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Hey Reader,

Nothing drives me more insane than when people call peanut butter a protein source.

It is the definition of, “Tell me you know nothing about nutrition without telling me you know nothing about nutrition.”

And to be fair, that was me at one time!

I didn't know shit about shit in regards to nutrition.

But over the past 12+ years, I've been my own guinea pig slowly sorting through all the BS.

And eventually, got to the things that truly matter for your nutrition.

I will eventually cover (if you want) my full hierarchy of importance in regard to nutrition.

Aka what should you focus on first to give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Then what to focus on second to give you the next biggest bang for your buck.

And so on.

But before then, I want to share a rating system that you can apply today that will make your nutrition 100x easier.

The CTP Rating System.

Not to be confused with the GPC Rating System we covered a few weeks ago!

The GPC was for food volume (aka how can I eat the most food for the smallest amount of calories).

“Grams To Calories.”

The CTP Rating system takes into account two other VERY (arguably more) important factors.

Your calories matter.

Your protein matters.

You could literally just track your calories and protein and you’d get 80-90% of your results just from that.

So I wanted to combine them into a rating system that would score them based on how great of a protein source they truly were.

It’s called “The CTP Rating System.”

Game changer.

I can’t say this concept is truly mine. I got inspiration from my buddy Tyler (FormerFatGuyFitness) who used the CTP in his protein bar/product reviews.

Def check him out. He’s got the best unbiased reviews for sure.

So what is the CTP Rating system?

CTP stands for "Calories to Protein."

So what this easily measures is how high protein a food/product truly is.

How much of the total calories are coming from protein?

Let's use peanut butter as an example.

Per 2 tbsp it's 190 calories with 8g protein.

So to find the CTP rating, we need to simply divide the total calories by the calories coming from protein.

Since there are 4 calories per gram of protein (this is a standard) we find the total calories from protein by taking the grams of protein and multiplying it by 4.

8g protein x 4 calories per gram = 32 calories from protein

So now to find the ratio of total calories to protein calories, we divide total calories by protein calories.

190 total calories/32 calories from protein = 5.94 CTP Score.

The higher the rating, the less of a true high protein source it is.

Let's use a classic high-protein source to solidify your understanding of this rating system.

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast.

Let's find the calories per 4oz.

And this is chicken breast weighed raw, not cooked.

The cooked weight is less accurate because it will shrink different amounts in weights based on the cooking method.

The raw weight is constant so it's the most accurate.

4oz of Raw Chicken Breast = 110 calories with 23g protein.

So first we need to find how many calories are in 23g protein.

23g protein x 4 calories per gram = 92 calories from protein.

So now to find the CTP rating, we divide total calories by protein calories.

110 total calories / 92 protein calories = 1.2 CTP Score.

Aka one of the best scores you'll ever get!

This means MOST of the total calories are coming from protein.

Any score below a 2 is a great protein source.

Don't want this to be confusing but I think this will further help your understanding of all this.

Let's go back to the peanut butter example.

I want us to find the CTF (calories to fat) score for peanut butter.

Peanut Butter per 2 tbsp has 16g fat.

There are 9 calories per gram of fat.

It's a sad reality lol. Fats are sooo tasty but sooo dense in calories.

So now we need to find the calories coming from fat.

16g fat x 9 calories per gram = 144 calories from fat.

And now we remember that there are 190 calories in 2 tbsp of PB.

Now to get the CTF score, we take 190 total calories / 144 calories from fat = 1.32 CTF score.

The CTF score is the same concept as the CTP!

Peanut butter is a high-fat source, not a high-protein source.

The 1.32 CTF score reflects that.

Almost 4x's more of a fat source than a protein source.

And yes you can do the CTC (calories to carbs) score as well if you want haha.

So my goal with this rating system as a whole across all the macronutrients is to build a true database of how “macro friendly” every food is.

And also more importantly, a database that is easily searched by macronutrient dominance score.

For example, let’s say you have used pretty much all your carbs up for the day and need protein and fats.

This database would allow you to see which foods are the best fit for you to hit those macros.

So just wanted to share with you a behind-the-scenes story into my brain of something I am working on.

I think it’ll be super helpful.

But I’d love to hear what you think about all this!

Do you think it’ll be super helpful? Any other follow-up questions/suggestions?

I read all the replies because you guys have incredible insights that help me a ton.

Big time example is all the macro tracking app feedback you guys have sent. THANK YOU.

Alright that’s enough babbling from me lol.

Talk soon.

Your friend and CTP/GPC (and probably more acronyms to come lol) Analyst,
​Zach

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P.S. I hope you know that you don’t have to worry about this here EVER 😭

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