Trying to better understand calories/macros moving forward

Recently, I got these tortillas (“Mission Whole Wheat Carb Balance”) at the store which are a decent size and are listed as only 110 calories per tortilla! I thought that was great (and honestly too good to be true because they were like normal wraps in size and taste), so I looked at the macros and did a little math. It didn’t add up.

The tortillas macros are:

6g fat = 6 * 9 = 54 calories
30g carb (25g dietary fiber) = 30 * 4 = 120 calories
9g protein = 9 * 4 = 36 calories

54 + 120 + 36 = 210 calories

Subtracting the 25g dietary fiber from 30g total carbs is what allows them to mathematically arrive at 110 calories per tortilla, I suppose.

Questions:

1.) So, is it correct that the actual calorie total should be 210? (And so I would track these tortillas as 210 calories each rather than 110?)

2.) Am I better off tracking macros rather than calories to get a more accurate gauge of my daily caloric intake?

3.) If yes for question 2, does anyone have recommendations for a good (free) macro-tracking tool besides MyFitnessPal? If not, I suppose I could just track the macros of my meals “by hand” in some form.

4.) Would it be beneficial to learn more about dietary fiber? If so, what are some good resources to do so?

I am planning to cut some weight soon, so I figured it would ease the process to understand this a little better. Thank you!

Sean,

The actual energy content in the tortilla is 210. I don’t know that there are any differences in tracking macros or Calories, as long as you’re consistent with using one vs the other. In other words, precision > accuracy. There are plenty of tools available for tracking macros, but MFP works just fine if you ignore their suggestions.

As far as dietary fiber, I don’t know if it’s necessary to learn anything about it in order to adopt a diet that produces weight loss. In any case, we did a podcast on it: Stream Episode #109: Fiber by Barbell Medicine | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

-Jordan

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