percentages of each of these sources of calories.
Step 1
Obtain the amount of fat, carbohydrates and protein in a serving of the food. The nutritional label should provide these values in units of grams.
Step 2
Derive the number of calories in the food that come from fat. Each gram of fat provides about 9 calories, so the number of calories that come from fat is 9 x F, where F is the number of grams of fat. Assume the food has 11 g of fat. The food, therefore, provides 9 x 11 = 99 calories from fat.
Step 3
Compute the number of calories that come from carbohydrates. Each gram of carbohydrates provides about 4 calories, so the number of calories that comes from carbohydrates is 4 x C, where C is the number of grams of carbohydrates. Assume the food has 7 g of carbohydrates. The food, therefore, provides 4 x 7 = 28 calories from carbohydrates.
Step 4
Compute the number of calories that come from protein. Each gram of protein provides about 4 calories, so the number of calories that come from protein is 4 x P, where P is the number of grams of protein. Assume the food has 8 g of protein. The food, therefore, provides 4 x 8 = 32 calories from protein.
Step 5
Find the total number of calories in the food. This will be the sum of the calories from fat, carbohydrates and protein. A food that has 99 calories from fat, 28 calories from carbohydrates and 32 calories from protein will have a total of 99 + 28 + 32 = 159 calories.
Step 6
Calculate the percentage of calories that come from fat, carbohydrates and proteins. This example has 99 calories from fats and 159 total calories, so 99 / 159 x 100 = 62.3 percent of the calories in the food come from fat. There are 28 calories from carbohydrates and 159 total calories, so 28 / 159 x 100 = 17.6 percent of the calories in the food come from carbohydrates. There are 32 calories from protein and 159 total calories, so 32 / 159 x 100 = 20.1 percent of the calories in the food come from fat.
Related Articles
Consuming the right balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat can help you maintain a healthy weight and optimize your energy levels. Protein and carbohydrates both contain 4 calories per gram, while fat provides 9 calories per gram. Calculating your calorie needs can help you determine how many grams of protein, carbohydrates and fat you should consume each day.
Calorie Needs
The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans estimates women need 1,600 to 2,000 calories, while men generally require 2,000 to 3,000 calories each day to maintain a healthy weight. Harvard Medical School suggests adults need 13 to 18 calories per pound of body weight each day to maintain their weight. Therefore, a 125-pound woman needs 1,625 to 2,250 calories each day and a 165-pound man requires 2,145 to 2,970 calories per day, depending on their activity level. Safe and effective weight loss diets for men and women usually contain 1,200 to 1,600 calories per day, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Carbohydrate Requirements
The Institute of Medicine recommends adults consume 45 to 65 percent of their daily calories from carbohydrates. Since carbohydrates contain 4 calories in each gram, calculate your carb requirements by dividing 45 to 65 percent of your calorie needs by four. For example, if you require 2,000 calories per day aim to eat 900 to 1,300 calories from carbohydrates, or 225 to 325 grams of carbs each day. Healthy, nutrient-dense carbohydrates are found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt, nuts and seeds.
Protein Requirements
Adults should consume 10 to 35 percent of their energy intake from protein, according to the Institute of Medicine. Since protein provides 4 calories per gram, if your goal is to consume 20 percent of your calories from protein you’d need to eat 400 calories, or about 100 grams, of protein per day when consuming a 2,000-calorie diet. High-protein foods include lean meats, poultry, seafood, soy products, seitan, eggs, dairy foods, legumes, nuts and seeds.
Fat Requirements
The Institute of Medicine suggests adults eat 20 to 35 percent of their daily calories from fat. Since fat provides 9 calories per gram, calculate your fat needs by dividing 20 to 35 percent of your calorie requirements by nine. Based on these recommendations you should eat 400 to 700 calories from fat, or about 44 to 78 grams of fat, each day when following a 2,000-calorie diet. To reduce your risk for heart disease, choose healthy unsaturated fats, such as vegetable oils, fish oil, hummus, avocados, nuts and seeds instead of high-fat meats, shortening, butter and full-fat dairy products.
If you want to lose fat, build muscle, or have more energy, knowing your caloric needs is one of the most important things you can know. However, trying to calculate your calorie intake can get real complicated real fast.
The good news is, I’ve done all the hard work for you. With my calorie intake calculator, all you have to do is enter your information, estimate your activity levels and you’ll have a valuable starting point for estimating how many calories you need on a daily basis.
Also, I’ve set up the calculator to give you some estimates for macros as well.
If you want to lose fat, gain muscle, or improve your performance, it’s important to know how many calories you need on a daily basis. Our bodies require a bare minimum of calories on a daily basis just to survive. This is known as the basal metabolic rate (BMR).
The BMR is the least amount of calories you need if you were lying in bed all day long. But since you’re likely not doing that, you have to account for your activity levels. This calculator will help you determine just how many calories you need based on your individual goals.
Just want to use the calculator? I got you…
Let’s get started.
Forget About General Calorie Guidelines
If you’ve ever read in a magazine or random advice on the internet that you need a fixed amount of calories to lose or gain weight, I want you to know one thing. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to caloric intake.
It’s common to read that you shouldn’t eat more than 1200 calories per day if you want to lose fat. But what if you’re a 200-pound male?
Or what if you’re training 5 days per week at the gym?
Or what if you’re generally active at work walking around most of the day?
1200 calories aren’t going to cut it for your energy levels or performance and you’re almost sure to lose muscle mass.
The same goes for the generic statement ‘based on a 2,000 calorie diet’ you see on food labels.
These are the standard guidelines for the average person, but YOU are not the average person. If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re exercising regularly and are interested in more than just weight loss or weight gain.
You probably want to change your body composition by reducing body fat and gaining muscle.
So keep this in mind… your individual calorie needs will vary based on your age, general activity levels, goals, and type of exercise.
How Many Calories For My Goal?
This calculator starts by establishing your total maintenance intake, also known as your TDEE, which stands for total daily energy expenditure.
Your TDEE takes into account your total activity from a full 24 hour day, not just the activity from your workouts.
First, you need to determine what your goal is.
If you want to build muscle, you need to eat more than you burn.
If you want to lose fat, you’ll need to eat less than you’re burning.
You’ll first need to establish your maintenance calorie (TDEE) intake to get a starting point.
Once you know your maintenance intake, determining your total calorie targets becomes very easy. This is where the calculator comes in handy.
The calculator will produce the values you need to lose fat, build muscle, or maintain your weight and it’s all based on your gender, weight, age, and height.
Remember this: your activity levels include ALL activity, not just how much you’re exercising. So do your best when inputting your information.
What About Macronutrients? Do They Matter?
You’ll probably notice this calculator gives you a recommendation for macronutrients. There are two reasons:
- To make the process simpler for you to get started
- To make sure you’re getting enough of the right nutrients to maximize your results (depending on your goal of fat loss, or muscle gain)
In general, we want a balanced ratio of protein, carbs, and fat. So…
- One gram per pound of body weight in grams of protein
- Enough carbohydrates to support your exercise performance
- Enough dietary fat to make your food taste good and to support your body’s needs for fat (we use 20% of your total intake)
The main reason you want to pay attention to your macronutrient intake is that while calories are the primary determinant of how much weight you lose, macronutrients influence whether or not you lose fat or muscle. And if you want to lose weight, I’m sure you likely want to lose fat and keep your muscle.
