General fitness, health and nutrition · Public discussion

Help with calculations

Started by Jim Marnott · · Last activity · 5 posts · 412 views

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General fitness, health and nutrition
Published
29 September 2004
Last activity
30 September 2004
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Jim Marnott
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  1. Maybe it's because I've been out of the LC loop for so long (since about
    July,) but I seem to be having some trouble with the nutritional label
    of a product. I decided to give the Slim-Fast CarbZone bars a try.

    The nutrition label says...:

    Energy: 198 Cal
    Protein: 15g
    Fat: 7.3g
    Carb: 22g
    sugars 1g
    sugar alcohols 16g
    starch 1g
    dietary fibre 0.7g
    Sucralose 18mg

    So, I got the box home and looked at it again. I added up all of the
    items listed under Carbohydrates and it came to only 18.7g, but the
    label says there are 22g of carbs.

    Then, I did some more math and totalled up all the calories
    15 x 4 = 60
    7.3 x 9 = 65.7
    22 x 4 = 88

    60 + 65.7 + 88 = 213.7 calories

    And... that seems to be a little high for just a rounding error.

    Then, I tried using the 18.7g of carbs, instead of the 22g and came much
    closer... 200.5 cal. Then I tried rounding the 18.7 DOWN to 18.... and
    I got it almost bang on 198 (I got 197.7)

    What does this all mean? (Other than that I have way too much time on my
    hands.) The only item I didn't figure into the calculations was the
    sucralose. Should I have? 18mg doesn't seem like it would have much of
    an effect on anything, though.

    ---
    Jim Marnott
    Originally: 245/193/180
    Now: 223/219/180

  2. Jim Marnott said:

    So, I got the box home and looked at it again. I added up all of
    the items listed under Carbohydrates and it came to only 18.7g, but
    the label says there are 22g of carbs.

    There are probably other types of carbs besides the types listed.

    Quoted message said:

    15 x 4 = 60
    7.3 x 9 = 65.7
    22 x 4 = 88

    No, (22-0.7) * 4. Fiber doesn't provide calories.

    Quoted message said:

    Then, I tried using the 18.7g of carbs, instead of the 22g and came
    much closer... 200.5 cal. Then I tried rounding the 18.7 DOWN to
    18.... and I got it almost bang on 198 (I got 197.7)

    Note that calories are determined separately; the fat/protein/carb
    numbers could EACH be off by up to 0.5, for an apparent calorie offset
    of up to 8 cals just because of rounding.

    Quoted message said:

    What does this all mean? (Other than that I have way too much time on
    my hands.) The only item I didn't figure into the calculations was
    the sucralose. Should I have? 18mg doesn't seem like it would have
    much of an effect on anything, though.

    Sucralose provides neither carbs nor calories.

  3. DJ Delorie said:
    Jim Marnott said:

    So, I got the box home and looked at it again. I added up all of
    the items listed under Carbohydrates and it came to only 18.7g, but
    the label says there are 22g of carbs.

    There are probably other types of carbs besides the types listed.

    What are some other types that COULD be in there, but that weren't listed?

    Quoted message said:


    Quoted message said:

    15 x 4 = 60
    7.3 x 9 = 65.7
    22 x 4 = 88

    No, (22-0.7) * 4. Fiber doesn't provide calories.

    Quoted message said:

    Then, I tried using the 18.7g of carbs, instead of the 22g and came
    much closer... 200.5 cal. Then I tried rounding the 18.7 DOWN to
    18.... and I got it almost bang on 198 (I got 197.7)

    Note that calories are determined separately; the fat/protein/carb
    numbers could EACH be off by up to 0.5, for an apparent calorie offset
    of up to 8 cals just because of rounding.

    Quoted message said:

    What does this all mean? (Other than that I have way too much time on
    my hands.) The only item I didn't figure into the calculations was
    the sucralose. Should I have? 18mg doesn't seem like it would have
    much of an effect on anything, though.

    Sucralose provides neither carbs nor calories.

    --
    ---
    Jim Marnott
    Originally: 245/193/180
    Now: 221/216/180

  4. Jim Marnott said:

    What are some other types that COULD be in there, but that weren't
    listed?

    I don't know what the manufacturer thinks, but IMHO maltodextrose is
    neither what they call a sugar nor a starch. They might classify
    glycerine in there too.

    The thing is, there's a lab test for total carbohydrates, and possibly
    lab tests for specific types (although they might go from the
    formulation instead) so the numbers won't always match perfectly.

  5. Jim Marnott said:

    What does this all mean? (Other than that I have way too much time on my
    hands.) The only item I didn't figure into the calculations was the
    sucralose. Should I have? 18mg doesn't seem like it would have much of
    an effect on anything, though.

    Sucralose doesn't add calories -- at 600 times sweeter than sugar,
    there's only going to be a few hundredths of a gram or so per serving,
    even if it *were* metabolized as a carb. It only takes 0.06g of
    sucralose to replace 40g of sugar in a typical can of soft drink.

    The 4-4-9 calorie formula is only a very vague generality.
    Many different proteins and carbs are significantly less than 4
    calories per gram (some even lower than 2 calories per gram), and
    most vegetable/grain fats are about 8.37 calories per gram, not 9.

    See http://www.nutribase.com/atwater.shtml for examples

    --
    jamie ([email hidden])

    "There's a seeker born every minute."

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