Hi all,
I have looked through other posts on this topic but I’m still slightly confused regarding counting carb content in food.

So my understanding is that here in the UK if you look at a food label, the carb measure already has dietary fibre substracted, and so is the net carb figure – am I right in thinking that?

If so, I am wondering how Fat Secret is calculating the carb count of foods that are non labelled, such as veg – whether they include the fibre or not in their statistics.

I’m trying to work out the net carbs that I’m eating, as I’m hearing that the recommendation of 20g per day is a good one in order to start moving towards the state of the body burning fat for energy rather than carb burning.

Here is an example from my diary yesterday:
Total calories: 838
Carbs: 32.65g
Dietary fibre: 20.7g
Fat: 47.28g
Protein: 62.06g
I had a green veg smoothie with some berries, protein powder and seeds for lunch, a boiled egg for a snack, and stir fry veg and salmon for dinner. Do the above stats mean my net carbs were only 12g?? If so is that ok at this stage (day 5 today)? I feel ok, hunger at times, which is to be expected, but I feel I’m having a fairly well balanced intake.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Nina

Hi – LeanerNina – if you are on the UK Fatsecret site it does show net carbs as well as total carbs and fibre – but you have to set it up.

To do this you

1: Click onto MyFatsecret at the to right hand corner of the screen. You will see towards the bottom of the list on the right “My Toolbox” click into this then click onto “My Profile”.

2: Scroll to the bottom of the new page, and you will see “Food Diary Nutrition Facts”. Select the categories you want to monitor. Net carbs is one that you can choose. I have chosen calories, carbs, fat, fibre, protein and net carbs. Hope this is helpful.

Forgot to day that in my opinion to drop to 12g net carbs is fine. Some days I drop to 14g carbs. Other days I do 20g or 22g.

Thanks so much KrysiaD, that’s very helpful info. I followed your suggestion and set up my profile on Fat Secret to view net carbs… It’s fascinating seeing the breakdown. My calculation for yesterday was correct, and over the previous 4 days my average net carbs has been 14.5g, and it’s on track for the same today.
On another note, my husband – who does the 5:2 plan when he feels motivated – was today saying that he wants to reduce his carb intake on the fast days… This is music to my ears as I have been telling (nagging) him that he really ought to cut down on the bread, potatoes, fruit if he wants to lose weight. Pleased he’s taking it on board.

LeanerNina – I agree that it is fascinating seeing the breakdown. I have the same issues with my husband. He cut carbs to support me in the beginning but they are gradually creeping back and his tummy has started to get bigger again – so I have resorted to nagging also.

Ladies! To either of you have any strategies for making husbands believe that further cutting
their carbs is actually their idea??? Mine has gone along with everything that represents
dietary changes re lunch and dinner, but I can’t get him to dump the 25g of carbs that are
present in the cold cereal he insists on having for breakfast! Nagging gets me NOWHERE,
and he just digs in with the stubborness 🙂 I’m witnessing a small spare tire too!

Allie – unfortunately I haven’t been very successful either. I am hoping to wear him down with relentless nagging.

I hope it works, Krys! Mine has a strong will, even stronger than mine 🙂 I bet you’ve never
had to endure being called a “food Nazi”, however! I don’t hear that too much anymore
though, because he can’t argue with my results 🙂 Now, if he would just do what I suggest!!!

Have been called something similar. Husband has just asked me if he should have chips with the chicken salad for dinner. I mentioned the sandwich he had at Sheringham park after our walk this morning, he mentioned that he has lost two pounds this week, I pointed out that his tummy had expanded, he said that his T-shirt was too small when he bought it. I did win through because he is not having chips.

Haha, Krys! I DO love the t-shirt rationalization….It sounds familiar! Is this what half a century
does to us? You know what they say…”Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus”!

