Silly question about net carbs
jelleigh
Posts: 743 Member
So I know that net carbs is total carbs minus fibre but is it for total food consumption for the day or each food individually? Like I have had a high fibre day which essentially puts me in a carb deficit? Like minus 2 grams carbs? So can I still eat 20 net grams of carbs today while still in ketosis? And if thats the case, how does added fibre (like benefibre) affect things? (Cause that seems like cheating Lol) . but I'm curious nonetheless .
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Yo ima drop sum knowledge on you real quick see if yall feel me. Fiber is a carb. It be a typa carb yo body can't be digesting. So when sumfin has 20g carbs and 15g fiber, it mean that 15 grams of those carbs be fiber that yo body can't digest while only 5g are carbs that your body does digest and get counted towards your keto carb allowance. Soooo ya'll can't be eatin a scrumdiddlyumptious donut with 20g carbs and then eat some benefibre with 20g fiber to cancel dat out. Cuz when you do that, you be actually eaten 40g carbs. The 20gs from benefiber don't get digested while all 20 of those ooo ooo ooooooo gooodems yum yum carbs from them donuts do get digested and counted as carbs. Yall feel me?7
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There can't be more "minus carbs" than exist in a food (can there?) so you may have used an incorrect entry from the data base resulting negative carbs. MANY of the database entries are incorrect.
If what you mean is your carb allocation is 20 and you've eaten 25 with net 15 (as an example having 10 grams of fiber) then yes, you have 5 more carbs available to reach your daily 20 if you are counting net.
One needs to be careful with the MFP database if interested in strict adherence to carbs be it total or net due to the number of INcorrect entries. Also MFP has users from the UK and other areas and the products they may enter to the database are already net carbs since that is how their products are labeled.
Someone from the UK can provide more precise info from their labeling. I'm don't live in the UK.0 -
Fiber is a carb, so it's not possible to have "negative carb" foods or to generate a carb deficit using fiber.0
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This is why it may be best to count total carbs or at least only subtract fiber from green leafy vegetables. And food product that has added fiber or specifically adding straight fiber just to lower net carbs doesn’t really work that way.0
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There can't be more "minus carbs" than exist in a food (can there?) so you may have used an incorrect entry from the data base resulting negative carbs. MANY of the database entries are incorrect.
If what you mean is your carb allocation is 20 and you've eaten 25 with net 15 (as an example having 10 grams of fiber) then yes, you have 5 more carbs available to reach your daily 20 if you are counting net.
One needs to be careful with the MFP database if interested in strict adherence to carbs be it total or net due to the number of INcorrect entries. Also MFP has users from the UK and other areas and the products they may enter to the database are already net carbs since that is how their products are labeled.
Someone from the UK can provide more precise info from their labeling. I'm don't live in the UK.
I'm from the UK. All our food is labeled with Net Carbs. They also show the fiber count so in theory you could count total carbs if you wanted to by adding the fiber count to the net carbs, but why would you want to really, far too much maths! We have to be allowed some advantages here!!
I agree with the comments about data entries on MFP, far better to make your own private data base with the stuff you eat regularly after you've checked it on line and on actual labels! I've seen some really really weird things like fish with no protein! Also it's worth remembering that we (keto People) are the minority on MFP so most users are probably just interested in the calories and not the other macros so don't really care if they are correct or not.0 -
...and they all don't convert properly from one measurement unit to another. I once selected an entry for raspberries (or blackberries) that showed in cups as 60 calories per cup (example) but was weighing the raspberries so when I selected "ounce" and entered "6" (example) for the number of ounces. Itt converted to something crazy like 3,427 calories.
I double checked my typing to make sure I entered "6" and not a crazy high number and yep...6 ounces of raspberries was 3000+ calories according to that database entry.
I found another entry that appeared accurate and converted properly.
