Now that we talked about maintenance calories and macronutrients, let’s get a bit more practical by putting these concepts together.
For the purpose of building muscle, losing fat, and getting lean, when you read food nutrition labels, you need to focus on four main things.
I want you to focus on the serving size, total calories, the three macronutrients, and the fiber content, if any.
Nutrition labels can be tricky.
Serving information
The first thing to pay attention to is the serving size. The serving size is most important because it’s the basis for all the other information on the nutrition label that follows.
If you eat an entire container with a serving size of 1 cup, but there are “4 servings per container”, you’d eat 4 times as much as the nutrition label states.
For example, eating the entire container of a food with our example label would have you eating 1,120 calories, not 280 calories.
The second thing to pay attention to is the measurement for the serving amount.
Most serving sizes show a familiar measurement like 1 cup, 4 pieces, or 1 cookie, followed by the metric amount in grams.
It’s easy to over or under measure something bulky when using the familiar measurement amount like a cup.
For example, trying to measure a cup of spinach can be hard since it has a lot of air between the leaves. Do you smash it down? Do you not smash it down?
Using a food scale is much easier because when using a food scale you don’t have to worry about those types of decisions.
Using this example, if you want to be certain you’re eating only 1 serving size, weigh out 227g.
If you want to eat 2 serving sizes, weigh 227g times 2, which is 454g.
It’s especially important to measure your condiments like salad dressings, butters, oils, and other sauces because those calories add up very quickly.
Calories
I already discussed calories but just to reiterate, this is the most important number you want to look when trying to stay under your maintenance calories.
The total number of calories you see comes from the total calories in protein, fats, and carbs.
Looking at our example food label.
There are 9 grams of Total Fat, and you learned there are about 9 calories for each gram of fat. So, 9 grams times 9 calories equal 81 calories from fat.
There are 34 grams of Total Carbohydrates and you learned there are about 4 calories for each gram of carb. So, 34 grams times 4 calories equal 136 calories from carbs.
Last, there are 15 grams of Protein and you learned there are about 4 calories for each gram of Protein. So, 15 grams times 4 calories equal 60 calories.
Combining these calorie counts from fats, carbs, and protein, you get 81 + 136 + 60, which is 277 calories, almost the amount shown as the total calories on the food label.
Rounding the number up gives you 280 calories and remember, this is per serving.
Using macronutrient counts to determine total calories
Before we move on, there are two things to take note of when trying to use this method to determine total calories per serving.
First, I keep saying there are about 9 calories per gram for fat, or about 4 calories per gram of protein, as an example, because 9 and 4 calories aren’t exact numbers.
Some foods have 9.1 or 9.3 calories per fat gram, or 4.2 or 3.8 calories per carb or protein gram.
So, when adding macronutrients and trying to come up with total calories, or when using an accurate food database like the ones that the food planner I recommend uses, the total calorie count won’t always match the total count of your macronutrients.
Second, some food labels show the total calories after subtracting the carbs from dietary fiber from the total carb count. This is called net carbs.
Luckily, food manufacturers can only do this for fibers approved by the FDA that meets their definition as fiber that provides a “beneficial physiological effect on human health.”
The rationale is the body doesn’t fully digest insoluble fibers, so it doesn’t need to be counted in the total calorie count since it doesn’t provide the body with energy.
The Quest bar, a very popular protein bar, does this. Here is their label:
Total fat is 9g, so should yield 81 calories. Total carbs are 21g, so should yield 84 calories. And total protein is 21g, so should also yield 84 calories. This gives a total calorie count of 249 calories. So, what’s going on here?
Quest bars contain dietary fiber and sugar alcohols. Certain sugar alcohols are also not fully digestible. So, manufacturers like Quest can reduce the total carbs of a food item by subtracting out the carbs that come from the fiber and sugar alcohols.
For fiber, they can fully subtract out 4 calories per gram. For sugar alcohols, some companies fully subtract out 4 calories per gram and some subtract out half the calories, or 2 calories per gram.
After subtracting out dietary fiber calories, which are 12g x 4 calories = 48 calories, and subtracting out half the calories from the 5g of sugar alcohols, which are 5g x .5 x 4 calories = 10 calories, you get the 190 calories the bar shows, and the 190 calories that’s recorded in food databases.
