After hearing (ok, reading--picky, picky ) so many people say that FitDay doesn't subtract the fiber from the carbs, when I KNEW it did, I looked again. Now I understand whence the confusion arises.

The program's a little schizophrenic.

Let's use my stats from yesterday as a concrete example. I consumed, according to FitDay, 22g of carbs. The kcals calculated come to 69, and the percentage is 5% of the total kcals for the day.

But wait, you say, 22x4 is 88.

Precisely.

I ate 5g of *fiber* carbs. That's shown on the line below, as "fiber," but the rest of that line comes up as zeroes. The program does NOT calculate kcals for fiber, presumably because that isn't burned for fuel like other carbs. Nor does it show a percentage; zero is zero, it can't be a percentage.

That is why my entry comes up 22g carbs, 69kcals (22-5=17, 17x4=68.... ok, it's off by one, don't ask me why) and 5% of the total, with the 5g of fiber on the line below.

I hope this clears it up for folks. I *knew* it worked that way, I just wasn't aware of why people were confused--it made sense to me. ::shrugs::

Ok Karen. I'm one of those confused people. Thanks for clearing that up. I don't know why I thought the fiber wasn't minused out. I even started a thread asking about it. But didn't get a great explanation. I still get terribly confused looking at your math. But I trust you understand it. What was the 22 X 4 about? With the risk of seeming just plain stupid, I admit I don't quite get it. Victoria

Hi, Victoria. Don't worry, I'm quite math-challenged myself.

22x4 *should* be the kcals total for 22g of carbs, if the fiber's not subtracted. However, that number isn't 88, it's 69--which corresponds to the 17g of Effective Carbs (22-5g of fiber = 17).

(Remember? A gram of fat = 9kcals, a gram of carbohydrate = 4kcals, and a gram of protein = 4kcals.)

Make sense now?

Ah...now I get what you were referring to. Then it makes sense, because it would have been 88 calories, but was less because of the fiber. Phew. I think I truly get it now. Victoria

Yay, Victoria! You got it!

Think in terms of "net" and "gross"--the "gross" number (in grams) of carbs shows on that top line, but those figures (the kcals and the %) are based on the "net" carbs (total carbs minus fiber). That, I think, is what throws people for a loop. They see "Fiber" and a number of grams, but the rest of that line is zeroes. I'd have programmed it a little more logically but I'm no programmer.

I was doing it right. Didn't know why, but doing it right. Now I know why.

I am one of those people who always seems to know where North is, but I don't know why, just seem to have a good sense of direction. I guess my gut feelings guided me on this carb thing too.

Thanks

Im back again , fretting over this one:

the reason I get confused is because in the uk all labelling on food has fibre already subtracted.

But on fitday to get ECC do I have to subtract the fibre from the carb grams ???
todays for instance I have
Carb 11
fibre 1

would I count this as 11 or 10?
( feeling like pooh bear of very little brain)
thanks plum.

That would be an ECC of 10, Plum. Use the math to double check it: You should have a kcal total of 40 (within one or two, because of the decimal places FitDay uses that we don't), if the *total* grams of carbs are 11 and one of those was fibre. Otherwise, that total should be 44 (11x4), again within 1 or 2.

Hope this helps....

Ive got it !! Thank you Karen.
( goes off happily into the sunset with Piglet to buy more broccoli)