Added Sugar Calculator

Compute your 10% and 5% added-sugar limits from calories, and track your estimated intake from foods. Sugar is assumed at 4 kcal per gram. Teaspoons use 4 g per tsp.

Settings
Used only in Estimate mode.
Intake tracker
Add foods/drinks with grams of added sugar per serving and number of servings.

How to use

  • Pick a mode: enter daily calories directly, or estimate calories using BMR × activity.
  • Add foods/drinks to estimate your added sugar intake (grams per serving × servings).
  • Compare your intake against the 10% limit and 5% target.

Methodology

The limits are computed as a fraction of daily energy intake. Since sugar contributes approximately 4 kcal per gram, the limit (in grams) is: grams = (fraction × calories) / 4. For teaspoons, we use 4 g per teaspoon.

In Estimate mode, we approximate daily calories as Total Daily Energy Expenditure: TDEE = BMR × PAL. BMR is computed with the Mifflin–St Jeor equation (metric units), then multiplied by the selected activity factor.

Full original guide (expanded)

This calculator provides two ways to set a daily calorie baseline (direct entry or estimation). It then computes two thresholds (10% and 5%) and compares them to a user-built intake list. The tool includes range checks to prevent nonsensical inputs and avoids rendering invalid numbers.

Formulas

Added sugar limit (grams/day):

\[ g = \frac{f \cdot C}{4} \]
  • \(f\): fraction of calories from added sugars (0.10 or 0.05)
  • \(C\): daily calories (kcal/day)
  • 4: kcal per gram of sugar

Teaspoons (approx.):

\[ tsp \approx \frac{g}{4} \]

BMR (Mifflin–St Jeor, kcal/day):

\[ BMR = \begin{cases} 10W + 6.25H - 5A + 5, & \text{male}\\ 10W + 6.25H - 5A - 161, & \text{female} \end{cases} \]
  • \(W\): weight (kg)
  • \(H\): height (cm)
  • \(A\): age (years)

TDEE estimate:

\[ TDEE = BMR \cdot PAL \]
Citations

Dietary Guidelines / Added sugars overview: https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/

WHO guideline (free sugars): https://www.who.int/publications/

Changelog
  • 0.1.1 — 2026-01-28: Canon-compliant debounced update() pattern (QA gate compatibility). No numeric logic changes.
✓ Verified by Ugo Candido
Last Updated: 2026-01-28
Version 0.1.1