How to Calculate a Percentage of Carbs, Proteins & Fats From Calories

There are many different diet plans available today. Many of them are based on eating certain ratios of carbohydrates, protein and fat. It is easy to calculate these values for yourself using a simple formula. You can calculate the percentage for a particular food, for an entire meal, or for your whole calorie intake for the day. The more you practice actively evaluating the food you eat, the easier it is to control your diet in the future.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator
• Paper and pen

Instructions

1. Write down the total grams of protein, carbohydrates and fat for the food you are eating, or keep track of the amounts for the entire day.

2. Multiply the protein grams by 4. Divide the result by the total number of calories in the food. This is the percent of protein in the food.

3. Multiply the carbohydrate grams by 4. Divide this result by the total number of calories to get the percent of carbohydrates in the food.

4. Multiply the grams of fat by 9 and divide the result by the total calories to get the percent of fat.

5. Add all three results. The sum should equal 100%. If it does not, recalculate the numbers and check to make sure you wrote down all the correct values.

Tips & Warnings

• You must have the total grams for at least two of the nutrients to calculate percentages. This should be on the food package.

References

• Macronutrient Ratios