Muscle Gain Calories
In order to gain muscle, you must be consuming a caloric surplus, meaning you’re consistently eating more than you burn. In general, you want to eat somewhere between 200-400 calories above your maintenance intake consistently to build muscle, which will usually end up being somewhere around
10% of calories for most people..
That should yield somewhere between 2-4 pounds of weight gained per month. Some of that will be muscle, and some of it will be fat. This is all going to depend on many factors, and I get into those details in this article.
In general, the more experience you have with weight training, the less of a calorie surplus you need. Here are some simple graphics to address the ideal caloric surplus.
Men:
Women:
For reference, this calculator creates a 10% calorie surplus from your TDEE. So if your TDEE is 2500, your muscle gain calories will be 2750 (+250 calorie surplus).
Fat Loss Calories
For fat loss to happen, you must be eating less than you burn on a daily basis. In general, most advice will suggest aiming for a 500 calorie deficit per day. And that’s not a bad starting point.
So a quick way to calculate that would be to figure out your maintenance intake and then subtract 500 calories from that figure.
In the calculator I’ve set up, this creates a calculation for you, however, we utilize 2 different percentages: 10% and 20% caloric deficits. This way, you can choose the deficit to start with and by using percentages, you won’t fall into the trap of creating an arbitrary 500 calorie deficit, which can be problematic if you’re already low in body weight and/or body fat.
Example: if you’re 120 pounds and your maintenance intake is 1800 calories, it might be better to do a 10% deficit at 180 calories, than a 500 calorie deficit because it’ll be easier to sustain an intake of 1620 than 1300 calories.
How To Use This Calculator
Step #1: Input your data.
Step #2: Trust the numbers and get started.
That’s it. Really.
If the numbers look high or low compared to real-world data from, you know, actually tracking your intake over a period of time, then adjust your activity level upward or downward from there.
Counting calories may seem like a difficult task, especially when you are cooking at home with multiple ingredients. Besides reading calorie counts on labels, you may need additional tools to calculate the calories in items like fruits, vegetables and other items that may not have a label. Calorie King is a great resource for this; with a few clicks and calculations, you’ll be well on your way to figuring out the total and individual serving size calorie counts of your favorite foods and dishes.
Visit CalorieKing.com. Enter the name of the food you are eating or ingredient you are using to cook with.
Choose the food from the list provided. CalorieKing offers several options; for example, if you type in “Banana” your search will yield results of many different foods that have bananas (popular store brands in addition to fast food items), in addition to the fruit itself.
Choose the serving size of your chosen food item or ingredient at the top of the food calorie count page. So for example, if you are making banana bread with 2 cups of bananas, choose the “Cup, mashed (7.9 oz)” from the serving size option and then enter “2” for the number of servings to get the accurate calorie count. For items that are packaged, look on the label and calculate calories accordingly. If the serving size listed on a loaf of bread, for example, is two slices, and you are using eight slices in your recipe, simply multiply the calorie count on the package by four.
Repeat Steps 1 through 3 if you are cooking, baking or preparing a food item with more than one ingredient.
Use a calculator, if needed, to add together the total calorie count of the dish. If the food you are cooking serves more than one person, divide the total calorie count by the number of people that the dish will feed to get the calorie count for individual servings.
If you are looking for the calorie count of a food item from a restaurant (fast food or other), Calorie King also lists several dishes from major chain restaurants.
No, you can’t eat all the protein you want.
You’ve probably heard that you can eat all the meat and fat you want on the ketogenic diet–and lose weight. That sounds pretty great to steak aficionados, but it’s not entirely true.
The main tenets of the popular diet is to eat plenty of fat, limit carbs, and consume protein in moderation–an element that is lost on many people, says Liz Weinandy, R.D. at Ohio State University Wexler Medical Center.
“When people start keto, they eat a lot more protein than what’s allowed on a keto diet,” she says. “Most of them [dieters] are following Atkins.”
The plan is centered around maintaining ketosis, or fat burning mode. Typically, our bodies run on carbohydrates, the brain’s preferred fuel source. Severely limiting carbs forces your liver to create ketones from fat, which becomes your body’s primary source of energy.
Changing your metabolic state isn’t easy, but here’s how you do it:
First, you need to follow the right macros for keto
All food includes some mix of macronutrients: carbohydrates, fat, and protein. In a true keto diet about 70 percent of your daily calories will come from fat. Protein makes up another 20 percent and carbs are limited to only 10 percent, says Weinandy. Generally, most experts advise keeping carb intake to roughly 30 grams per day, but this varies by person.
Nutritional needs are individual specific and based on a variety of factors including, height and activity level. Generally speaking, an active 40-year-old needs roughly 2,600 calories to maintain his weight. If our guy cuts a moderate 10 percent of his caloric intake to lose weight, he’ll need about 2,340 calories a day.
This equates to 1,638 calories from fat, 468 calories from protein, and 234 calories from carbs using the suggested ratio. Nutrition labels and food tracking apps report macronutrients in grams, so you’ll need to do a little math.
Every gram of macronutrient contains calories:
- Fat = nine calories per gram
- Carbs = four calories per gram.
- Protein = four calories per gram.
To convert calories to grams, simply divide the total number of calories for each macronutrient by the number of calories in one gram.
1,638 calories from fat/9 =182 grams of fat peer day
468 calories from protein/4 = 117 grams of protein
234 calories from carbs/4 = 58 grams of fat.
Some keto dieters only track carbs, but that’s a big mistake, says Melanie Boehmer, RD and CDN at Lenox Hill Hospital.
“Your body converts extra protein into sugar or carbohydrates.” she explains.
What do you need to track your macros for keto?
The keto diet is a huge commitment and requires a few tools to be successful. An inexpensive food scale to weigh food can offer an idea of how much food you’re actually consuming since it’s easy to misjudge portion sizes. Tracking meals in online calculators like MyFitnessPal is easy, and they also provide nutrition information including macros. The free version is fine, but the premium membership includes a plans feature where you can specify specific goals and provides more detailed macro tracking.
by Sukhsatej Batra, Ph.D.
Most of the calories in your diet come from carbohydrates.
You will find that carbohydrate-rich foods generally take up the most space on your plate. Present in breads, cereals, vegetables, fruits and sweetened beverages, carbohydrates are the major contributors of energy in your diet. This matches the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommends that you get 45 to 65 percent of your total daily calories from carbohydrates. The rest of the calories in your diet come from fats and proteins. To calculate the percentage of calories from carbohydrates, you need to know both your total calorie intake as well as calories coming from carbohydrates.
Note the total calories and grams of carbohydrates present in foods you eat from the nutrition facts labels. Make sure that you record values that reflect the actual serving size you consume, because your serving size may differ from that recommended on the food label. Repeat this exercise throughout the day as you eat your meals and snacks.
Use the USDA National Nutrient Database to find total calories and grams of carbohydrates present in the serving size of foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables that do not have nutrition facts labels.
