Calorie calculator
How many calories you need a day to keep, lose or gain weight.
Calorie calculatorSugar intake calculator: how much sugar can you have a day?
Your sugar limit depends on how many calories you need. Enter your details to get your maximum free sugars a day in grams and teaspoons, based on the advice of the World Health Organization.
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 sugar limit is calculated
The World Health Organization advises adults to get less than 10% of their daily calories from free sugars, and says that 5% or less gives extra health benefits. A gram of sugar has 4 calories, so the calculator turns your daily calories into grams: 10% of 2,000 calories is 200 calories, or 50 g of sugar.
A level teaspoon of sugar weighs about 4 g, so 50 g is about 12 teaspoons and 25 g about 6 teaspoons.
Which sugars count
Free sugars are the sugars added to foods and drinks by the manufacturer, the cook or you, plus the sugars naturally in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.
The sugars naturally in whole fruit, vegetables and milk do not count. That is why the “of which sugars” line on a food label can be higher than the free sugars in the product: it includes all sugars, for example the lactose in a yogurt.
A 330 ml can of regular cola contains about 35 g of sugar, already most of a 50 g limit. Scanning a food or a drink shows you how much sugar it contains before you buy it.
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Macro calculator
Your daily protein, fat, carbohydrates, fibre and salt.
Macro calculatorHow much sugar should I have a day?
The World Health Organization advises less than 10% of your daily calories from free sugars, ideally 5% or less. With 2,000 calories a day, that is under 50 g (about 12 teaspoons), ideally under 25 g (about 6 teaspoons). This calculator works it out for your own calories.
Does the sugar in fruit count?
Not in whole fruit. The limit is for free sugars: sugars added to food and drinks, and the sugars in honey, syrups and fruit juices. The sugars in whole fruit, vegetables and milk are not included.
How many grams of sugar are in a teaspoon?
A level teaspoon of white sugar weighs about 4 g. To turn the grams on a label into teaspoons, divide by 4.
How much sugar a day is too much for men and women?
The limit depends on your calories rather than on your sex, so men usually have a higher limit because they need more calories. The American Heart Association gives a simpler rule for added sugar: at most 36 g (9 teaspoons) a day for men and 25 g (6 teaspoons) for women.
Do sweeteners count as sugar?
No, they are not sugars. But the World Health Organization advises against using non-sugar sweeteners to control weight, so they are not a substitute for cutting down on sugar.
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
