I'm starting to become more skeptical of nutrition labels...they're the life-blood of my 40/40/20, because I write everything down..protein, carbs, fats, and calories...but how much can I trust what is written? I read the FDA guidelines and it seems they can do very little to stop companies from writing lables improperly, just seems like fines and so forth. I try to buy recognized brands in hopes that they are more trustworthy than others (bumblebee tuna, tyson chicken, etc.) but how trustworthy are they?

all I know is that they are allowed to have a 10% margin of error...
I used to get VERY hung up on the fact that with that margin of error PLUS human error in recording/consumption (not eating everything, etc), that my numbers would be WAY off... but then I realized - it all AVERAGES out in the end...
averages are a beautiful thing.

You could always do like many of us and calculate the cals from each meal using the protein/carb/fat info on food labels. Multiply protein and carb grams x4 and fat grams x9 and you'll get the total amount of calories of that product. Surprisingly, the result is often different than the amount of cals stated in the label! It seems that the P/C/F grams are usually listed properly, but companies tend to "cheat" on the caloric value.

By the way, if you substract the fiber grams of the carb total before doing these calculations you'll come up with a much more accurate caloric value. After all, fiber does not provide any kind of energy to your body, so some consider that it's not accurate to treat fiber like the other, energy-providing carb grams listed in the label.

Fun part is that by planning your diet with these calculations, you can stuff your face with vegetables (or bran cereals, anything that's high in fiber) and your kcal/day amount will nearly stay the same. I found that there was a 300 kcal/day difference in my diet after substracting the fiber grams: suddenly by eating the same things my cals downed from 1800 to 1500...now that's good news :D

Anyway, hope this helps! See you around.

Also remember that they only have to be within .5 of a correct value. So - 1g fat could really be very close to 1.5g, but because it's just under they don't have to list it. The caloric value MIGHT reflect the difference, but who knows.

Surprisingly, the result is often different than the amount of cals stated in the label! It seems that the P/C/F grams are usually listed properly, but companies tend to "cheat" on the caloric value.

FitDay throws a red flag when the values dont match as you try to enter a new custom food.

You could always do like many of us and calculate the cals from each meal using the protein/carb/fat info on food labels. Multiply protein and carb grams x4 and fat grams x9 and you'll get the total amount of calories of that product. Surprisingly, the result is often different than the amount of cals stated in the label! It seems that the P/C/F grams are usually listed properly, but companies tend to "cheat" on the caloric value.

By the way, if you substract the fiber grams of the carb total before doing these calculations you'll come up with a much more accurate caloric value. After all, fiber does not provide any kind of energy to your body, so some consider that it's not accurate to treat fiber like the other, energy-providing carb grams listed in the label.

Fun part is that by planning your diet with these calculations, you can stuff your face with vegetables (or bran cereals, anything that's high in fiber) and your kcal/day amount will nearly stay the same. I found that there was a 300 kcal/day difference in my diet after substracting the fiber grams: suddenly by eating the same things my cals downed from 1800 to 1500...now that's good news :D

Anyway, hope this helps! See you around.


WOW!! I'm really going to have to try that...the only thing is though, that its a lot of work and it would take a long time to refigure all the diff. foods I eat. Great to know tho, I love learning more and more about nutrition! :D