Add the total number of calories from all foods that you ate during the day. This figure is the sum total of all calories you obtained from carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Take for example a 2,300-calorie diet.
Add the amount of carbohydrates present in each food recorded in steps 1 and 2 to determine the quantity of carbohydrates consumed throughout the day.
Multiply the total number of carbohydrates obtained in the previous step by 4 to calculate the number of calories from carbohydrates, because carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram. For example, if you consumed 295 grams of carbohydrates during the day, then calculate calories from carbohydrates like this: 295 X 4 = 1,180 calories.
Calculate percent calories from carbohydrates by dividing calories from carbohydrates by the total calorie intake and multiplying the answer by 100. This would be: 1,180/ 2,300 X 100 = 51 percent calories from carbohydrates.
[Updated July 19, 2017]
It is not easy to figure out how much fat and other nutrients are really in the food you feed, whether it’s kibble, canned food, or a home-prepared raw or cooked diet. Here are some tips that can help.
Methods of Nutrition Measurement
There are three different ways of measuring amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and fiber in foods:
1. Percentage of dry matter
2. Percentage of calories (does not apply to fiber)
3. Grams per 1,000 calories
Dry matter percentages are easiest to use for commercial foods. Grams per 1,000 calories or percentage of calories are simpler ways to measure nutrients in a homemade diet.
When Feeding Your Dog Commercial Foods:
Pet food labels give you some, but not all, of the information you need in order to really know the nutritional composition of your dog’s diet.
-The percentages of protein, fat, and fiber shown on dog food labels are guaranteed minimums and maximums, NOT actual amounts. The real amount of fat in particular may be much higher than what is shown on the label of some canned and raw diets. If your dog needs a low-fat diet, look for products that are lower in calories than similar foods.
For more accurate information, contact the company that makes the food you’re interested in and ask them for a nutritional analysis showing the actual amount of protein, fat, fiber, ash, and moisture, as well as the number of calories in the food. Editor’s note: Some pet food makers (particularly small companies) may not have a complete nutritional analysis of their products. In our opinion, this reflects a lack of adequate research and investment in the product. When feeding a special needs dog, we’d look to a company who has this current information on hand.
-The percentage of carbohydrates is not included on most labels or nutritional analyses. To calculate the percentage of carbohydrates in a commercial diet, subtract the percentages of protein, fat, moisture, crude fiber (an indigestible part of carbohydrates), and ash from 100. This percentage may be shown as “nitgrogen-free extract (NFE)” on a nutritional analysis.
-Total dietary fiber is likely much higher than the crude fiber shown on the label. If dietary (soluble plus insoluble) fiber is not shown on a complete nutritional analysis, there is no way to calculate it.
When Feeding Fresh Foods:
When feeding a home-prepared diet comprised of fresh food ingredients, it can be a bit more challenging to calculate some of the nutrient values that you’d like to know when feeding a diabetic dog.
-To calculate the caloric content of the food, look up the ingredients or enter a recipe on NutritionData.com. The number of calories from protein, fat, and carbohydrates, along with the total calories, are given in the “calorie information” section, and the calorie percentages are shown in the “caloric ratio pyramid.”
-To calculate the grams of protein, fat, etc., per 1,000 calories, divide grams of any nutrient by total number of calories, then multiply by 1,000 to get grams per 1,000 kcal. For example, raw skinless chicken breast contains 6.5 grams of protein, 0.3 grams of fat, and 30.8 calories per ounce:
6.5 ÷ 30.8 x 1,000 = 211 grams of protein per 1,000 kcal
0.3 ÷ 30.8 x 1,000 = 9.7 grams of fat per 1,000 kcal (GFK)
“As Fed” versus “Dry Matter”
The percentages of protein, fat, etc., shown on a pet food label are expressed “as fed” – meaning, as the food is delivered in its package. Some percentage of the food is comprised of moisture (water), which of course contains no protein, fat, fiber, or other nutrients. Kibble generally contains about 10 percent moisture; wet foods (canned, frozen, or fresh) contain as much as 80 percent or more moisture.
So, think about it: When a label says that a food contains (for example) 4 percent fat, in order to really understand how much fat you are about to feed your dog, you also have to know how much moisture is in the food. What you really want to know is how much fat (in this example) is in the food part of the food – the “dry matter.” Any serious discussion of nutrition, or comparison of dry and wet diets, then, requires the conversion of the nutrient values from “as fed” to “dry matter.” Don’t worry; it sounds technical, but it’s easy to do.
-To calculate dry matter (DM) percentages, first determine the amount of dry matter by subtracting the percentage of moisture from 100. Then divide the “as fed” percentage by the amount of dry matter to get the dry matter percentage. For example, if a canned food has 75 percent moisture and 4 percent fat:
There are six ways to calculate Calories for a label, three of the most popular being the 4-4-9 formula, 4-4-9 adjusted for fiber, and Atwater Factors. Manufacturers often use 4-4-9 or 4-4-9 adjusted for fiber, and the USDA uses Atwater Factors.
To calculate using 4-4-9, which are average conversion factor values, the following formula is used:
· Protein grams x 4 = Cals from Protein
· Carbohydrate grams x 4 = Cals from Carbs
· Fat grams x 9 = Cals from Fat
ESHA does not use 4-4-9 to calculate Calories. Read more in this KB article: 4-4-9: Do you use 4-4-9 to calculate calories from the grams of carbohydrate protein and fat
Atwater Factors tend to be more precise. Different foods have differing caloric contributions per gram. For example, 1g of fat from one food may yield 8.4 Calories, while 1g of fat from another food may yield 9.37 Calories. For fat, the values range very near 9 Calories, but it is not exactly 9 Calories. Same concept with a gram of Protein or Carbohydrate. Generally you’ll find Atwater Factors to result in slightly less total Calories than when you approximate using 4-4-9.
Example of calculations for Great Northern Beans using the 4-4-9 vs Atwater formulas, based on the following:
36 grams beans containing
· 22.2g Carbs
· 7.8g Protein
· 0.26g Fat
· 13.3g Fiber
Using Atwater Factors:
· 22.2g x 4.07 = 90 Cals from Carbs
· 7.8g x 3.47 = 27 Cals from Protein
· 0.26g x 8.37 = 2 Cals from Fat
· Total = 119 Cals
Using 4-4-9 formula:
· 22.2g x 4 = 89 Cals from Carbs
· 7.8g x 4 = 31 Cals from Protein
· 0.26g x 9 = 2 Cals from Fat
· Total = 122 Cals
Finally, when displaying Calories on a Nutrition Facts panel, the Calories value is rounded according to NLEA rounding rules (further skewing the discrepency).
As best practice, view your Spreadsheet report for every Recipe. The Spreadsheet details the nutrients contributed by each ingredient. When reporting values on the Spreadsheet, the program simply totals each column — so total Calories is purely a sum of the calculated Calories from each ingredient.
I recently lost about 4 lbs with the help of my coach. Though calorie counting is just a fraction of the picture when leaning out, MyFitnessPal is a valuable tool to making sure you are hitting your nutrition targets. *Plus, for Type 1 Diabetics, it’s the best way to make sure your carb counts are accurate.
