Experiment finds calorie labels out by up to 50%

[Diab0lic]

A guy compared actual caloric content with that claimed on the labels and found they can be quite out. He only tested 5 food items and they were all "prepared food" so this is less likely to be an issue when buying fresh foods like meat and veggies, but still something to think about. One of the sandwiches claimed 230 cals and had 550 lol

[Cam0505]

This is quite common as it is very easy for a chef to add in extra butter, salt, sauce etc to taste.

As someone who has done proximate analysis on food you should be fine in eating food you prepare or packaged (eg nut bars) as the error rate is very low ( we did milk powder and it was within 0.2g for protein, carbs, and fat which could be due to seasonal variation in the milk). This is also why calcium and other mineral contents are often above that stated on the label as this is the minimum seasonal concentration so will variety depending on the season, breed of cow for milk, etc etc. (Iodine/selenium deficiency in New Zealand as it is in very low concentration within soil, therefore food grown in New Zealand has very little)

Take any calorie totals from prepared foods with a pitch of salt, reduce how much you eat (prepare your own, its cheaper) and stay away from sauces etc at restaurants.

Also if you don't already, eat iodized salt! not regular.

[Clickz]

Also interesting when you actually work out the calories yourself (ie grams of protein x 4, grams of fat x 9 etc) how often some labels come out incorrectly.

[vracula]

This is quite common as it is very easy for a chef to add in extra butter, salt, sauce etc to taste.

As someone who has done proximate analysis on food you should be fine in eating food you prepare or packaged (eg nut bars) as the error rate is very low ( we did milk powder and it was within 0.2g for protein, carbs, and fat which could be due to seasonal variation in the milk). This is also why calcium and other mineral contents are often above that stated on the label as this is the minimum seasonal concentration so will variety depending on the season, breed of cow for milk, etc etc. (Iodine/selenium deficiency in New Zealand as it is in very low concentration within soil, therefore food grown in New Zealand has very little)

Take any calorie totals from prepared foods with a pitch of salt, reduce how much you eat (prepare your own, its cheaper) and stay away from sauces etc at restaurants.

Also if you don't already, eat iodized salt! not regular.

Thanks for the info!liked!

[Cam0505]

Also interesting when you actually work out the calories yourself (ie grams of protein x 4, grams of fat x 9 etc) how often some labels come out incorrectly.

Exactly. This is partly because of the conversion rate for Kcal to Kj, which can lead to slight differences in total energy.

Nothing that impact on your progress though.

[jimmybro1]

Make your own food!

It would be extremely hard for fast food chains to have repeatable calorific valve of the food to many variables.

But some of these are ridiculous! A 10% margin is understandable.