[stacygee]

I am trying to understand my nutrition labels...

does anyone know what the part is the says

"Calories From Fat"

What does that mean and is it bad for me?

[Asherdoodles87]

The calories from fat comes from the actual total fat content listed on the label. The number of fat calories is multiplied by 9 to get the total amount of calories coming from fat. Because 1 fat calorie equals 9 kcalories. So, if you eat something with 9 grams of fat, that is 81 calories coming from fat. Sometimes it is rounded up a little too for some reason. It's just put there as the calories coming from fat so consumers do not have to do the math.

And, yes, in excess fat calories are bad for you, especially saturated fat and trans fat.

[bronzeager]

That is required so that you can easily tell whether a high proportion of the calories are from fat. Usually the label also tells you what percentage of calories in a serving of the food come from fat, so you can easily compare between similar foods if you are making a choice. A lot of nutritional guidelines (the one suggested by the Mayo Clinic for instance) suggest that you limit your total fat calories to less than about 30-35% of your diet. So in an 1800 calorie a day diet, that would be less than about 70 grams of fat. If you were following those guidelines, you could add up the total fat grams, or instead avoid foods that were much higher than 35% in their fat percentages.

People who believe that saturated fat is connected with blood cholesterol levels and heart disease also want to limit their total consumption of saturated fat, so that's why that's usually listed also.

Here's an explanation from the Mayo Clinic: Dietary fats

[stacygee]

That's what I needed to know... I shouldn't have more then 30-35% of calories from fat in my diet. I think fit day shows me the percentages.

Thank you... I hate that I don't know all this. I have a college education and have run my own business but for so many years I never paid attention to what I put in my mouth. I guess I have a learning curve.

[bronzeager]

I didn't know any of this stuff either. Even how many calories I was supposed to be eating. But when I started with my LoseIt program, and realized I didn't know how to allocate my calories, I went to the Mayo Clinic web site, because I think they're good for reliable advice. I've spent a lot of time reading their nutrition articles, and they always give references; and they also review the different popular diets in an unbiased way with pros and cons. They have recipes which are pretty good too. At the bottom of that web page I gave above you can see links for lots of other nutrition related articles, or you can google for for things like "Mayo Clinic transfat" or "Mayo Clinic carbohydrates" and get results (just make sure it's one from the actual Mayo Clinic site, because there are people who claim to have a "Mayo Clinic diet" and it isn't really).

Congratulations on your progress so far by the way! You're doing pretty good for "not knowing all this"!

[carmencane]

Originally Posted by Asherdoodles87

The calories from fat comes from the actual total fat content listed on the label. The number of fat calories is multiplied by 9 to get the total amount of calories coming from fat. Because 1 fat calorie equals 9 kcalories. So, if you eat something with 9 grams of fat, that is 81 calories coming from fat. Sometimes it is rounded up a little too for some reason. It's just put there as the calories coming from fat so consumers do not have to do the math.

And, yes, in excess fat calories are bad for you, especially saturated fat and trans fat.

WOW, I really didn't know that! Thanks, I will check the calories from fat from now on.