A key to successfully maintaining a healthy weight or losing weight is having the ability to calculate usable calories. This skill allows you to track where all of your calories are coming from. Each food item consists of a combination of the nutrients fat, carbohydrates and proteins. There are four calories per gram of carbohydrates and proteins and nine calories per gram of fat. As of 2009, 63 percent of Americans were overweight or obese. These conditions are associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.
Step 1
Calculate the number of calories in your packaged and labeled foods. Determine the serving size measurement of each food item. Serving size information is provided at the top of the food label. Figure the amount of food you plan to consume, and make a mental note of the number of serving sizes.
Step 2
The first heading below the serving size information will be labeled Calories. The number to the right of calories is the total number of calories per serving of food. Multiply this number by the number of serving sizes you plan to consume. The resulting product will be the total number of calories of food you plan to eat. Further breaking down your calorie intake to nutrient levels will help you gauge exactly where most of your calories are coming from.
Step 3
Determine the number of calories from fat in your food items based on your calculated serving size. The number of grams of fat per serving of your food will be listed to the right of the Total Fat heading. This number should be multiplied by nine to get the number of calories from fat per serving of your food. Multiply the number of calories from fat by the number of serving sizes you plan to eat to determine the total number of calories from fat you will consume.
Step 4
Calculate the number of calories from carbohydrates in your food. Scroll down to the row labeled Carbohydrates. The number to the right of this label is the number of carbohydrates per gram of your food. Multiply this number by four to find out the number of calories from carbohydrates per serving of your food items. Multiply that product by the number of servings you plan to eat to get the amount of calories from carbohydrates you plan to consume.
Step 5
Compute the number of calories from protein in your food items. Look down to the row labeled Protein. The number to the right of protein is the number of grams of protein per serving of food. Multiply that number by four to get the number of calories per serving. Multiply the product by your number of serving sizes to get the total number of calories you will consume from protein.
Step 6
Calculate the usable calories in your unlabeled foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Navigate to LiveStrong's MyPlate tool. Enter the food you are analyzing under the heading "What did you eat." Scroll down to the nutrient data and food item that most closely resembles what you will eat. Serving size information is listed to the right of the food column. The total number of calories per serving of your food is in the column to the right of serving size. Grams of fat, carbohydrate and protein are listed in columns to the right of calories. Calculate the number of calories from each of the nutrients using the same methods in steps 3 through 5.
Member Comments