Here’s a breakdown of the steps for setting up MyFitnessPal:
Step 1: Set up your goals (calories) in your MyFitnessPal settings
Open the MyFitnessPal app. Tap the three dots menu on the right side where it says “More” -> “Goals.”
- Turn on “ Show Carbs, Protein, and Fat By Meal” — this will help you see if you’re making your targets throughout the day.
- You can set your exercise goals, but again these don’t really matter.
- At the very bottom, set Exercise Calories to On. This is what enables giving you back calories for working out.
Step 2: Sync up your step counter of choice to give you back calories for extra steps
Go back to the “More” menu and select “ Steps.” If you have a smart watch or band (e.g. basic fitbit or jawbone), select whatever app is getting your step count from your wrist. For me, this is my Garmin Forerunner 935 via GarminConnect.
Step 3: Sync up your workouts to get back calories for working out
- Again go back to the “More” menu and select “ Apps and Devices.” Select whatever apps you are using to record or sync your workouts. For me, this is Garmin Connect. I also have TrainingPeaks connected so my calories and macros are added to my TrainingPeaks account.
- When you select an app to connect, MyFitnessPal will walk you through the steps.
Step 4 (Optional): Customize meal names and number of meals
Go to “Settings” -> “Diary Settings” -> “ Customize Meal Names” to set up custom buckets for meals. T1Ds, I highly recommend a separate bucket for whatever snacks you are eating to treat lows. This will help you understand how many extra calories you are consuming for treatment. Yes, I log all my glucose tabs!
Step 5. Start using the app to log food.
Step 6 (Bonus): Set up a spreadsheet to predict your caloric needs and plan meals
If you exercise but the amount and intensity varies from day to day, it’s really tricky to plan your meals. If you’re a triathlete, you might need thousands of more calories on days with your long run or bike. I set up a calculator for myself to estimate my macros for each meal based on how many calories I think I will burn. Once you’ve been using MyFitnessPal for a few weeks, you will have a good sense of your caloric needs from day to day and know what to put into the calculator.
You can copy my macro calculator to your own Google Drive. LINK To make it easily accessible on the go, you can add it as a short cut on the home screen of your phone.
Note that I have included a box to manually enter my dinner carbs and exercise carbs. This is because I practice “sleeping low,” limiting my carbs at dinner. Then I distribute fat and protein evenly across the number of meals I’ve selected (including dinner). You should set up your own calculator to suit your needs.
If you have any questions, clarifications, or suggestions for this set up, comment below!
Healing Naturally is Vital to Your Health
© Bee Wilder March 9, 2015
Adults under 5 feet tall, babies and children under 12 years of age calculate their ratios differently than adults 5 feet tall and children 12 years and older—see the section below for people under 5 feet tall, babies, and children under 12 years of age.
Caution: Do not translate calculated grams to amounts, quantities, weight, size, etc. of foods you need to consume because it doesn’t work that way.
Use a Nutritional Calculator to Figure Out the Quantities of Foods You Need to Consume in order to meet your calculated protein, fat and carb ratios. Some people use Fitday.com to help with planning this out.
- Consumed ratios do not have to be exact.
- It is very important that your carb ratios are low, but your fat and protein ratios must not be lower than your calculated ratios,except when you are slowly changing over to this program. Also, protein can be a lot higher when you are able to consume at least the lower range of your fat ratios.
Calculations for people 5 feet tall and over.
In order to calculate your daily food intake needed, first you need to calculate how many grams of protein you need to consume in a day to satisfy the body’s requirements. This amount depends upon the person’s “due body weight” (defined below). Please note that babies, children, and people that are 5 feet and under need to calculate their ratios differently—see the directions below.
“Due body weight” in kilograms, is equal to the person’s height in centimetres less 100; height in feet and inches is translated to kilograms, which is noted below.
The daily ratio of proteins, fats, carbs are calculated in grams, not calories, as follows:
- 1 gram of protein per kilogram of “due body weight”
- Fats are calculated by taking each gram of protein multiplied by 2.5 (minimum) to 3.5 (maximum)
- Carbs are calculated by taking each gram of protein multiplied by 0.8 (overweight people should consume lower carbs at 0.5 or 0.3).
- First, translate your height from inches to centimetres:
- Take your height in inches, i.e. 66 inches (5 feet 6 inches tall), and multiply it times 2.54 to get your height in centimetres, i.e. 66 x 2.54 = 167.64 centimetres.
- Next take the amount of centimetres and subtract 100, i.e. 167.54 minus 100 = 67.54, or rounded out to 68, which equals “due body weight.”
- Thus, 68 is the amount of protein grams to consume daily.
- To calculate fats, take 68, which is your “due body weight,” and multiply it times 2.5 to find out the minimum amount of fat grams to consume daily, i.e. 68 x 2.5 = 170 grams of fat. For the maximum amount of fats to consume, take 68 x 3.5 = 238 grams of fat maximum.
- To calculate your daily carb intake, take 68 x 0.8 = 54.4, rounded to 54 grams, or for those that are overweight take 68 x 0.5 = 34 grams or 68 x 0.3 = 20 grams.
Therefore a person 5 feet 6 inches tall needs to consume the following ratios daily:
- 68 grams of protein
- 170 to 238 grams of fats
- 54 grams of carbs
How to calculate ratios for adults under 5 feet tall, babies & children under 12 years old
Note: Ratios are based up on the number of calories needed daily, which are translated into protein, fat and carb gram ratios.
How you calculate Calories for your food product depends largely on where you will sell your product and the laws governing the food labeling in that country or region. This blog will cover the Calorie calculation methods used in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.
Calorie Calculations in the United States
In the U.S., there are six accepted methods. The two most frequently used are the 4-4-9 formula and the Atwater method.
- 4-4-9. In the U.S., most manufacturers use the 4-4-9 method, which assumes that each gram of protein contributes 4 Calories to the caloric total, each gram of carbohydrates contributes 4 Calories, and each gram of fat contributes 9 Calories.
- Atwater. The USDA SR database, in contrast, commonly uses the Atwater method. The Atwater method uses more precise figures based on food type when assigning Calories values per gram to protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Find the Atwater table here.
- 4-4-9 adjusted for non-digestible carbohydrates and sugar alcohols. (Total carbohydrates less non-digestible carbs and sugar alcohols.) For soluble non-digestible carbohydrates, a factor of 2 Calories per gram (rather than 4) is used, and sugar alcohols use specific factors listed in No. 6 below.
- Specific food factors approved by the FDA.
- Bomb calorimetry. This process involves burning a food item to see how much heat it releases, which is directly convertible to Calories since, as we know, one Calorie equals the amount of energy required to heat one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. Note the adjustment for Calories from protein in the CFR.
- General factors for caloric value of sugar alcohols: Isomalt = 2.0 Calories per gram, lactitol = 2.0 Calories per gram, xylitol = 2.4 Calories per gram, maltitol = 2.1 Calories per gram, sorbitol = 2.6 Calories per gram, hydrogenated starch hydrolysates = 3.0 Calories per gram, mannitol = 1.6 Calories per gram, and erythritol = 0 Calories per gram.
