Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Question for Heather about calculating fat

Heather says you should keep the amount of fat below 25 energy percent I believe. That means that you divide the number of calories from fat with the total number of calories. If your labels are like the ones we have over here though, typically the amount of fat, protein et.c. is listed as grams per 100 grams or some other weight unit. Then you're typically given the total amount of calories per say 100 grams.

The amount of calories from one gram of fat is about 9. So assume you have something with 4 grams of fat and a total of 150 kcal per 100 grams. You then get a fat percent of 100*9*4/150 = 24. (The factor 100 is just to get the decimal point right.)

You should also be careful with the total amount of fat though I think. So this means that you should be careful with eating things with many grams of fat even if the fat percent is ok. Although this is usually taken care of automatically on this diet since you're not supposed to eat huge portions of food.

Hope that helps and that I didn't make you more confused.

/Ulrika, IBS-D

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