Can someone explain to me the concept of Net Carbs?

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onikonor
onikonor Posts: 473 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm trying to do a low carb diet (ketogenic) and I am really confused about the concept of net carbs.

Here is one example, a food has 5 carbs and 4 grams of fiber. Therefore the Net carbs are 1 grams. What does this mean? Should I count it as 5 carbs or 1?

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  • cburky911
    cburky911 Posts: 89 Member
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    Basically subtract the number of Fiber grams from the Total Carbs and those are your NET CARBS. So if somethings has a Total Carb. content of 20 gms and 5 gms of Fiber, the Net Carbs = 15 gms.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    The tough part here could be that the label breaks out carbs from fiber, so you have to look at does it have 9 with 4 fiber or is it 5 with 4 fiber? In Canada I believe the carbs are total on the package.

    With Atkins Net carbs = total carbs - fiber - sugar alcohols. Not sure about the Keto diet.
  • cburky911
    cburky911 Posts: 89 Member
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    In your example you count it as 1 carb.
  • onikonor
    onikonor Posts: 473 Member
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    In your example you count it as 1 carb.

    I understand how it's calculated. What I'm confused about is how it applies to a low carb diet when I'm aiming for <30g a day.
  • onikonor
    onikonor Posts: 473 Member
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    The tough part here could be that the label breaks out carbs from fiber, so you have to look at does it have 9 with 4 fiber or is it 5 with 4 fiber? In Canada I believe the carbs are total on the package.

    With Atkins Net carbs = total carbs - fiber - sugar alcohols. Not sure about the Keto diet.

    In Canada the labels look like this, so I'm guessing it's total carbs is 13 and net is 10? Am I reading it right?

    This is from Canada labeling website "The amount of carbohydrates in the Nutrition Facts table includes fibre, starch and sugars. Fibre and sugars must be listed under carbohydrates. Starch is optional, which means that a food manufacturer can list it if they want to."

    food_label.gif

    Atkins would be the same as keto. With Atkins I think it's <20 g Net? So total carbs would be closer to 30?
  • onikonor
    onikonor Posts: 473 Member
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    bump
  • BackTatJIM
    BackTatJIM Posts: 1,140 Member
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    I do not think this is what your looking for , but you may still find it interesting.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index
  • onikonor
    onikonor Posts: 473 Member
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    I do not think this is what your looking for , but you may still find it interesting.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index

    Thanks for sharing.
  • jnh17
    jnh17 Posts: 838 Member
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    In your example you count it as 1 carb.

    I understand how it's calculated. What I'm confused about is how it applies to a low carb diet when I'm aiming for <30g a day.

    It counts as 1 carb. So, you have 29 carbs left. Just like that dude said.

    Also, it can be something like the protein bar I just ate - 22 carbs - 10g of fiber - 10 sugar alcohols = net carb of 2. So you would have 28g of carbs left if it were the first thing you ate in the morning.
  • onikonor
    onikonor Posts: 473 Member
    Options
    In your example you count it as 1 carb.

    I understand how it's calculated. What I'm confused about is how it applies to a low carb diet when I'm aiming for <30g a day.

    It counts as 1 carb. So, you have 29 carbs left. Just like that dude said.

    Also, it can be something like the protein bar I just ate - 22 carbs - 10g of fiber - 10 sugar alcohols = net carb of 2. So you would have 28g of carbs left if it were the first thing you ate in the morning.

    Ok neat.

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