For more information, see the U.S. food labeling regulations here.
Calorie Calculations in Canada
- Atwater method. Using the table found here.
- 4-4-9-7. Canada also uses a Calorie averaging method, which is the same concept as the U.S. 4-4-9 method but with the addition of alcohol and including values for kilojoules. Each gram of protein equals 4 Calories (17 kJ), each gram of carbohydrate equals 4 Calories (17 kJ), each gram of fat equals 9 Calories (37 kJ) and each gram of alcohol equals 7 Calories (29 kJ).
- General factors for caloric value of sugar alcohols, glycerol and polydextrose: Isomalt = 2.0 Calories per gram, lactitol = 2.0 Calories per gram, xylitol = 3.0 Calories per gram, maltitol = 3.0 Calories per gram, sorbitol = 2.6 Calories per gram, mannitol = 1.6 Calories per gram, and erythritol = 0.2 Calories per gram, glycerol = 4.32 Calories per gram, and polydextrose = 1 Calorie per gram.
- 4-4-9-7 adjusted for fibre. A value of 2 Calories (8 kJ) per gram should be used for the dietary fibre portion of the fibre source. A value of less than 2 Calories (8 kJ) per gram may be used for the dietary fibre content if a specific value is available for the fibre source.
- The energy value of the fibre portion of wheat bran is 0.6 Calories (2.5 kJ)/g and the wheat bran itself has an energy value of 2.4 Calories (10 kJ)/g.
- An energy value of 2.2 Calories (9.2 kJ) per gram should be used for inulin.
For more information, see the Canadian food labeling regulations here.
Calorie Calculations in the European Union
The declared values in the nutrition table are average values and must be based on:
- Total value. A calculation from the known or actual average values of the ingredients used.
- Known data. A calculation from generally established and accepted data.
- Estimates. (The same concept as 4-4-9 and 4-4-9-7) The energy value to be declared shall be calculated using the following conversion factors:
- carbohydrate (except polyols): 17 kJ/g (4 Cal/g)
- polyols: 10 kJ/g (2,4 Cal/g)
- protein: 17 kJ/g (4 Cal/g)
- fat: 37 kJ/g (9 Cal/g)
- salatrims: 25 kJ/g (6 Cal/g)
- alcohol (ethanol), 29 kJ/g (7 Cal/g)
- organic acid: 13 kJ/g (3 Cal/g)
- fibre: 8 kJ/g (2 Cal/g)
- erythritol: 0 kJ/g (0 Cal/g)
For more information, see the EU food labeling regulations here.
Calorie Calculations in Mexico
- 4-4-9. The amount of energy to be declared must be calculated using the following conversion factors:
- Carbohydrates available: 4 kcal/g (17 kJ/g)
- Proteins: 4 kcal/g (17 kJ/g)
- Fats: 9 kcal/g (37 kJ/g)
- Calculation of proteins. The amount of protein to be indicated should be calculated using the following formula: Protein = total nitrogen content X 6.25
For more information, see the Mexico food labeling regulations here.
Verify your Calculations with Check Data
The Check Data feature in Genesis R&D Foods warns you if the calorie components you have entered (Protein, Carbs, Fat) do not equal the calorie total you have entered. Genesis R&D Foods uses 4-4-9 to determine values.
See a tutorial on using the Check Data here.
Protein is a key nutrient for gaining muscle strength and size, losing fat, and smashing hunger. Use this calculator to find out how much protein you need to transform your body or maintain your size.
protein Intake Calculator
Protein is essential for life. It provides the building blocks for your body’s tissues, organs, hormones, and enzymes. This macronutrient is crucial for building and maintaining muscle mass. It also increases satiety, which is why it’s so important to get enough protein when you’re limiting your calories to meet a fat-loss goal.
HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO I NEED?
The amount of protein you need depends on your weight, goals, and lifestyle. The daily minimum recommended by the National Institutes of Health is 0.36 grams per pound for a sedentary person.[1] However, if you do intense workouts or have a physically demanding job, you’ll need more.[2] While the average healthy diet provides enough protein for most people, it may benefit you to bump up your intake if you exercise to build muscle or lose fat, either from dietary protein or supplements.
If your goal is to lose weight, increasing the protein in your diet can help you lose more fat and preserve more lean mass, which explains the popularity of low-carb, high-protein diets.[3] But it’s also important to save room in your diet for other crucial nutrients. Make sure you’re eating enough fat, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to keep your body energized and operating at peak performance.
The protein calculator on this page takes your body-composition goals and activity level into account to estimate your protein needs. Everyone is different, though, so experiment to find the right level of protein for your body. Start with the number given by the calculator, see how that makes you feel, and try adjusting your protein level up or down to see what amount makes you feel good and perform well.
WHAT ARE THE BEST SOURCES OF PROTEIN?
Amino acids are the building blocks that make up protein. There are 20 different amino acids in all, and different proteins provide different combinations of amino acids in varying ratios.[4]
Since each high-protein food contains a different amino-acid profile, it’s important to eat a range of protein sources. In other words, don’t just eat chicken breast five times a day. Great protein sources include lean meats, cottage cheese, eggs, and fish. If you’re vegan, eat plenty of legumes, nuts, and seeds.
If you find it tough to get enough protein from dietary sources, use protein supplements to hit your numbers. Try adding flavored whey powder to oatmeal, smoothies, or muffins, or grab a protein bar for a treat. There are also many vegetable-based proteins for those who don’t consume dairy.
Since high-protein foods tend to be low in fiber, increase your fiber intake as well to keep your digestive system humming along smoothly. Green vegetables like broccoli, kale, and asparagus are high in fiber and go great with steak, chicken, or any other protein source.
DOES PROTEIN TIMING MATTER?
While it’s important to eat protein throughout the day as part of your diet, it’s especially beneficial to ingest protein before or after a strength-training session.[5] A good hit of protein can help increase muscle size and strength when taken pre-workout, post-workout, or both.[6]
You can use protein shakes for this purpose, or plan to eat protein-rich meals and snacks before and after working out. For example, have some Greek yogurt before your workout, and salmon with broccoli and sweet potatoes afterward. Some people find that eating right before a workout upsets their stomach, though, so experiment and see what works best for you.
To optimize recovery, it’s also a good idea to eat protein before bed. A slow-digesting protein like casein, found in dairy products and casein powder, can increase muscle-protein synthesis while you sleep, so you wake up better recovered from the previous day’s training session and ready to crush the next one.[7]
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Search Thread
how do you calculate calories from fat/carbs/protein?
i would like my 2000 calorie diet to be approximately 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% carbs
all nutritional information includes the exact calories from fat, but it doesn’t include the calories from carbs or protein.
for example: my whole wheat pasta has 190 calories, 15 from fat. it has 40 grams of carbs, 8 grams protein, and 2 grams of fat. if i assume that 1 g of carbs has the same amount of calories as 1 g of protein, the calculation is easy enough. there would be about 30 calories from protein and 145 from carbs.
so, is the above assumption accurate? if not, how do i calculate these things?
also, is 50/25/25 a reasonable breakdown for a weight loss diet?
i would like my 2000 calorie diet to be approximately 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% carbs
all nutritional information includes the exact calories from fat, but it doesn’t include the calories from carbs or protein.
for example: my whole wheat pasta has 190 calories, 15 from fat. it has 40 grams of carbs, 8 grams protein, and 2 grams of fat. if i assume that 1 g of carbs has the same amount of calories as 1 g of protein, the calculation is easy enough. there would be about 30 calories from protein and 145 from carbs.
so, is the above assumption accurate? if not, how do i calculate these things?
also, is 50/25/25 a reasonable breakdown for a weight loss diet?