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@Sunny_Bunny_ I don't think there's any issue with subtracting fiber from total carbs even in food products that artificially add fiber. For example, take a Quest protein bar that has 24g of carbs. Of that, 17g are from added fiber. It's incorrect to believe that Quest added that fiber for purpose of "canceling out" a bunch of the total carbs. Quest could have very well made a protein bar that only had 7g of carbs without adding the 17g of fiber. However that protein bar would have the consistency of a puddle of mud. The fiber is merely a non-digestible filler material, and unfortunately for the confusion of us all, that filler material is categorized as a carb. If, for example, instead of 17g of fiber it said 17g of water, you would never count the water as part of your net carb count right? Well you gotta think of fiber as water. They each have absolutely no effect on your total macro count.
So as an analogy, take 100% juice apple juice. In 250g of apple juice, there are about 28g of carbs (sugar). When counting net carbs, would you count the juice as 250g of carbs or 28g? Of course you will count only 28g because the remaining 222g is just added water. Now instead pretend that instead of added water, the apple "juice" has added fiber. You would treat the carb count the same way. Only 28g of net carbs because the remaining 222g is just added fiber that does nothing but pass through your body.
mmm now ima go stuff my muffinhole wit sum dat crisp apple yum yum juice i got da craving badly nahwhatimsayin #sippycupz1 -
I disagree.
I get my opinion on this from people like Dr Michael Edes, for example who originated the counting of net carbs in the first place.
He said that he introduced the idea of net carbs because he found his patients weren’t eating many vegetables, which he believes is important. So he told them they could subtract the fiber in vegetables so that they would stop eating so little in an effort to attain the lowest carb count possible. He said they thought the lower the better and counting net carbs appeased them.
He has also stated that after publishing this idea in his book Protein Power, eventually the Atkins food company ran with the idea and started putting it on all their package labels and started including sugar substitutes in the net carb math as well.
I am going to stick with what I said based on the fact it came straight from the mouth of the creator of the idea in the first place.1 -
Whether you want to agree or not, fiber should never be counted as a carb for purposes of keto. Fiber is a carb, but it is a carb that does not require insulin to digest. Therefore you do not count it, whether it is added in a product or a natural part of a product. This is nutritional science. On keto, you should only worry about and count the carbs that cause your blood sugar to rise and push you out of the fat-adapted state. If you subscribe to the notion that fiber should be counted as a carb for keto purposes, then you should also start doing something as ridiculous as counting the calories in water for purposes of weight loss.
Net carbs is indeed a made up concept, and sugar substitutes and other forms of "non-carbs" are a totally different discussion. The doctor was smart to introduce the concept, because it's true that you would avoid vegetables on a keto diet were it not for the fiber. But the fact that fiber should not be counted as a carb for keto is not a concept, it is a fact. Again, refer to the water analogy.
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Or you could just go take an RMR test and figure out your carb tolerance to stay fat adapted and spend the time focusing on hitting protein targets to lose fat and build lean mass
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@aar2972 and @Sunny_Bunny_ You're both essentially saying the same thing. Adding fiber to a food ups the total carbs but has a net effect of zero.
I tend to agree Dr. Will Cole (Keto-terian) where he counts net carbs for whole foods (fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds), but counts total carbs for anything processed.
Aside from that, we each have our own carb tolerances based on our metabolic flexibility. Each of us has to tweak things to find what is sustainable. And even that can change over time.1 -
@AllanMisner Your response hits the point exactly. Everyone is so different and the tolerances change over time.
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AllanMisner wrote: »@aar2972 and @Sunny_Bunny_ You're both essentially saying the same thing. Adding fiber to a food ups the total carbs but has a net effect of zero.
I tend to agree Dr. Will Cole (Keto-terian) where he counts net carbs for whole foods (fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds), but counts total carbs for anything processed.
Aside from that, we each have our own carb tolerances based on our metabolic flexibility. Each of us has to tweak things to find what is sustainable. And even that can change over time.
That’s exactly how Dr Edes explains it too.
Not all fiber is the same either. Soluble and insoluble fiber have different effects but people subtract all no matter the type.
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