[horsey]

How do you analyze carbs & protein from labels?

What is considered high for carbs and protein?

I usually just look at calories now I'm learning that I need to analyze more the other stuff.

Especially carbs as I'm trying to cut them. I thought I could eat chili but when I plugged it into fitday - putting in the info for Amy's it was high in carbs.

Doing a South Beach diet starting today, but it doesn't appear that with chili I started phase 1 today at all.

[Suzanne 3FC]

Amy's chili is vegetarian, so the protein is going to come from tofu and beans which also contain carbs.. Plus they include various vegetables. All the carbs are good carbs. Are you trying to cut back on all types of carbs including vegetables?

I think the chili is SB P1 friendly. Beans are allowed, as are the other ingredients from what I can tell. SB isn't a low carb diet, you just pick and choose the types of carbs you eat. The chili is pretty calorie dense so you wouldn't want to have it often especially if you eat the whole can, but it should fit in for an occasional meal.

[horsey]

Thanks for the info, I won't eat it too often, I love it though, 1/2 a can is 200 calories but it made me feel bloated today and a little sick. I'm trying to cut most carbs in phase 1 for two weeks, guess I should follow the recipes rather then buy cans if I want to do the South Beach diet seriously.

[JayEll]

Here's a link to a calculator that tells different nutrient percentages for different types of weight loss approaches:

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/nut...calculator.htm

Jay

[BlueToBlue]

Fat is about 9 calories per gram; carbs and protein are each about 4 calories per gram. So one way to do a quick analysis of fat vs. carbs. vs. protein is to calculate the calories for each category then divide by the total. That will tell you what percentage of what you are eating is fat vs. carbs vs. protein.

This can be a helpful trick to use with processed foods, like breakfast cereal and energy bars.

For example, Special K Red Berries cereal has 0g fat, 25g carbs, and 3g protein. Of the calories in Special K Red Berries, 89% come from carbs and11% come from protein. Compare that to Quaker Oatmeal, which has 3g fat, 27g carbs, and 5g protein--so that's 17% of calories from fat, 70% from carbs, and 13% from protein. So already, the oatmeal is looking like a better choice.

But you also have to look at what kind of carbs you're getting. In the case of Special K Red Berries, 10g or the 25g of carbs are sugar (that's 40%) and only 1g is fiber. Generally fiber=good. Sugar isn't always bad (for example, if it is naturally occurring sugar in fruits, veggies, and dairy products). But in the case of Special K Red Berries, a look at the ingredients list reveals that added sugar is the second highest ingredient (higher the whole grain wheat) and in addition to the sugar, high fructose corn syrup also appears in the ingredient list. So in this case, sugar=bad. For the oatmeal, however, 4g of the 27g are fiber and only 1g (4%) is sugar. A look at the ingredients reveals that there is no added sugar, so the 1g of sugar that is there probably isn't as bad as the sugar in the Special K. Also, although 17% of the calories in oatmeal are fat, only .5 are saturated fats (which are bad). 2g are good fats, the kind you want to have in your diet.

Hopefully I haven't made you more confused. What I consider a good ratio of protein to carbs really depends on the product--I expect to see more protein in a product that contains meat than in a vegetarian or grain product. I also read the ingredient list and try to avoid products with a lot of added sugar. And I look for fiber. I love to see a nice simple ingredient list. The Quaker Oatmeal is perfect with only one ingredient--rolled oats.