Understanding Food Labels For Fat Loss - What Matters?

When starting up a fat loss diet, one thing that becomes very important for you to get a firm grasp of understanding about is how to properly read a food label.

If you aren't able to decipher the meaning behind a food label, you'll struggle a lot more with fat loss because it will be harder to get an understanding about what you're putting into your body.

That said, here's what you need to look out for.

Total Calories

The most important thing to look for when reading a food label is the total calorie count.

This is the determining factor that will guage weight loss. If you aren't taking in fewer calories than you're burning in a day, you aren't going to lose weight.

So, once you figure out how many calories are necessary for you to lose weight, then you must calculate how many calories are in the foods you're eating to see if you're hitting your calorie target.

Protein, Fat, Carbs

Next up, look at the protein, fat, and carb counts. While each person is going to have different needs for these depending on their particular diet program and body weight, what you need to know is that each type of nutrient has the following calories in it:

fat = 9 calories per gram
protein = 4 calories per gram
carbohydrate = 4 calories per gram

(and for those who drink alcohol, it has 7 calories per gram).

So, from there you can work out how that particular food you're considering eating fits into your overall weight loss diet plan.

Fiber Count

Finally, the third thing to look at is the fiber count. Foods that are higher in fiber are typically better for those looking to lose weight because they will make you feel fuller as well as keep the whole digestive system healthy.

Furthermore, some people will subtract the fiber grams in a food from the total carbohydrate grams to get 'net carbohydrate count' and that's what they actually add to their total carb intake for the day (since fiber is often passed right through the body).

So, keep these in mind when you're assessing your weight loss diet and looking at food labels. It's definitely something you do want to learn to do in order to see good results from your diet plan.

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