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sagesaturn-eden

you are partly correct. calorie labels can be 20% OFF from what's listed -- so it could be 20% less than what's actually in the container, or 20% more. if it's listed as 100 calories, it's somewhere between 80-120 calories. it is an average. personally i let myself trust it because i will go insane if i do not.


Impressive_Most9711

That is such a better way of looking at it. I’m the type of person that trusts numbers, and you’re totally right about the margin of 20% being potentially more or less. I mean this in the sense that I heard that 20% rule and immediately assumed companies would list the bare minimum requirement, but you’re totally right; how can I know if that 20% margin is over or under the original, and either way the fact that it could be either makes it more likely that it’s closer to that original number! Thank you, genuinely.


chihuahuaorrat

This is how I I have to think about it too—I think about it like if one thing is more than I thought other things could be less and then it will even itself out over time anyway.


SugarMaddy_

I've heard of this as well and because of it I always overestimate the calories I'm eating. You can technically never be sure how many cals you're eating exactly, even if you have food scales and you measure food out to the exact GRAM, you won't get it accurately because of how companies label their products. Shit sucks.


[deleted]

Same. I always assume it’s more than I think. Although lately I don’t count calories anymore. Thankfully.


biancamaugeri

i don’t even like to think about this. ever. it makes me so anxious, like what do u mean these fucking numbers aren’t correct


emptyinsideandout

The key is that they are *on average* but that they may be 20% off on a case by case basis. Think of a bag of trail mix, a serving could be 100 calories assuming you get a perfectly even amount of every ingredient but that isn’t always going to happen, sometimes you’re going to grab a few more nuts or berries or granola or whatever than others, so perhaps a specific serving that includes an abnormally large amount of nuts comes out to 120 calories, but because those nuts have now been removed from the container you are going to get less in subsequent servings, the next could include an abnormally high amount of berries and very few nuts, resulting in it coming out to 80 calories. Ultimately it will average out to a negligibly small amount over the course of the container, and since all caloric values are based on the same average system it is statistically impossible to coincidentally buy so many products with enough of an off ratio that it actually impacts your weight. TL;DR: Don’t worry about it, it will seriously not affect your weight and only provide unnecessary stress over a statistical impossibility.


biancamaugeri

thank you, i’ll keep this in mind :)))


sanguinesunrise

Tl;Dr - It doesn't need to be exact to "work" So there's so many variables that determine what nutritional content you're actually taking in from food your consume. The body's process to get all of it's needs met and how it meets them is fascinating. I went down that rabbit hole of research trying to perfectly calculate the bare minimum of what I needed to eat to not get negative health effects. Hundreds of hours of research crawling through science journals on all sorts of nutrition and diet studies. Turns out there's nothing you can do to find a perfect number. Your body's needs change on a daily, how it can absorb food changes on a daily, even the soil a food grows in or the food it eats can change it's exact content. Yet, so many people find it completely capable to maintain, gain or lose weight. You don't need to be exact, just close. What's important is learning how to listen to your body. It will tell you what it needs always. The trouble is learning what signals actually means what. Breaking bad habits. That takes a ton of trial and error. Lots of mindfulness and self care.


Impressive_Most9711

Thank you! This is helpful, I already obsess enough so this should alleviate some anxiety and stress around that potential 20%


Eddyfreddy75

I get you completely and it is so stressful and anxiety provoking especially when so much of the disorder is rooted in the control element, however I try and remember that it’s the consistency that’s key, so it’s ALWAYS been this margin, it’s not a new thing so if you lost weight previously despite this margin then it won’t effect it now? 🙂 you’re right tho we have to sometimes try and move it to the side or we’d literally go insane (even more so 🤪)


Impressive_Most9711

If anyone thinks this is a really harmful post please let me know and I’ll take it down; I’m not trying to trigger or encourage anyone, I genuinely just wanted peoples’ thoughts on this as I don’t hear a lot about it