I just found this site tonight, its awesome once you find all the foods you eat on it.
1. Keep track of exactly what/how much you eat, and add together the total grams of protein, total grams of carbs, and total grams of fat.
2. Then, add all three of those together to get a “total grams” amount.
3. Last, divide each of your three individual amounts (protein, carbs, fats. from step 1) by the total (from step 2) to get your percentages.
Let me know if that was confusing
Boxing Promoter, keystonebox.com
IG/Twitter/Snap: lorinelise8 (stalk away)
Here is what you do.
1. Keep track of exactly what/how much you eat, and add together the total grams of protein, total grams of carbs, and total grams of fat.
2. Then, add all three of those together to get a “total grams” amount.
3. Last, divide each of your three individual amounts (protein, carbs, fats. from step 1) by the total (from step 2) to get your percentages.
Let me know if that was confusing
this isn’t confusing
however, i thought the percentages were supposed to refer to the percentages of total calories that came from p/c/f not the percentages of total grams of food. mainly because the caloric value of a gram of protein is different then that of a gram of fat.
but i might be wrong. when people refer to a diet having a certain percentage breakdown of p/c/f aren’t they referring to the percentage of caloires from each?
this isn’t confusing
however, i thought the percentages were supposed to refer to the percentages of total calories that came from p/c/f not the percentages of total grams of food. mainly because the caloric value of a gram of protein is different then that of a gram of fat.
but i might be wrong. when people refer to a diet having a certain percentage breakdown of p/c/f aren’t they referring to the percentage of caloires from each?
Oops forgot that step. sorry guys, my brain is fried. Excuse my poor math/explanatory skills tonight
By definition, “a macronutrient is any of the nutritional components of the diet that are required in relatively large amounts: protein, carbohydrate, fat, and minerals such as calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium, and phosphorous.”
Counting macros does wonders for the body. While everyone is so obsessed over the idea of counting calories, knowing how much of each macronutrient that you are getting can drastically improve your fitness progress.
For example, if you aren’t getting enough protein, your muscles will start breaking down (catabolism) to use for energy later. Not getting enough carbohydrates can make you feel terrible and weak. Carbs are the fuel for your workouts! Lastly, not getting enough fat into your diet can wreak havoc on your hormonal system and make it more difficult for you to put on muscle since fats increase your growth hormones. Also, it may bring a halt to your weight loss.
- Proteins: Also known as “the building blocks of muscle,” protein is a large molecule in our foods that is broken down into amino acids.
- Fats: Fats are a source of energy in foods. Fats belong to a group of substances called lipids, and come in liquid or solid form. All fats are combinations of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids.
- Carbohydrates: Carbs are any of a large group of organic compounds occurring in foods and living tissues and including sugars, starch, and cellulose. They are used to be broken down to release energy in the body.
- Proteins = 4 calories
- Fats = 9 calories
- Carbohydrates = 4 calories
- Protein: 3 x 4 = 12
- Fats: 8 x 9 = 72
- Carbohydrates: 37 x 4= 148
Caloric total: 12 + 72 + 148 = 234 calories. (it’s a little different than listed number, don’t worry, this happens from time to time)
Well, it all depends on what your fitness goals are, to be honest. If you want to “lose weight,” than calorie counting would be your way to go. Tweaking your macros can actually help you with your specific needs as you can see below.
End of story: Do your best to determine what amount of macros suit your body and needs the best!
How to track your calorie intake and work out how many you should be consuming each day
You could spend your whole life reading about all the ways you can go about losing weight, but it really boils down to one thing – you need to burn more calories than you consume. But to make sure you’re doing that you have to have a rough idea of the calories you’re burning and the calories you’re consuming, which leads us to the art of calorie counting.
You can count calories more easily than ever thanks to dedicated apps, as well as fitness trackers that do some of the work for you, but you can’t rely on them to do everything. For more information on calorie counting we spoke to dietitian Lucy Perrow, speaking on behalf of the British Dietetic Association.
How many calories should people eat in a day?
This depends on numerous factors – gender, height, weight, amount and type of activity, metabolism, genetics. The guidelines for recommended daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories a day for women and 2,500 for men, but this is very general and I would usually recommend people calculating their own requirements.
How do you calculate your calorie requirement?
The Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the amount of energy – calories – your body needs while resting. This accounts for about 60 to 70% of calories burned in a day. In general, men have a higher BMR than women. One of the most accurate methods of estimating your basal metabolic rate is the Harris-Benedict formula:
Adult male: 66.5 + (13.75 x weight in kg) + (5.003 x height in cm) – (6.755 x age in years) = BMR
Adult female: 65.51 + (9.563 x weight in kg) + (1.850 x height in cm) – (4.676 x age in years) = BMR
To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor that most closely matches your activity level:
- If you are sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR x 1.2.
- If you are lightly active (light exercise or sports 1-3 days a week): BMR x 1.37
- If you are moderately active (moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week): BMR x 1.5
- If you are very active (hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week): BMR x 1.72
- If you are extra active (very hard exercise or sports, and physical job or training twice a day): BMR x 1.9
The result will be the number of calories needed to maintain your current weight.
Is calorie counting a good way to lose weight?
Ultimately, to lose weight your calories in must be fewer than calories used. How people achieve this varies. It is a good idea to have an idea of the calories you are consuming in order to be able to balance this equation. You wouldn’t just buy something without knowing the price, and I think calories are a bit like this – it is good to know the basic calorie content of a food or drink.
People often vastly overestimate the number of calories they burn doing exercise too, and then they end up in a calorie surplus and wonder why they are not losing weight. Evidence shows that self-monitoring using food diaries and similar tools to calculate calorie intake does help people lose weight and maintain that weight loss.
The calories we drink should also be considered as people often forget these and they can add a significant number of calories throughout the day. For example, a latte in the morning, juice with lunch and wine in the evening can easily contribute 500 calories to your daily total.
Should you break down your calories by macronutrients? Is it better to get calories from protein rather than carbohydrates, for example?
In terms of weight loss a calorie is a calorie regardless of its source. Whether you’re eating carbohydrates, fats or proteins, all of them contain calories. However, for health where you get calories from is important. It is not healthy to get all your calories from one source such as protein or carbohydrates. It is important to get a balance from all sources.
According to Public Health England’s Eatwell guide (PDF) you should aim to get a third of your calories from complex carbohydrates, a third from fruit and vegetables, a third from protein and dairy sources, with fats and sugars at a minimum. Bear in mind that 1g of carbohydrate and protein provides approximately four calories, 1g of fat approximately nine calories, and 1g of alcohol approximately seven calories.
