I'm hoping one of you wonderfully educated people can enlighten me. Here's what I understand:
1 gram of carb = 4 calories
1 gram of protein = 9 calories
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
Right so far?
So how is it that I can find products all over the place (a lot of tea, for example) that says it has 1 gram of carbohydrate and 0 calories? Shouldn't it be 4 calories?
First: 1 gram of protein ~ 4 calories, not 9 calories.
Regardless, Title 21, Chapter I, Part 101 of the Code of Federal Regulations dictates nutritional labeling requirements. 21 CFR 101.9(c)(1) states:
"A statement of the caloric content per serving, expressed to the nearest 5-calorie increment up to and including 50 calories, and 10-calorie increment above 50 calories, except that amounts less than 5 calories may be expressed as zero."
You're way low for 1500 calories. You can eat more!
If you want to skip all this math, a great place to go is Fitday - a free web site that allows you to track what you eat and adds up all the calories and grams of this and that for you. I couldn't manage without it!