If a banana is said to have 100kcal and you and I eat it are we going to get:
1. all of those calories?
2. the same amount of energy or it varies person to person?
In: Biology
Simple answer:
You have to subtract out the fiber calories to get the true calories. Fiber passes through you and is not absorbed, but they are included in calorie counts at 4 calories per gram. So if you eat something that is 100 calories but it has two grams of fiber in it, you’ll really only process 92 calories from it.
Answer with a slight wrinkle:
Soluble fiber provides 2 calories per gram and insoluble fiber provides no calories per gram. So if you know the amount of soluble and insoluble fiber you can subtract 2 calories per gram of insoluble fiber from the total on the label, and subtract 4 calories per gram of soluble fiber from the total on the label.
But this is a huge pain and fiber is good for you, so don’t do that. We don’t want people sweating over fiber calories.
Fun fact, this is one reason why the weight watchers points system assigns fewer points to fiber-rich foods.
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