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Net carb counting

ElorasMomForever
ElorasMomForever Posts: 12 Member
edited November 21 in Social Groups
For those of you who count net carbs, if you end up with more fiber than carbs, say 22g vs. 13g respectively, do you end up with negative carbs?!

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  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    ElorasMomForever wrote: »
    For those of you who count net carbs, if you end up with more fiber than carbs, say 22g vs. 13g respectively, do you end up with negative carbs?!

    I don't count net carbs but I can say that the only way I can imagine that would happen is if you're eating food products that have added fiber for the specific purpose of creating low carb friendly labeling that can reflect a low net carb amount.
    Many times those types of fiber do actually have an effect on blood sugar.
    Fiber from green vegetables are the only ones intended to be subtracted.
    The idea of net carbs came from Michael Edes book Protein Power. He has said that since he wrote it food manufacturers have manipulated their products with added fiber (Atkins for example) to reflect low net carbs but he only introduced the net carb method so that people would stop limiting green vegetable intake trying to achieve constantly lower carb intake. He believes vegetables are valuable in the diet and developed net carb counting to allow people to still have a low number while actually eating more total carbs.
  • KnitOrMiss
    KnitOrMiss Posts: 10,103 Member
    If you find a calculation that would result in a negative carb number, most likely the fiber has already been subtracted from the number, whether someone entered it as a net carb calculation or using a European label that calculates fiber separately.

    It is IMPOSSIBLE to have negative carbs, as fiber is a carb so if there are 13 grams of carbs listed on a label (just saying randomly using your numbers) and 22 grams of fiber listed, that means that there was 35 total grams of carbs, 22 of which were fiber and subtracted.

    Typically, sugar alcohols are not subtracted, or only at a half rate, because they do still affect most people. The main reason net carbs was started was not to restrict fibrous veggie consumption, so typically, I only subtract veggie fiber carbs, etc.
  • KnitOrMiss
    KnitOrMiss Posts: 10,103 Member
    I tried to go look at your diary to see what you were looking at specifically, @ElorasMomForever - but it looks like your diary is either only shared to friends or not at all... Let us know specifically what we're calculating, and we can better help.
  • ElorasMomForever
    ElorasMomForever Posts: 12 Member
    So, the fiber and carbs came from a 310 shake (it has lots of veggie types in it) and a Lily's chocolate bar serving.
    I think the chocolate bar maybe just automatically deducted the carbs when I scanned it? So I ended up with more fiber than carbs listed in my diary. The chocolate is made with stevia I believe.
  • ElorasMomForever
    ElorasMomForever Posts: 12 Member
    Also, thank you both for your replies!! Makes sense!
  • KnitOrMiss
    KnitOrMiss Posts: 10,103 Member
    310 shake (just one at random) says 7 grams of carbs, 5 grams fiber, so 2 net.

    Lily's (again, at random) I got says 22 grams carbs, 12 fiber, 6 erythritol - most places subtract the SA (erythritol is a sugar alcohol that is not supposed to affect blood sugars, but still does for some folks due to the sweet taste), so this could be either 10 grams of net carbs or 4 grams of net carbs ...

    But the total would be 29 with a total net of 12 or 6, depending on how you calculate the sugar alcohol.

    Hope that isn't confusing...
  • KnitOrMiss
    KnitOrMiss Posts: 10,103 Member
    Oh, and always double check the data, even if you scan the label, because there is no telling if someone changed the data, etc. Here on MFP, the data is user verified and changed. Verify independently with your item... :)
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