How to Calculate Net Carbs

Restricted consumption of carbohydrates is always cited to be helpful in the cause for weight management. It is also the reason why low carb diets are promoted as a huge hope for people who are suffering with obesity and those who want to lose weight.

When a person wants to achieve weight loss with the help of a low carb diet, he needs to replace digestible carbs in his diet, with healthy protein and fiber sources.

The basic concept of following a low carb diet is of controlling the blood glucose levels by staying away from foods that are responsible for it. Not all types of carbohydrates cause weight gain, and hence, understanding their basic difference is the best way to determine the best carbohydrate source for one's own good.

Carbs are classified into two major groups, such as simple carbs and complex carbs. Amongst these, simple carbs are easily digestible and complex carbs are not easily digestible. However, if you check the labels of a few products, you would find terms like "0 net carbs" or "2 net carbs" on them.

On the other hand, if you have recently come across low carb weight loss diet plans like the Atkins diet, then you must have heard the term net carbs. Net carbs are also called 'nutritive carbohydrates'. For low carb weight loss diets, controlling the amount of net carbs is crucial, if you want to control your weight.

Before learning more about calculating net carbs, let's get into the details about net carbs and their importance in a low calorie diet for weight loss. Well, there is not a specific definition for net carbs. However, creators of various diet programs have tried to broaden the concept of low carbs.

According to the Atkins Nutritional Approach, the dieter needs to count each and every gram of net carbs that he is consuming. To be precise, net carbs are the carbs that can affect or increase blood glucose levels of a person.

Going by the same formula, a lot of nutritious foods like green and leafy vegetables and fresh fruits, have low amount of net carbs, and no wonder they are healthier for you. If you want to lose weight, you need to stay away from foods that contain high net carbs and foods that contain simple carbohydrates.

Simple carbohydrates are mainly present in bakery products, grains, pasta, flour, sugar, white rice, refined foods, processed foods, fried foods, fast food, milk and concentrated fruit juices. Complex carbohydrates, on the other hand, are present in green and leafy vegetables, types of berries, nuts, beans, etc.

By now, you must have understood that net carbs are totally different than total carbs that we typically keep an eye on. Net carbs in food are counted by subtracting the amount of fibers in that food from the total carbohydrates. Calculating net carbs in a food is a pretty easy process. 

Tools that you may need for that include a pencil, a paper, food nutrition label, and a calculator. If you don't have the food nutrition label available with you, then you can refer to any online food nutrition guide or standard guides like USDA National Nutrient Database.

When you need to count the net carbs in any food, look up the guide and find the amount of total carbohydrates (in grams) that are present in that particular food.

You may also need to find out the amount of total fibers (in grams) that are present in it. Once you get both these values, then all that you need to do is to feed these values in the formula given below, and you will get the correct value of net carbs in any food that you want.

Here is the formula to count net carbs in one food serving.

Net Carbs = Total Carbohydrates (g) - Fibers (g)

For example, if you want to count the net carbs in one banana, which has 31g carbohydrates and 4g fibers; you need to subtract '4' from '31', which means that one banana contains 27g of net carbs (31 - 4 = 27).

Hence, it is nor healthy to be included in a low carb diet for weight loss. On the other hand, if you consider eating ½ cup blueberries, that contain 10g total carbs and 2g total fibers, you get 8g of net carbs (10 - 2 = 8), which is much more healthier to be included in a low calorie diet.

As I promised earlier, calculating net carbs is a pretty easy job when you know the amounts of total carbs and fibers in a particular food. Well, if you want to count net carbs in more than one serving, then all that you have to do is to multiply the net carbs by the number of servings.

For instance, ½ cup blueberries contain 8 net carbs, so 1 cup of blueberries will contain 16g of net carbs (8g × 2 servings = 16g).

Regarding net carbs, you will come across a term called sugar alcohol. In simple words, sugar alcohol is nothing but food additives and other preservatives that are added in a particular food item. When you count the total carbohydrates, you don't need to count the sugar alcohol separately, since it is included in the total carbs.

I hope that now you will not find any difficulty in calculating net carbs of any food that you want to eat. All the best!