Hello

Question
QUESTION: I have a question I have this box of fiber one cereal it says 60 calories per serving but when I add the macronutrient it says 117 calories and some people are telling me that it's the fiber content so I want to know does fiber has calories and should I count it with the carbs?

ANSWER: Hello Jairo,

No, fiber does not provide calories. So if there are 8 grams of fiber, and usually 4 calories per gram of carb, that would be (4 x 8 = 32) 32 calories that are not included in the serving because our bodies cannot digest fiber. It passes through virtually untouched, except for bacteria in our gut that feed off it. Still, nearly 60 calories is a huge difference, even for a high fiber cereal.

Are you using 4 calories per gram of protein + 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate (minus the fiber carb grams) and 9 calories x grams of fat?

Nice to see that people are inquisitive about what they eat and taking to reading the labels to find out what's in their food!

THanks for your question.
Laurie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The cereal has 2g protein, 25g carbs, 1g fat, and 14g of fiber, 2?=8, 25?=100, 1?=9 all comes to 117 but not the 60 calories that says on the box.

Answer
You don't multiple 25 g carbs x 4 and count all those calories, because the 14 g fiber is part of the carbs!

So 14 x 4 = 64 calories that you don't get, because humans can't metabolize fiber.

Now, take your calculation of 116, subtract the 64 calories from the fiber carbs (because they don't really provide calories) and what do you get?   52 calories--kind of close to the 60 the box says :)

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