Most foods have more macronutrients than calories?

Checkus

So I'm aiming to consume 3400 kcal a day.
I only enter foods into the diary whose nutritional values are certified. However, when I reach 100% of my calories, I end up with 10-15% too much fat, carbs or protein, while none of the three macronutrients is lower than 100%. Doesn't make sense right?
That's because most of the foods I enter into the diary don't have energy levels that match up with its macronutrients. We know that a gram of protein / carbohydrates is 4.1 kcal, a gram of fat 9.3 kcal. Now, if we take simple oats for example, cronometer says 100g of oats have 379 kcal, 13.2g protein, 67.7g carbs and 6.5g of fat. If we multiply the values of the protein and carbs with 4.1 as well as the values of the fat with 9.3, we get 392, not 379. And oats are only one of the foods where the values don't match up. This manipulates the final result of the day so much that I don't know if I even consume enough calories or protein.

Can anyone tell me if I'm wrong or is this actually an important issue?

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Checkus,

Many whole foods in NCCDB or USDA use energy factors to better estimate how much energy we can get from the macronutrients. We get different amounts of energy from carbs, proteins and fats, depending on the food in which they are found.

The energy factors used for Oats, Regular or Quick, Dry are 4.12 for carbs, 8.37 for fat and 3.46 for protein. The values can be found here: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173904/nutrients

Your targets are estimated using the average Calorie values for the macronutrients. However, our foods differ in the amount energy the macros provide so this means that you can achieve 100% of your macro targets though your energy target may be a bit over or under 100%.

Checkus

I don't know how I answer individual users here but thank you very much! I was unaware of that. Sorry for spreading unjustified criticism.

Karen_Cronometer

There is no harm in asking questions Checkus and criticism helps us grow, so we appreciate the feedback either way!