Calorie calculator
How many calories you need a day to keep, lose or gain weight.
Calorie calculatorMacro calculator: how much protein, fat and carbs do you need?
Enter your details to get your daily calories split into protein, fat and carbohydrates, with your limits for saturated fat, sugar and salt and your daily fibre, based on WHO and EFSA advice.
Your result
Fill in your details to see your result.
An estimate for healthy adults. Not for children, pregnancy, breastfeeding or medical diets: ask your doctor or a dietitian.
How your macros are calculated
Macronutrients, or macros, are the nutrients that give you energy: protein, fat and carbohydrates. The calculator first works out your daily calories, then splits them using public health advice.
Protein: at least 0.83 g per kg of body weight a day, the population reference intake of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Fat: at most 30% of your calories, with saturated fat under 10% (World Health Organization). Carbohydrates: 45 to 60% of your calories (EFSA).
A gram of protein or carbohydrate has 4 calories and a gram of fat 9, which is how the percentages become grams. The calculator also shows the limits that do not depend on your calories: at least 25 g of fibre (EFSA) and under 5 g of salt a day (WHO).
Reading labels with your macros
Food labels show nutrients per 100 g, and often per portion. Compare them with your daily numbers: a portion with 10 g of saturated fat uses about half of the daily limit of most adults.
Highly processed foods often combine sugar, fat and salt. Checking the processing level and the nutrients before you buy is an easy way to stay within your limits.
More calculators
Sugar intake calculator
Your daily sugar limit in grams and teaspoons, based on WHO advice.
Sugar intake calculatorHow much protein do I need a day?
The European Food Safety Authority sets 0.83 g of protein per kg of body weight a day for adults, so about 58 g for someone who weighs 70 kg. People who train hard may need more; a sports dietitian can tell you how much.
How much fat should I eat a day?
The World Health Organization advises at most 30% of your daily calories from fat, and less than 10% from saturated fat. With 2,000 calories a day, that is at most about 67 g of fat, of which under 22 g saturated.
How many carbs should I eat a day?
The European Food Safety Authority advises 45 to 60% of your calories from carbohydrates, about 225 to 300 g with 2,000 calories a day. Choose wholegrain foods, fruit and vegetables, which also give you fibre.
How much salt is too much?
The World Health Organization advises adults to eat less than 5 g of salt a day, about one level teaspoon. Much of it is already in bread, cheese, processed meat and ready meals.
Can I use this macro calculator to build muscle?
It gives the general advice for healthy adults. If you train to build muscle, you will probably need more protein and calories; ask a sports dietitian for a plan that fits your training.
Sources
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1990
- World Health Organization: Healthy diet fact sheet
- World Health Organization: Guideline on sugars intake for adults and children, 2015
- European Food Safety Authority: Dietary reference values
- European Food Safety Authority: Population reference intakes for protein, 2012
- NHS: Understanding calories
Check every food against your limits
Your daily numbers are the first step. Scan a barcode with Green Point to see what is in a food before you buy it, and compare it with your limits.
- Calories, sugar, saturated fat and salt per 100 g and per serving, coloured from green to red
- Additives with their risk level and how processed the food is, graded from A to E
- Every product you scan saved in your history
