LEAN MEATS LIE!
What do I mean they lie? Do meats talk and tell you things that are false? Nope. That's not what I mean. What I'm talking about is the misconception I had about lean meats and what that fancy pants percentage actually means.
Take a common 93% lean ground beef. My first thought was, excellent this is what I need, super lean with low fat calories, I can add this to my stack of components for most food items. Well, that's definitely true. I can and do add it. Particularly 93% lean ground turkey.
What does the 93%/7% really mean??
Let's be honest, the label should be 7% fat, not 93% lean. But marketing likes to make it appealing, which is especially understandable once you learn about what 93% lean really means.
So, are only 7% of the calories from fat? Or is it that fat is only 7% of the total macronutrient grams and 93% is a mix of carb/protein? Or is the total content of the meat 7% fat and the 93% is muscle and other things? On a pie graph, that slice of fat calories keeps growing with each option...
93% Breakdown
First let's go over the breakdown of nutrition for 4oz of the 93% ground beef. I used the information from MyFitnessPal - Our Certified - Ground Beef - 93/7 - 93% Lean - Raw.
There are 170 total calories in 4 oz of ground beef. The macronutrient breakdown is 0 grams of carbs, 23 grams of protein, and 8 grams of fat. We know that there are 4 calories in each gram of carbohydrates and proteins, and there are 9 calories in each gram of fat.
The sum of the macronutrient grams = 31 grams (8+23).
The total weight of the meat is 4 ounces = 112 total grams.
So, 7% of the calories are from fat?
Nope. If only 7% of the calories were from fat, then a 4oz serving of 93% lean ground beef would actually have less than 1 gram of fat. 99% lean anyone??
Okay, then fat is only 7% of the total macronutrient grams?
Nope. If you calculate percentages, then roughly 26% of the grams between macronutrients is fat. 26%! Thats not even close to 7%.
Hmm. Is the total content of the meat 7% fat and the 93% is muscle and other things?
Yep. Dang. Wait I'm confused. What does that mean?? Well its really simple: 4 ounces of meat is 112 grams and we have 8 grams of total fat. To find the percentage, we must divide 8 (fat) by 112 (total weight), which is roughly 7%.
Still doesn't make sense? Well think of it this way, you can't take 112 grams and break it up into only carb/protein/fat because there are other substances outside of the 3 macronutrients. The sum of the 3 macronutrients is only 31 grams, which means we have 81 grams of "other".
93% LEAN = 44% CALORIES FROM FAT
Let's do more calculations of common "lean" meats.
- 99% LEAN = 14% CALORIES FROM FAT
- 80% LEAN = 72% CALORIES FROM FAT
- 70% LEAN = 82% CALORIES FROM FAT