Speaking of Quest Protein bars, I try to stay away from them, even though they are high-protein, low calorie bars. For me, first, they are dangerously addictive because they taste great. So instead of eating one bar, I usually end up eating two, which leaves me fewer calories for higher-filling foods during the rest of my day.
Second, eating Quest Protein bars usually leads to bloating and gas, which are direct side-effects from both high-fiber and sugar alcohols, especially when you don’t consume enough water to offset your fiber and sugar alcohol intake.
But as a last resort, such as when I’m traveling through airports, I’ll pick up a Quest Protein bar over a bag of chips, or those tasty Biscoff cookies, and I’ll just drink a bottle of water to minimize the bloating.
Nutrients
Again, we only want to focus on Total Fats, Total Carbohydrates, and Protein content, as well as Dietary Fiber and Added Sugars. Most foods that are high in fat are going to be way higher in calories since there are about 9 calories per gram of fat. So, I usually opt for foods that are fat-free, like fat-free yogurts and fat-free cheddar cheeses, if I can help it.
But, added sugars are important to watch, too, especially when it comes to fat-free options. When food companies skip out on fat, they usually add more sugar to preserve flavor. So, you’ll see a lot more added sugars in foods that are fat-free.
The difference between total sugars and added sugars is added sugars are the sugars that are added to a food. Some foods naturally contain sugar, like yogurt. Lactose, which is in milk and yogurt, is sugar.
When you see added sugar, the manufacturer has usually added it to enhance the taste. A great example that confuses me up sometimes is when I grab a fat free yogurt from the yogurt section. If I don’t carefully look at the labels, I’ll end up choosing one that’s fat-free but high in added-sugars, like a Chobani Strawberry yogurt.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with added sugars per say, I’m just suggesting you can save yourself 50 calories if you choose a Chobani Greek yogurt without added sugars.
Or, you can choose a plain, non-fat version and simply add your own zero-calorie sweeteners for flavor. I prefer to use Splenda.
Serving Sizes
Pay attention to serving sizes. While the last yogurt I showed has 90 calories per serving, the serving size is larger. It has 90 calories, but you get 20 grams more of yogurt, and 5 grams more of protein. More protein is a good thing, and I’d always choose the higher protein, no added sugar version over the other.
As far as this example goes, I don’t endorse a particular yogurt. I get whichever tastes the best and has the fewest number of calories for the highest amount of protein. Sometimes that’s the generic store brand, sometimes it’s not.
Dietary Fiber
Now, as far as dietary fiber goes, again, I prefer to choose products high in dietary fiber.
As we discussed, they have a bonus of subtracting from our total calories that show up on the food label. But more important than that, dietary fiber is essential for your health, especially when on a high-protein diet. Some of the benefits of a high-fiber diet are normalizing bowel movements, maintaining bowel health, and controlling blood sugar levels.
A great food example is the tortillas I use for my chicken and tuna wraps. Flat-outs are great, high-fiber wraps, but I prefer the taste of Mission’s carb balance wraps, or Walmart’s low carb, Great Value brand.
Here are the nutritional labels for each of these wraps:
In this decision, I prioritize cost, taste, and then calorie count since they all have a similar amount of fiber and total calories.
The National Institute of Medicine recommends at least 38 grams of fiber per day for men aged 50 or younger, and at least 25 grams per day for women. These 2 wraps provide 68% of the recommended 38 grams per day. The vegetables I add throughout the day usually get me past the 38 grams per day goal.
Percent Daily Values
Now that we’ve taken a long, but very important detour, let’s get back to our nutrition label. The last thing we’ll discuss is the % daily value. For our purposes, and really for anyone’s purpose, it’s kind of useless. I say kind of useless because the daily value percentages are based on a recommended nutrient intake that’s further based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet.
In short, it’s supposed to give you a quick idea to determine if a certain nutrient is too high or too low. Less than 5% is considered low and more than 20% is considered high. Unless you’re eating only 2,000 calories per day, I think daily value percentages are generally safe to ignore.
