When I look at a food label, what information is important for me to focus on?

I'm trying to lose some weight and be healthy but I get confuse when I looked at the nutrition facts. If I want to lose some weight, which labels are important to look at for? Is it the calories, total fat, cholesterol or something else? If so, than what is the highest and lowest numbers I could go when eating food based on the nutrition facts? Thanks.

everything. let's go down the list of what it normally looks like:

calories: this will help you get an idea of how big the meal is. depending on your goals, this will differ from 300-600 calories.

fat: keep the saturated low, and try to avoid trans fat at all costs. otherwise, if the label states its coming from mono or poly, that means it's good for you. again, depends on your personal goal, but i feel like 10g a meal isn't gonna hurt you.

cholesterol: i don't even see too many foods that are high in this, but just don't go over the recommended allowance by a lot. most of the cholesterol that's bad for you isn't coming from food directly, but rather made by your body in response to eating bad fats.

sodium: it's been linked to high blood pressure, but the main problem is that it makes you dehydrated. minimize it when you can. watch out for anything in a can, or any "diet dishes" like lean cuisine or soups.

carbs: don't go higher than 40g per serving. make sure it has some fiber content. fiber is the key to keeping your digestion slow (and hence, minimizing the fat absorption).

protein: this is your buddy. you want as much protein as possible because it tends to use up more calories just to digest itself compared to carbs or fat. it also helps you feel full (so does fiber and fat).

after that, the rest is just nutritents, and they're all good for you unless you're taking in some obscene amount.

the only other thing i'd say is be on the lookout for these two things in the ingredients list: partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup

sugars (or carbs) , and fat. Get as low as possible. Higher in protein is better

You need to look at all of those things, but the calories and fat content are the most important in terms of losing weight. You also should look at the ingredient list on food items. Anything that has sugar, or some form of sugar in the 1st three ingredients on the list is not a good choice. You really need to figure out how many calories you need to consume each day in order to lose weight and then start counting the calories on the label. You could try this site for more help. http://health.divinfo.com/

Calories and grams of fat (saturated and trans fats too) ar ethe more important to look for. For calories, it really depends on what you're eating- if its, say, a chocolate bar, you shouldn't focus on a particular number for a "highest" and "lowest". Its more...if its a snack, keep it at 150 calories or so. If its a meal, maybe 400-450.

For fat, it has the % of fat you're supposed to have in a day, based on a 2,000 calorie diet. So look at that.

Look for a green check mark. The best way is to go to your doctor and he/she will give you things that are healthy and things that are not.

ALL OF IT. Trans fat is very bad, avoid that completely. Cholesterol should be kept low too. Moderate your saturated fat and sodium intake. Basically any manufatured precessed food is bad in abundance. Go have a banana and some steamed fish.

A real answer differs depending on your age, health and lifestyle.

looking for the ferueats and vagtabl

carbs should not be over 7
low fat helps too

You look for the whole nutrition package. Look for daily percentages. The best foods are low in saturated fat, high in complex carbohydrates, low is sugars. Also look for vitamins and minerals.