HELP Printed nutrition label doesn't add up!!!!

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olong
olong Posts: 255 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Have you ever checked a nutrition label to find that the fat/carb/protein content adds up to MORE calories than the label says in one serving size?!?!? My protein powder label doesn't add up! The Kellogg's cereals don't add up! I spot check MFPs database with the foods I eat and the attached labels, but what good is that if the Nutrition Facts on packaging is doesn't add up?!?!?

Carbs and Protein should come in at 4K/g, right? Fat should ba 9K/g, right? Even subtracting soluble fiber or total fiber (since it contributes no calories) doesn't account for the entire difference. The nutrition label guidelines allow for a rounding of each component to the nearest ten, and yet I still cannot make, for example, my Setton Farms Edamame come to the calorie count based on it's fat/carb/protein content!!

What to do?!?!?!

BTW, I weigh all my food to attempt the most accurate logging I can manage.

Replies

  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    how far off are we talking here? The FDA allows a certain amount of leeway (I think it's currently 5% per macro-nutrient) Plus, some companies don't just add up the macros and list that as total calories, they do the macro breakdown in a lab and then do a direct calorie burn test to test the actual calories (where you burn the food and see how much it raises the temperature of the water) in another lab.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Nutrition labels are averages. No two foods are exactly the same. Even agricultural products like fruits and vegetables vary from piece to piece. Take two identical apples, same variety, same size. They can both have wildly different nutritional content and caloric values. That's just the way it is. You can eat a Fuji apple today that's 50 calories, and the exact same size Fuji apple tomorrow that's 80 calories (they can both have wildly different vitamin content, as well.) Nothing is exact, everything is based on an estimated average.

    Same can be said for the human body. You don't burn your exact TDEE every day, some days you may burn a few hundred more or less, even when doing the exact same routine. It's all an average.
  • anunknownmouse
    anunknownmouse Posts: 118
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    Soluble fiber does not count as 0 calories, in fact, it's close to 2 calories per gram of soluble fiber. I don't know if this helps or not.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Soluble fiber does not count as 0 calories, in fact, it's close to 2 calories per gram of soluble fiber. I don't know if this helps or not.
    Depends where you are in the world. Different countries have different regulations on how to count fiber. Soluble fiber is interesting, because depending on the exact oligosaccharide, it can range anywhere between 0-4 calories per gram. Some countries count it as 2, some as 4, and some as 0.
  • olong
    olong Posts: 255 Member
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    20 calories off on the high end on the Kellogg's Berry yogurt crunch cereal (a serving is 53g, I usually eat 2 serving sizes for breakfast, so that's 40K off)

    10 calories too low on the Body Fortress Whey Protein powder (per 38g scoop, most days I have two shakes with two scoops, so that's 40K off)

    30 calories too low on the Setton Farms roasted salted Edamame (a serving size is 28 g, for the crunch factor, lately I've been having 2 servings a day, so that's 60K off)

    I know it is petty for 20K, 10K and 30K off, but all these litte miscomputations add up on a daily basis, and more so on a weekly basis. I fully comprehend the idea that calories burned and calories consumed is an exercise in estimates, but this was a surprising revelation to me that at the end of the MFP day, my bottom line computations don't add up.
  • olong
    olong Posts: 255 Member
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    Soluble fiber does not count as 0 calories, in fact, it's close to 2 calories per gram of soluble fiber. I don't know if this helps or not.

    This makes the nutrition label calorie computation off that much more!!!!
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    20 calories off on the high end on the Kellogg's Berry yogurt crunch cereal (a serving is 53g, I usually eat 2 serving sizes for breakfast, so that's 40K off)

    10 calories too low on the Body Fortress Whey Protein powder (per 38g scoop, most days I have two shakes with two scoops, so that's 40K off)

    30 calories too low on the Setton Farms roasted salted Edamame (a serving size is 28 g, for the crunch factor, lately I've been having 2 servings a day, so that's 60K off)

    I know it is petty for 20K, 10K and 30K off, but all these litte miscomputations add up on a daily basis, and more so on a weekly basis. I fully comprehend the idea that calories burned and calories consumed is an exercise in estimates, but this was a surprising revelation to me that at the end of the MFP day, my bottom line computations don't add up.

    yeah, this is part of life. Because of the variations (see tiger's posts) in food, there's no way to do exact counts. Even if the calories were totaled exactly on the package, that's no guarantee that they would actually be that much in the food. They are estimates, that is all they are.

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