Carbohydrates & Fiber

Choosing fiber-rich foods is key to weight loss because even though they may contain a similar amount of carbohydrates in comparison to the regular option, they can help you stay within your carb budget because fiber actually cancels out some of the carbohydrates found in the food.

Carbohydrates and Fiber Calculating

When you are carb counting, you should only take available carbs into consideration.  Exclude fiber from your carb counting, because it does not directly influence your blood sugar level or body fat percentage.  You can easily calculate “Net Carbs” by subtracting the Fiber from the Total Carbs in a serving of food because fiber cancels out a portion of the total carbs.

For example, if you want to eat a pear, you will find that a medium one has a total carb content of 27.5 g, a fiber content of5.5 g, a sugar content of 17.4 g.  All you need to do to obtain the available carbs is subtract the 5.5 g of fiber from the 27.5 g of total carbs, which gives you a total of 22 g of net carbs.  Do this same calculations for any “Fiber-Containing” carbohydrate food and remember to adjust the available carb content to the serving size you consume.

Also if  you look at the nutrition facts panel, you will find the serving size at the top of the panel along with the total Carbohydrates in grams per serving, down lower on the table.  Under the Total Carbs, you will see the Sugar and Fiber content listed in grams. Sugar and fiber are part of the total carbohydrates found in food, so if the grams of sugar and fiber don’t add up to the total grams of carbohydrates, the Starch content equal the missing grams.  Starches are not mandatory on food labels, but you can easily calculate them by removing the sugar and fiber from the total carbs.