Grams of Macros doesn’t match Calorie Count!

Chez123

Hello, I just wanted to let you know there is definitely a discrepancy with your calorie count and your macro count. 

Here’s a screenshot of the calories on my husbands Cronometer gold account for today.

As you see he has in his meal plan a total of 2066.2 calories. I checked to see if that number was correct by adding the calories of each individual food item and sure enough, it equaled 2066.3 , as you can see in the screenshot of the calculator equation. 

The protein, carbs and fat however is where there is a problem. 

Cronometer says he has 181.3 grams protein, 247.5 grams carbs, and 55.4 grams fat in his diet today. However if you do the math and multiply the grams of carbs and protein by 4 (calories per gram) and the fat multiply by 9 (calories per gram) the total calorie count SHOULD BE 2213.8. But in actuality it is 2066.3. 

Somehow your macro count is off by a couple hundred calories. I’m not sure why there is a discrepancy but when I’m asking all this work to eat a certain amount of grams of protein, fat and carbs it’s disturbing that it is off by that much. It makes me wonder how many grams of each I was actually eating and if I even made it to my goal. Please explain what’s going on and help me understand if it’s something wrong that I did in my settings or what. Thanks,

Camille 

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Camille,

The amount of energy for each macronutrient (4/4/9 kcal/g for protein/carbs/fat) are average estimates. Cronometer uses more accurate values when they are available for the foods you log in your diary. For example, some carbs are 2, 3.8, 4.1, 4.3 kcals per gram etc. Same is true for protein and fats.

Swipe the top banner in your diary to the right and tap on your energy Consumed circle. This will show you how many calories are coming from protein, carbs, fat, as well as alcohol if there was any.

bhrutledge

I think I'm encountering something similar.

With the caveat that I'm new to macro tracking and Cronometer, I find it confusing to see all of the macros over 100%, but the energy still below. Furthermore, if I follow the common 4/4/9 equation, the consumed grams gives me 3057 kcal, i.e. 222 more than the 2835 that Cronometer shows.

I was not aware that actual kcal/g could very so much from the average. Can you share any resources that go into more depth? I also feel like there's an opportunity to explain this in the diary UI.