What is the best way to count calories? How precise do you need to be?
The best way to record calories is to use the technology we have available. Previously we used to keep paper diaries and look everything up in books, but today we are lucky enough to know the calories of foods at the touch of a button. However, bear in mind this will only be accurate if portion sizes are accurate. People often significantly underestimate their portion sizes and thus think they are consuming far fewer calories than they really are. They often put “one portion”, which is 100g, when this is usually far less than the amount they have actually consumed. I think these are the best apps:
Is it worth people considering reducing their calorie intake during lockdown, assuming a lack of activity means they won’t burn so many calories?
This depends on what the person’s goal is. Do they want to lose weight, stay the same or gain weight? And what were they consuming before lockdown? Some people may have increased their activity during lockdown exercising with their kids, or having more time to exercise because they’re not working as much. Some people may have cut down their calories by not eating out, getting takeaways, going to the pub or eating fast food. So I don’t think we can say that everyone needs to decrease their calories during lockdown.
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Search Thread
how do you calculate calories from fat/carbs/protein?
i would like my 2000 calorie diet to be approximately 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% carbs
all nutritional information includes the exact calories from fat, but it doesn’t include the calories from carbs or protein.
for example: my whole wheat pasta has 190 calories, 15 from fat. it has 40 grams of carbs, 8 grams protein, and 2 grams of fat. if i assume that 1 g of carbs has the same amount of calories as 1 g of protein, the calculation is easy enough. there would be about 30 calories from protein and 145 from carbs.
so, is the above assumption accurate? if not, how do i calculate these things?
also, is 50/25/25 a reasonable breakdown for a weight loss diet?
i would like my 2000 calorie diet to be approximately 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% carbs
all nutritional information includes the exact calories from fat, but it doesn’t include the calories from carbs or protein.
for example: my whole wheat pasta has 190 calories, 15 from fat. it has 40 grams of carbs, 8 grams protein, and 2 grams of fat. if i assume that 1 g of carbs has the same amount of calories as 1 g of protein, the calculation is easy enough. there would be about 30 calories from protein and 145 from carbs.
so, is the above assumption accurate? if not, how do i calculate these things?
also, is 50/25/25 a reasonable breakdown for a weight loss diet?
I just found this site tonight, its awesome once you find all the foods you eat on it.
1. Keep track of exactly what/how much you eat, and add together the total grams of protein, total grams of carbs, and total grams of fat.
2. Then, add all three of those together to get a “total grams” amount.
3. Last, divide each of your three individual amounts (protein, carbs, fats. from step 1) by the total (from step 2) to get your percentages.
Let me know if that was confusing
Boxing Promoter, keystonebox.com
IG/Twitter/Snap: lorinelise8 (stalk away)
Here is what you do.
1. Keep track of exactly what/how much you eat, and add together the total grams of protein, total grams of carbs, and total grams of fat.
2. Then, add all three of those together to get a “total grams” amount.
3. Last, divide each of your three individual amounts (protein, carbs, fats. from step 1) by the total (from step 2) to get your percentages.
Let me know if that was confusing
this isn’t confusing
however, i thought the percentages were supposed to refer to the percentages of total calories that came from p/c/f not the percentages of total grams of food. mainly because the caloric value of a gram of protein is different then that of a gram of fat.
but i might be wrong. when people refer to a diet having a certain percentage breakdown of p/c/f aren’t they referring to the percentage of caloires from each?
this isn’t confusing
however, i thought the percentages were supposed to refer to the percentages of total calories that came from p/c/f not the percentages of total grams of food. mainly because the caloric value of a gram of protein is different then that of a gram of fat.
but i might be wrong. when people refer to a diet having a certain percentage breakdown of p/c/f aren’t they referring to the percentage of caloires from each?
Oops forgot that step. sorry guys, my brain is fried. Excuse my poor math/explanatory skills tonight
Three nutrients — carbohydrate, protein, and fat — contain calories that your body uses for energy. Here’s how to balance these nutrients in a healthy diet.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrate has 4 calories per gram. About 50 to 60 percent of your total daily calories should come from carbohydrate.
Carbohydrate contains the most glucose and gives the quickest form of energy. Your body changes 100 percent of carbohydrate into glucose.
Besides giving your body energy that it uses right away, your body can store carbohydrate in your liver. Your liver stores extra carbohydrate as glycogen and releases it later, when your body needs it. However, there’s a limit to the amount of glycogen your liver can store. Once your liver has reached that limit, your body turns the extra carbohydrate into fat.
There are two types of carbohydrate: healthy and not-so-healthy.
Healthy carbs: Also called complex or slower-acting carbs. Includes multigrain bread, brown rice, lentils, and beans. This type of carbohydrate raises blood sugar slowly and lasts longer. This helps keep you from feeling hungry for a longer time and helps to keep blood sugar levels closer to normal.
Not-so-healthy carbs: Also known as simple or fast-acting carbs. Includes candy, cookies, cake, soda, juice, and sweetened beverages. This type of carbohydrate raises blood sugar levels very quickly, but doesn’t last very long. That’s why these carbs work well to correct low-blood sugar but don’t satisfy hunger as well as healthy carbs.
Proteins
Protein also has 4 calories per gram. In a healthy diet, about 12 to 20 percent of your total daily calories should come from protein.
Your body needs protein for growth, maintenance, and energy. Protein can also be stored and is used mostly by your muscles. Your body changes about 60 percent of protein into glucose.
Protein takes 3 to 4 hours to affect blood sugar levels. When it does have an effect, foods that are mostly protein won’t cause much of a rise in blood sugar.
Fat has the most calories of all the nutrients: 9 calories per gram. In a healthy diet, about 30 percent of total daily calories should come from fat. This means eating about 50 to 80 grams of fat each day. Fat gives the body energy, too, but the body changes only about 10 percent of fat into glucose.
By itself, fat doesn’t have much impact on blood sugar. But when you eat fat along with a carbohydrate, it can slow the rise in blood sugar. Since fat also slows down digestion, once your blood sugar does rise, it can keep your blood sugar levels higher for a longer period of time.
There are various types of fat, and some types are better for you than others. Choose mono-unsaturated or poly-unsaturated fat. These fats are liquid at room temperature. Mono-unsaturated fats are especially healthy because they lower the bad cholesterol (LDL) in your blood. These fats include olive, canola, avocado, and nut oils.
Limit saturated and trans-fats. Saturated fats are found in foods that come from animals, such as meat and dairy products. These kinds of fats are solid at room temperature. Hardened fats, such as coconut or palm kernel oils as well as oils that have been hydrogenated, also contain saturated fat. These can damage your heart and arteries.
Trans-fats are found in most processed foods and many fried fast foods, such as French fries. They help food stay fresher longer, but they’re just as bad for you as saturated fat.
This following section is here to help you make some individual calculations to give you an estimated calorie intake requirement. With that being said it is important to understand the limitations of calculating your daily calorie targets. Your ultimate goal is not to calculate these figures to absolute perfection, nor will you be able to always execute the target to perfection, however an idea set in place is a great starting point to work from. Without this, you will be leaving it to mere guesswork. and that does not usually deliver best results.
