Making sense of it all

[Kaileighblue]

I've been trying to look up information on what all the things on the Food labels mean. like the difference in Calories and Calories from Fat. I've looked at many of the links I've seen posted but they just seem to assume people know.. and I really don't.

Maybe I'm just not googling the right thing.

[bangarang1971]

Well a serving of something has a certain number of calories or total calories if you will. These are calories from all sources (protein, carbs, and fat). Then they put calories from fat to sort of give you a ratio of calories from carbs and protein to calories from fat. As a rule of thumb, no more than 30% of the calories should come from fat. Example would be something with 100 total calories per serving shouldn't be more than 30 calories from fat. I hope this is what you were asking, and I hope I explained it ok.

[Missy]

I don't know how the conversions work..but when I look at a label, I am looking for the portion size and the amount of calories in it, how much protein is in it, carbs and fat. I look for things that don't have saturated fats...and I look for things that don't have a high sugar content.

The diet I am on is like this:
20% calories from fat...so, I don't eat more than 40g of fat a day
35% calories from protein..I eat about 162g of protein
45% calories from carbs...I eat around 219g of carbs

I put everything into Microsoft Excel and I use it to track my foods and add everything up to make sure what I'm eating is the right amounts and that I am getting enough of each. I have 4 columns (Protein/Carbs/Fat/Cals) and when I eat something I put what is on the label & alter the amount to my portion size and it totals them up for me.