---
title: "Control How Calories are Reported"
description: "Control how calories are reported throughout MacrosFirst"
url: https://help.macrosfirst.com/en/articles/38-control-how-calories-are-reported
collection: "Reporting"
updated: 2026-10-18
language: en
---

# Control How Calories are Reported

Control how calories are reported throughout MacrosFirst

In general, 1g of protein contains 4 calories, 1g of carbohydrates contains 4 calories, and 1g of fat contains 9 calories. However, you may have noticed on food nutrition labels or when tracking in MacrosFirst, or any other app for that matter, that calories do not always perfectly match the macros as you may expect them to.

There are many good reasons for this, including the differing caloric content of fiber vs. regular carbs, calories from alcohol, and nutrition label rounding and margin of error, and so we wrote a whole article on the subject, which you can check out here:

[

Why don’t my macros add up to my calories?

Lots of reasons: fiber, alcohol, nutrition label rounding and margin of error

](https://help.macrosfirst.com/en/articles/12-why-dont-my-macros-add-up-to-my-calories.md)

We also understand that some people just want everything to add up, so we've added _Macro Math_ as a setting in MacrosFirst, where you can control how calories are calculated and reported upon throughout MacrosFirst.

![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelparticle/DS6wcqq0OMkCmmEtIQA8hiYmYGnDt6w3w2pLcT0TLBK4f0wsoYbPBBEPQcjGhYi5HoBQK4kjAru.png)

## What is Macro Math

> **Success:** Macro Math is a Premium feature.

By default, MacrosFirst uses the calories from the nutrition labels of the foods you log as the data source for reporting calories throughout the app.

When Macro Math is enabled, instead of relying upon food nutrition labels, MacrosFirst will calculate calories from the macros, where:

-   1g Protein = 4 calories
    
-   1g Carbs = 4 calories
    
-   1g Fat = 9 calories
    

If Net Carbs and Macro Math are both enabled, then only Net Carbs (Total Carbs - Fiber - Sugar Alcohol) will be considered when calculating calories, where 1 NC = 4 calories.

To enable Macro Math:

1.  Go to More (circle icon with 3 dots icon)
    
2.  Tap _Display_
    
3.  Select the _Macro Math_ option
    

## What Calorie Reporting Controls

The Calorie Reporting setting controls how calories are displayed on the following screens:

-   Daily log
    
-   Food detail page of logged foods
    
-   [Nutrition Report](https://help.macrosfirst.com/en/articles/31-nutrition-report.md)
    
-   [Macronutrient Charting](https://help.macrosfirst.com/en/articles/29-nutrition-charting.md)
    
-   [Nutrient Charts](https://help.macrosfirst.com/en/articles/51-navigating-the-nutrient-charts.md)
    

In this example, you can see how the Calorie Reporting setting changes how calories are reported for the same food in three different scenarios.

![](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/ghelparticle/7B1nEtr1Sn1fFQtvsGLuK1reMtWqYTOmAll8nuKJXttdglarU6XUlvm4wsbuPs0vwEsDmBnOfs0.png)

The difference in calories is due to how the fiber content of the food is handled in each of the three settings.

The Calorie Reporting setting has no impact on the following screens and features. Instead, calories on these pages will always use the food's nutrition label as the data source for displayed calories.

-   Food search results
    
-   Food detail page of foods that are **not** logged to your day.
    
-   Food creation: When creating a new food, always enter the _real_ nutrition information from the label.
    
-   [Downloadable Food Log](https://help.macrosfirst.com/en/articles/28-download-food-log.md)
    
-   All integrations: [Google Sheets](https://help.macrosfirst.com/en/articles/11-google-sheets.md), [Apple Health](https://help.macrosfirst.com/en/articles/23-apple-health.md), and coaching platforms
    

Calorie Reporting does not impact how your nutrition data is saved in the database, only how it is displayed in the app. This means that you can switch between either Calorie Reporting option, _Nutrition Label,_ or _Macro Math_ at any time, and that will not affect how your nutrition data is saved.