I came inside from some back-breaking work developing “defensible space” (to clear brush because of fire danger) because I got stung by a bloody yellow jacket (ground wasp, evil nasty aggressive things) and got some water and saw this thread and it made me laugh out loud — so thank you, yellow jacket bite is fading and I’m laughing about endless wifely nagging to get husbands on board proper eating!
My OH took off this morning for Tahoe (I’ve got to work this week) and I swear, he went so he could “indulge” in some carbs! He was already talking about making bread and I know how close the market is that carries Ben &Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream.. I’m losing my attractiveness I think because I’m not as good as good as a carbohydrate!! Haha!
He knows if he’s here I will foist greens and fish on him and I think he fled to the world of easy carbs!

Oh dear! I have the opposite my husband is almost becoming a pain in the neck about not eating carbs! But then he’s only been following this WOE for the last 6 months and he is a little lax. No white stuff but maybe the extra crispbreads for his cheese etc. Anyway, he’s looking good!
Krysia I have always assumed that the carb count on Fatsecret was a net figure. Now I realise that it isn’t maybe there is hope for me yet?

I have just checked some U.K. products on Fatsecret and the total carb count is the same as that on the labelling. So setting ‘net carbs’ in the U.K. actually means the fibre is being removed twice. Net carbs are net carbs so in the U.K. we need to use the ordinary carb setting not the net carb setting. I think!

https://www.naturalketosis.co.uk/blog/2015/03/what-is-the-difference-between-total-carbs-and-net-carbs
This may help clarify

Thanks Verano!

Hi Verano – that is really puzzling. I always check the food labels when I add a new food item to fatsecret and the fibre of the stuff I eat is definitely not taken off twice. I agree that it isn’t always absolutely accurate – but usually it is reasonably close. But I often do have to look at more than one entry to get the closest match to my food labels because I want to be as accurate as possible.

For example – my Inulin 100g is 96g carbs, 88g fibre and 8g net carbs on fatsecret which is exactly the same as the info on the packet – which says 8g carbs. So the net carb figure on fatsecret is the figure l use when calculating carbs – not the total carbs figure.

I would just say that I do not use this amount of inulin – I think it would be highly dangerous if anyone did try to because the fibre content is so high. Even if not dangerous it would lead to highly explosive issues in your digestive system. Actually even 10g can lead to some explosive issues which can be embarrassing.

Almonds 100g are 19.74g carbs, 11.80g fibre and 7.94g net carbs on fatsecret. The label on my packet says 7.94g carbs – exactly the same as fatsecret net carbs. So again I would use the net carb figure on fatsecret. The same with the organic ground flaxseeds and hummus.

The only thing I did wonder was whether it calculated high carb foods differently – and I think that maybe it does. So have just got out of bed again and gone down to the kitchen to check on husbands Neals Yard Organic Porridge Oats – and yes it does. It says 55g net carbs and 10g fibre. On the packet it says 65g carbs. So it does look as though it has taken the 10g of fibre off twice in this instance. So we are both right.

Hi Krysia which Fatsecret are you using, .com or .co.uk? I wonder when we buy some things on the internet if the packing is for US and not UK. Maybe the Neals Yard foods are packaged for export? I agree that none of these calorie/carb counters are very accurate. I’ve never understood how a courgette for example has different values if it comes from Tesco than it does from Asda. I thought a courgette was a courgette!

Hi – the Neals yard oats was from our local Holland and Barrett shop – so definitely for UK. I am also on the fatsecret UK site. It is not logical that the site deducts the fibre twice for a high carb food but not from a low carb food (but even then you do need to check which is a bit of a nuisance). I was very annoyed with fatsecret initially – because when I started using it I was injecting fast acting insulin and you absolutely cannot afford to make mistakes with net carbs. But once I was happy I had found the correct entries and saved them I really found fatsecret helpful and it really speeds up daily food planning to just a few minutes every day

If you have stubborn hubbies or wives or partners who are not that keen or do not understand the diet, show them ‘that Sugar Film’ on netflix, that should shock them into getting rid of their spare tyre..