Practice Consideration
Nutrition Analysis Calculations
Activity 1.2 Completing Nutrition Analysis can be answered using:
1. The online exchange list Excel spreadsheets (see nutritioncarepro.com)
2. Manual calculations using the Exchange Lists online and in your Tool Kit
3. A nutrition analysis app such as My Food Record
As noted in the Practice Consideration Nutrition Analysis Calculations, each method of calculation produces slightly different results. The answers in the textbook are derived from the NCPro Online Excel Spreadsheets. The main cause of these variances has to do with the way the numbers are rounded in the methodology. For example a diet with 6 starch exchanges Monday through Friday (30 per week) and 10 on each day of the weekend (20 per week) provides a total of 50. The daily average is obtained by dividing 50 by 7 (days). The true result is 7.142857 etc.
The NCPro Online Excel Spreadsheets are preset to display one decimal place only. However they use the extended number for calculations, so the estimated calories derived from the starch exchanges differ. See below to understand why the method of analysis can change the results.
1. The online exchange list Excel spreadsheets (see nutritioncarepro.com)
2. Manual calculations using the Exchange Lists online and in your Tool Kit
3. A nutrition analysis app such as My Food Record
As noted in the Practice Consideration Nutrition Analysis Calculations, each method of calculation produces slightly different results. The answers in the textbook are derived from the NCPro Online Excel Spreadsheets. The main cause of these variances has to do with the way the numbers are rounded in the methodology. For example a diet with 6 starch exchanges Monday through Friday (30 per week) and 10 on each day of the weekend (20 per week) provides a total of 50. The daily average is obtained by dividing 50 by 7 (days). The true result is 7.142857 etc.
The NCPro Online Excel Spreadsheets are preset to display one decimal place only. However they use the extended number for calculations, so the estimated calories derived from the starch exchanges differ. See below to understand why the method of analysis can change the results.
| Number | Excel Spreadsheet Calculation | Excel Spreadsheet Display (when cell is formatted to show one decimal place) |
Manual Calculations (when rounded to the nearest decimal) |
Manual Calculations (when rounded to the ½ exchange) |
Range of Estimates |
| Number of Exchanges | 7.142857 | 7.1 | 7.1 | 7 | 7 to 7.142857 |
| Estimate when multiplied by 80 kcal per Exchange | 571.428571 | 571.4 | 568 | 560 | 560 to 571 |
Updated February 15, 2019