Minus your fiber from your carbs!

Inpjs66
Inpjs66 Posts: 109 Member
edited September 24 in Health and Weight Loss
I normally eat Flax, wheat, oat pita bread for my sandwiches and read on the back that you are suppose to subtract the amount of fiber in your food from your carbs to accurately monitor your carbs. I've been eating this for a few weeks now and never read it until today.
I googled it and it mostly came up on diabetes sites, and YES, you are suppose to subtract the fiber from the amount of carbs. This is good to know for anyone on a low carb diet!

Replies

  • kimmerroze
    kimmerroze Posts: 1,330 Member
    yep each gram of fiber is 4 carbs... so start subtracting away! haha

    well 2-4 carbs it differs among websites
  • CarrieAbbey
    CarrieAbbey Posts: 378 Member
    Really I had no idea!! Interesting.
  • beesareyellow
    beesareyellow Posts: 335 Member
    This is absolutely true. It was the first thing my dietitian explained to me when she set up my nutritional plan. That's why it is always better to stick with whole grains, fruits and vegetables when it comes to carbs. The more refined, the less fiber therefore more total carbs in processed foods.
  • TrainingWithTonya
    TrainingWithTonya Posts: 1,741 Member
    A gram of fiber is a gram of carbohydrates. And a gram of any carb (sugar or fiber or starch) is 4 calories. This is beneficial for people who are diabetic because of counting sugar or starch which can elevate blood sugar so that they can make sure to take the proper amount of insulin to lower their blood sugar, but not really beneficial for anyone who is not having to monitor sugar intake for estimating insulin needs. I suppose someone who is on a low carb plan and doesn't want to count their fiber toward their limited amount of carbs could benefit from subtracting the fiber, but it just seems like extra useless math to me. And if you subtract the carb grams are you also subtracting the calories from the fiber? The total calories on a package of food generally includes the 4 calories per gram of fiber. Again, more math that really isn't beneficial when you could just eat a higher carb range (like the AMDR of 45-65%) and know that part of it is fiber so you aren't getting all of it in sugar. Just seems like more stress, which raises cortisol levels and increases fat storage, then necessary, IMHO. But if you want to do the math, make sure you do it correctly and don't subtract more grams of carbs then actual grams of fiber ingested. 2-4 grams of carbs per gram of fiber is wrong. It's 1 to 1.
  • Inpjs66
    Inpjs66 Posts: 109 Member
    This is also beneficial to anyone trying to lose weight! I think it's great to know!

    You learn something new every day!
This discussion has been closed.

Categories