Question about Usda Website

[Danni28]

Hi there can someone help me with this please. Struggling to get an accurate sount of my carbs!
On the Usda Site it lists carbs and Fibre seperate. Do i just look at the carbs and that is the amount of carbs or to i subtract the fibre?

Thanks
Danielle

[liv]

If you use a US based source YOU have to subtract the fibre. In the US (and in Canada) the carbs are the total carbs.

[Georgiana]

Danielle, counting carbohydrates can be quite confusing for someone living in the UK, because most websites list nutritional information in the American style, while all the foods you buy are labeled in the British style. The easiest way to avoid messing up the counts is to use a single source. Instead of using Fitday, USDA and whatever websites, I would recommend you stick to Fitday as it has almost any foods you can think of.

In Fitday, "carbohydrates" (or "carbs") always refers to total carbohydrates. If you search for a food and then click on its name, you will be shown its food label, which includes calories, fat, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, protein, etc. Above the food label, you have two fields where you can input the quantity you have eaten; this can be done in many units: grams, ounces, cups, etc. After you select the quantity and click Recalculate, you will be shown the nutritional information for the selected amount of that particular food. If you look on the nutritional label, you will see Carbohydrate as an entry, with Dietary Fiber right below it. As I have said, "carbohydrate" refers to total carbohydrate, so it is net carbohydrate plus dietary fiber (which is why Dietary Fiber is indented). In order to find the net carbs, you should subtract the number to the right of Dietary Fiber from the number you see to the right of Carbohydrate.

After you are done adding all the foods to your Food Log, look at the pie chart below your list of foods for the day. To its left, you will see the total calories consumed that day and the amounts and percentages of all macronutrients (fat, carbohydrate, protein). Again, one of the entries is Carbohydrate and underneath it there is Dietary Fiber. To figure out the net carbohydrates consumed, you should, as before, subtract Dietary Fiber from Carbohydrate.

If a food you buy is not listed in Fitday or if its nutritional label is very different from the one in Fitday, you can enter that food by hand. On the left side of the screen, you have a link that says Create A Custom Food. If you click on it, you will be taken to an empty nutritional label. All you have to do here is fill in the fields with the nutritional info listed on the package and then choose a name for the custom food. Don't worry if you have to leave some fields blank, Fitday doesn't care about this. After you are done, click on Create this Food button at the bottom of the screen and you have your new food in Fitday.

If you really want to use a source other than Fitday, first search the food item in Fitday and then compare the number of carbohydrates in Fitday with the number of carbohydrates listen in your other source (make sure the amounts are the same). If the carbs listed in your other source are close to what is labeled as Carbohydate in Fitday, then they are total carbs; if they are closer to Carbohydate minus Dietary Fiber, they are net carbs.

[Elizellen]

Great explanation, Georgiana which many members will find useful

Thank you for taking the time to write this