Why are calories on nutrition labels sometimes different from calculating the sum of its parts (carbs, proteins, fats)?

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On the USDA database the entry for [this chicken thigh](https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/1899680/nutrients), calculating the sum of its parts using the 4-9-4 rule (4 cal per gram of carb/protein and 9 cal per gram of fat) is ~20 cal off from it’s listed energy amount. A similar noticeable difference can be found on [this nutrition label for some edamame](https://www.instacart.com/store/items/item_1910923160).

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Why does this happen? I know there are tools like bomb calorimeters. Do those provide different numbers than the 4-9-4 rule? If so, is that what they use to list the total calories on the label?

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5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Can’t speak for the chicken, but looks like Edamame is not including the cals from 4g of Fiber.

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