THE CALCULATOR BENCH / 03
Food calorie & nutrition calculator
Build a meal with USDA reference foods or your own package label. Adjust grams, servings, calories, protein, carbohydrate and fat.
BUILD YOUR PLATE
Use a food from your own package label
Enter values for one labelled serving, not necessarily 100 g. We convert them to a consistent basis. Use total carbohydrate including fibre; for an EU label, add its separate fibre value to carbohydrate.
A useful estimate starts with the right food.
Our 17 reference foods come from USDA FoodData Central’s SR Legacy dataset, final release April 2018, retrieved 8 September 2026. Each record links to its source. This is a small curated reference library, not a live search of every supermarket product.
Match the preparation state before weighing: cooked rice and dry oats are different bases. Weights are edible portions, excluding peels, shells and bones. Added oil, sauces and toppings must be entered separately. Brands, preparation and natural variation change the result.
This calculator totals energy and selected nutrients. It does not check food allergies or show that a whole diet is nutritionally complete. For liquid labels, use the package’s grams equivalent or weigh the liquid; do not assume every millilitre weighs one gram.
Calculate a food portion or a whole recipe.
- Select a reference food that matches its preparation, or enter the nutrition information from your package label.
- Set the edible amount in grams. Label serving size and the amount you eat may be different.
- Add each ingredient once, including oils or sauces, and choose the number of servings.
- Read the meal total and per-serving result. Export the list if you want to keep it.
How are food calories calculated?
The calculator scales the reference energy by portion weight: calories per 100 g × grams ÷ 100. For example, an illustrative food with 120 kcal per 100 g contributes 180 kcal in a 150 g portion. We add the ingredients, then divide by the number of servings.
Should I enter raw or cooked weight?
Match the food record to the state you weighed. Cooking changes water content, so the same weight of a raw and cooked food can represent different amounts. Package labels and USDA reference entries can also differ.
This tool describes the foods you enter; it does not prescribe how much you should eat. Read the balanced training plate guide or explore the separate maintenance estimate.