Tracking the calories you eat from carbs, fats and protein can help you monitor your weight. The total caloric value of a food is a measure of how much potential energy the food molecules have within their chemical bonds. Foods with a significant amount of fat have more calories and energy compared to a food of the same weight with more grams of carbohydrates and protein. Creating small, daily meals on a spreadsheet or table can help you easily calculate the calories in the food you eat.
Individual Meal Analysis
Step 1
Make five small tables within a large spreadsheet to design five meals in a day. Create rows and columns within each table, noting the name of the food, the serving size, the calories and the grams of fat, protein and carbs. List all of the foods you eat in a meal and fill in the nutritional information. Use the functions of the spreadsheet to total the calories and the grams of nutrients in each meal.
Step 2
Calculate the total calories of each meal that come from each of the nutrients. Multiply the total grams of carbohydrates by four. Multiply the total grams of protein by four. Multiply the total grams of fat by nine. For instance, if you consumed 53g of carbohydrates for breakfast, multiply it by four. Of the total calories in your breakfast, 212 of the calories are from carbs.
Step 3
Divide the total calories of each nutrient by the total calories of the same meal and multiply by 100. If your total meal was 355 calories, divide 212 by 355. Multiply your quotient by 100 to get 60 percent. This means 60 percent of the calories in your meal came from carbohydrates. Perform the same steps to calculate the percentage of your calories which come from protein and fat.
Daily Analysis
Step 1
Create a sixth table to analyze the calories for your entire day by incorporating the nutritional data from the other five tables. Design this table with four rows and four columns. Label your columns with the headings calories, protein, carbs and fat.
Step 2
Formulate an equation in the first cell under the "calories" column adding the total calories of each meal. Repeat this process in the first cell under the other three columns, calculating the total grams of protein, carbs and fat for the day.
Step 3
Calculate the total calories from each nutrient under the second cell of each nutrient column. For instance, if you consumed 30g of fat throughout the day, multiply 30 by nine to get 270 fat calories. Repeat this formula for carbohydrates and protein, remembering to multiply by four instead of nine.
Step 4
Formulate an equation in the third cell of each nutrient column to calculate the percentage of your daily calories that come from protein, carbs and fat. Divide the total calories of each nutrient by the total calories for the day, then multiply by 100. For example, divide 270 calories from fat by the 1,500 total calories you have eaten throughout the day, then multiply by 100. In this scenario, 18 percent of your calories come from fat.
Tips and Warnings
- Save all of your meal plans and calculations for easier meal planning throughout the month.
Things You'll Need
- Spreadsheet program
References
- "Personal Trainer Manual"; American Council on Exercise; 1997
- "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning"; Thomas R. Baechle and Roger W. Earle; 2000
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