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Daily Sugar Intake Calculator

Find your daily added-sugar limit.

How it is calculated

The daily gram limit is grams = calories × percent / 100 / 4. calories is your total daily energy intake in kcal, percent is the share of those calories you allow to come from added sugar, and 4 is the number of kilocalories in one gram of sugar. If you leave the percent empty or enter a negative number, the tool falls back to 10%. Negative calories return no result. The answer is rounded to a whole number of grams. The percentage is your own choice: a lower percentage gives a stricter target, and official recommendations differ between organisations and countries, so pick the figure you are actually following.

Worked example

Suppose you eat about 2000 kcal a day and want added sugar to stay at 10% of that. 2000 × 10 / 100 = 200 kcal may come from sugar. Dividing by 4 kcal per gram gives 200 / 4 = 50 g of added sugar per day. Halving the percentage to 5% would halve the limit to 25 g.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Entering the percentage as a fraction (0.10) instead of 10, which gives a limit of almost zero grams.
  • Using the calories you need to burn or a diet target instead of the calories you actually eat, then comparing against a label.
  • Comparing the result with total sugars on a label when it is meant for added sugars.
  • Forgetting that the result is in grams of sugar, not teaspoons (a teaspoon holds roughly 4 g, so check the label unit).
  • Using the default 10% without noticing it was applied because the percent box was left empty.

About this calculator

This calculator applies the AHA and WHO guidelines for added sugar — the WHO recommends limiting added sugar to under 10% of total daily calories (ideally under 5%), while the American Heart Association sets a stricter gram limit of about 25g for women and 36g for men — and converts a chosen calorie percentage into a daily gram target (since sugar contains 4 calories per gram).

It's used by people managing weight or blood sugar, parents checking how much of a child's recommended calorie intake a sugary snack or drink would use up, and anyone reading a nutrition label's "added sugars" line who wants a personal daily target to compare it against, rather than just the generic recommendation printed on the label.

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