[William S]

The sited explains dry weight basis but I did not see an explanation or definition of “calorie weighted basis”. Perhaps its stated but I have missed it. Can anyone help me out?

[Mike Sagman]

Thanks for your question. There are at least 2 ways to compute the calories weighted nutrient content of any food. I like to use what’s called the “modified Atwater method”. You can read more by clicking the following link to the AAFCO website.

http://petfood.aafco.org/Calorie-Content

By the way, I’m planning to add an easy-to-understand article about how to perform those calculations for our readers here on DFA — sometime in the not too distant feature.

Hope this helps.

[s s]

The Atwater calculation is a paper calculation. It does not take into account ingredient type or quality, or method of manufacturing, or the overall digestibility of the food.

It just assigns calories per gram to the three nutritional types, protein, fat and carbs.

[Mike Sagman]

To be clear: this is the standard method described by the Association of American Feed Control Officials on its website. And it is an appropriate answer to the question posted by the creator of this thread.

The member wanted to know how we calculated the “calorie-weighted basis” displayed in the dashboard table of every review on this website.

[Scared D]

It might be the accepted method for labeling but it should not be a reason to pick a food. The calculation is very outdated and does not taken into account the entropic nature of protein, for example. Most people cannot understand calories by measured cup vs calories by weight so I don’t see why any average pet owner should consider calories in their choice of food.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Scared D.

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