OPTION 1 (recommended)
The Harris Benedict Formula (revised by Mifflin & St Jeor in 1990)
Step 1 – Calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)
BMR = (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) – (5 x age in years) + 5
BMR = (10 x weight in kg) + (6.25 x height in cm) – (5 x age in years) – 161
Step 2 – Determine calorie intake to maintain the same weight
Use the list below to multiply your BMR with your activity level. This will result in the calories you need to maintain the same weight. If you are on one of my #CrockFit plans I recommend starting with ‘moderate exercise’ and adjusting if necessary.
Little to no exercise
Light exercise (1-3 days per week)
Moderate exercise (3-5 days per week)
Heavy exercise (6-7 days per week)
Very heavy exercise (twice per day, extra heavy workouts)
Step 3 – Calories for weight loss or weight gain (deficit or surplus) or maintain
Once you have calculated the previous number you need to add or subtract 10%-20% of that number to give a calorie deficit or surplus. You will then have two numbers that you can use as goal posts for your daily calorie target! Alternatively you could keep this number without adding or subtract, to aim to maintain weight, which often helps transform and shape the body even whilst holding the same weight.
Man – BMR = (10 x 80) + (6.25 x 175) – (5 x 30) + 5
= 800 + 1093.75 – 150 + 5
Use this BMR with the activity level calculation.
1748.75 x 1.55 = 2710.5
This man wants to lose weight so will calculate a deficit of 10%-20%.
10% = 2710.5 – 271.1 = 2439.4
20% = 2710.5 – 542.1 = 2168.4
So, his daily calorie target is 2168 to 2439.
As weight changes you can recalculate again and adjust as you lose or gain weight.
Aim for 40% of this calorie intake for protein content.
Macro ratios for fats & carbohydrates can fluctuate. If you increase fats, then decrease carbs and visa versa. Whilst protein stays at 40% at least.
OPTION 2(Only if you’re exercising regularly? lazier/quicker version)
Calculation from target weight
Step 1 – What is your target weight in pounds (lbs)
Whether this is weight gain or weight loss, choose your target weight. But if your target weight is far from where you are currently, then consider choosing a weight target that’s closer, and re calculate when you get to first target.
Step 2 – 1 gram per lb of target bodyweight for protein
Use target weight in pounds for grams of protein.
Step 3 – 1 gram per lb of target bodyweight for carbohydrates
Use target weight in pounds for grams of carbohydrate.
Step 4 – 0.5 gram per lb or target bodyweight for fats
Use target weight and half it for grams of fat.
Your target weight in 185lbs.
Here you can work out calorie intake too with the knowledge that protein and carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram and fats have 9 calories per gram.
Protein – 185 x 4 = 740
Carbohydrates – 185 x 4 = 740
Fats – 92.5 x 9 = 832.5
Use MyFitnessPal App to track your calories & macros daily
Almost everyone who presses the ink on the dotted line of a gym contract is chasing the same goal: pack on muscle while culling body fat. But, the question remains the same; How many calories should I eat to gain muscle and stay lean?
Divvied up correctly, these ambitions really constitute two goals, and most experts suggest you should choose one or the other. However, you can set out to gain the maximum amount of muscle with the minimum amount of fat gain, and we’re going to show you how – but get your calculator out.
However, you can set out to gain the maximum amount of muscle with the minimum amount of fat gain, and we’re going to show you how – but get your calculator out.
Here’s your playbook for making sure you’re maximizing the nutrients and value you get from every gym outing:
How many calories should I eat to gain muscle and stay lean?
So, the first and probably most important thing is to align your calories to your goal because you need to have a positive energy balance to gain muscle. If it’s in a negative place you will lose weight, and if it’s in neutral you will stay the same.
Get your bodyweight in pounds and times it by 14 to work out the calories you need to maintain your body as it is. Now take these calories and move them into a slight surplus by adding 100-200 calories, not as much as 500 like many experts suggest.
If you whack too many calories on top you’re going to gain weight quicker, but it won’t necessarily be good weight in the form of lean muscle. It will most likely be fat, and that’s what you’re trying to avoid as much as you scientifically can. Use this example to understand it better:
Step 1: Mike weighs 180lb but wants to gain lean muscle and lose fat.
Step 2: 180 x 14 = 2,520 calories per day for maintenance.
Step 3: 2,520 + 200 = 2,720 calories required daily for lean gains.
The right macronutrient ratios to build lean muscle
Now that you know the amount of calories you need to gain lean size, your energy requirement should be divided between the three macronutrients – protein, fat and carbohydrates. You’re going to eat a certain amount of each, all of which have a caloric value that will add up to your surplus.
Below are the basic guidelines on how to work out your macros.
Protein: 0.8-1.1g per pound of bodyweight.
Fat: 20-30% of your overall calories.
Carbohydrates: These should make up the remainder of your calories.
Let’s bring Mike back to break down these ratios further. We know he weighs 180lb and his daily calories needed to gain lean size are 2,720. So, firstly, let’s work out his protein requirements:
Protein
So Mike needs 180g of protein daily.
Next, let’s work out how much fat he needs to eat:
2,720 x 0.25 = 680
Be careful, because that’s not 680g of fat, but 680 calories. Now take that amount and divide it by nine because that’s how many calories there are per gram of fat:
So Mike needs to eat 75.5g of fat per day.
Carbs
All that’s left to do now is work out how many carbs he needs to eat. As mentioned previously, this should take up the remainder of your daily caloric requirements. So, 680 calories are coming from fat, but we still haven’t worked out how many are from protein.
Well, protein has four calories per gram, so 180g x 4 calories = 720 calories. Add that to the number of calories he’s getting from fat (680) and you have a total of 1,400. Now subtract that 1,400 from 2,720 and what you’re left with is the number of daily calories Mike needs from carbs; in this case it’s 1,320.
Carbs also contain four calories per gram so divide 1,320 by four and you get 330, give or take the odd half.
Total calories to gain lean muscle
All of this means that to gain lean muscle Mike’s daily macros should be:
Calories: 2,720
Protein: 180g
Carbs: 330g
Fat: 75.5g
For the best results it’s important to eat as close to your required numbers as possible. There are lots of apps now with huge databases that make it easy to monitor your food consumption, and My Fitness Pal is probably the best one for achieving this.
Make calorie and macro adjustments to keep gaining muscle but less fat
Once you’ve worked out the calories and macros you need to achieve your goals, it’s important to remember that these aren’t going to be your numbers forever. Knowing when and how to adjust them is the key to success, and monitoring your weight is the safest method for achieving this.
So weigh yourself for seven consecutive days at exactly the same time every day in the same circumstances and then work out your average. If your average weight is the same for three weeks in a row then you should think about adjusting your calories, assuming your training is effective and you’re adequately recovered from each session.
Only make a slight increase of 100 calories and you can just slap this on top of your carbs or fat intake to see massively improved results from your training without having to work yourself so hard you end up having arms like Popeye.
Instead, this gradual approach will guarantee a leaner and more muscled you using the power of numbers.
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