How to Count Carbs on Labels

Counting carbohydrates is an important part of any weight loss plan, even those that are not associated directly with the Atkins diet. Your body burns carbohydrates before anything else, so it stands to reason that limiting your carbohydrate intake will give your body a better opportunity to burn fat. Luckily, counting carbohydrates on labels involves only a single, simple mathematical operation.

Instructions

1

Find the Nutrition Facts label on the product for which you would like to count the carbohydrate intake. Many nutrition labels are located on the side of a box, or on the back or bottom of a bag. If the product you are using is individually wrapped but sold in bulk, such as variety packs or 100-calorie snack packs, the nutrition label will most likely be on the box, but not necessarily on the individually wrapped items.

2

Find the Total Carbohydrate content on the label. Depending on the product and level of detail, the carbohydrate content should be about halfway down the label. A slice of bread, for example, may contain 26 grams of carbohydrates.

3

Find the Dietary Fiber content. This will more than likely be directly below the carbohydrate content. The same slice of bread from Step 2, for example, may contain 7 grams of fiber.

4

Calculate the net carbohydrate content by taking the Total Carbohydrate content and subtracting the Dietary Fiber content. The slice of bread from Steps 2 and 3, for example, contains 19 net carbohydrates. A food product's net carbohydrate content is important to consider because it represents the amount of carbohydrates that your body will absorb from that product.