
Fitness Goals Support Group
This community is dedicated to group support around achieving fitness goals, whatever they may be, through personal training, athletic activites, or other strenuous activity. Whether you are trying to get fit to treat a health problem, boost your mood, relieve stress, or tone your body, this group is a great place to meet other like-minded people who have similar goals.
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The traditional way to determine net carb is to subtract grams of fiber, and other carbs that have negligable impact on blood sugar (such as glycerine, and sugar alcohols) from the total carb count.
If fiber is listed on the nutrition label, just subtract it from total carbohydrate count. Sugar alcohols may be seen on nutrition labels as (these are most common):
sugar alcohol or polyols
maltitol
xylitol
erythritol
sorbitol
Therefore, if you see any of these on the nutrition label, you may as a general rule subtract them from total carbohydrates as well.
Here is an example of calculating net carb when both fiber and sugar alcohols are present:
Nutritional Information
Serving Size 100g
Energy 80 Cal
Protein 4 g
Carbohydrate 12 g
Fiber 4 g
Maltitol 5 g
Fat 2g
In this example, net carb count is just 3 g (12 g carbs - 4 g fiber - 5 g sugar alcohol).
Now, having said this, the blood sugar response for some may be higher than others when it comes to sugar alcohols. Some argue sugar alcohols should not be completely disregarded in net carb count, especially if you are diabetic. Some low carb diets, such as Dr. Poon's Metabolic Diet, puts limits on how much sugar alcohols may be consumed per serving. For others, you might simply treat products sweetened with sugar alcohols as simply that - treats that may be consumed on occasion only. Your individual experience with sugar alcohols may also differ depending on the type (i.e. Maltitol vs. Xylitol).