Recipe Calorie Calculator
Enter each ingredient's grams and its calories, protein, carbs and fat per 100 g, as printed on a nutrition label or listed in USDA FoodData Central. The calculator adds them up, splits the recipe into servings, and works out calories and macros per 100 g of the finished dish, from its cooked weight if you weigh it. Results are estimates from the numbers you enter, not medical advice.
Recipe Calorie Calculator
Ingredients
Use the calories, protein, carbs and fat per 100 g from the package or from USDA FoodData Central. If a label only gives values per serving, divide by the serving's grams and multiply by 100. Weigh each ingredient in the state its numbers describe, usually raw or dry. Add water or other zero-calorie ingredients with their grams and blank nutrition fields so they count toward the weight.
Servings and cooked weight
Weigh the finished dish without the pot: weigh the empty pot first and subtract it, or put a bowl on the scale and press tare before adding the food. Leave blank for a dish that isn't cooked, or to use the ingredient total.
Per serving
Per 100 g of the finished dish
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Whole recipe
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Default example: USDA FoodData Central values for dry oats (FDC 173904), 2% milk (FDC 171267) and raw banana (FDC 173944), at FDC's weights for 1 cup, 1 cup and 1 medium banana.
Results are estimates from the numbers you enter. Labels and databases are rounded, and foods vary. This calculator is not medical advice.
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How the recipe calorie calculator works
Each ingredient row works like a nutrition label: its grams times its calories per 100 g, divided by 100. Protein, carbs and fat scale the same way. The calculator adds the rows to get the whole recipe, divides by the number of servings, and divides by the dish's weight for the per-100 g figures. Each row also shows its share of the recipe's calories, so you can see which ingredient carries most of them.
The fields start with overnight oats, which aren't cooked, so the finished weight is simply the weight of the ingredients. With USDA FoodData Central values for dry oats (FDC 173904), 2% milk (FDC 171267) and a raw banana (FDC 173944), the rows come to 307, 122 and 105 kcal, or 534 kcal in all. Split into 2 servings, that's 267 kcal, 10.0 g protein, 46.8 g carbs and 5.3 g fat each, and 121 kcal per 100 g across the 443 g of ingredients.
Calories are shown as whole numbers, and protein, carbs, fat and shares to one decimal. Each figure is rounded once, from the unrounded totals, so the rows can add up to a calorie more or less than the total, and the shares to 99.9% or 100.1%.
A row with blank or zero grams is skipped. A blank nutrition field counts as 0, so water or another zero-calorie ingredient can go in with just its grams. A row with a negative or unreadable number is left out of every total, and a note under the results names it.
Weigh the ingredients, then weigh the finished dish
The FAO's Food composition data (Greenfield and Southgate, Appendix 6) sets out how to calculate a dish from its recipe: "The weights of the raw ingredients are used to calculate the total amounts of nutrients in the dish." For the cooked dish, it continues: "Divide the total nutrients in the dish calculated from the raw ingredients by the weight of the cooked dish and multiply by 100." The calculator does this when you enter a cooked weight.
Weigh each ingredient in the state its numbers describe, usually raw or dry. Then weigh the finished food without the pot: weigh the empty pot first and subtract it, or put a bowl on the scale, press tare and add the food.
In this method, "The difference in weight is taken as being accounted for by water". The calories come from the raw ingredients, and cooking changes the weight they're spread over. Say your ingredients add up to 2,400 kcal and your scale reads 1,500 g for the finished food (made-up numbers). That's 2,400 ÷ 1,500 × 100 = 160 kcal per 100 g, so a 300 g bowl is 480 kcal. With the cooked weight left blank, the per-100 g figures use the ingredient total instead, which only fits a dish whose weight didn't change. Water added during cooking can go in as a row with no calories, or you can simply enter the cooked weight.
Some calories do leave the dish. FAO's method makes "A correction for wastage as a result of ingredients left on utensils and in the vessels used in preparation", and one of its steps is to "Adjust the recipe weight and nutrient levels to reflect changes in fat/water contents when the whole mixture is cooked". Meat and poultry lose fat as well as water: the USDA's Table of Cooking Yields for Meat and Poultry says "The table includes percentages for cooking yield, moisture change, and fat change." If you pour off fat or leave oil in the pan, the cooking oil question below shows how to adjust.
Where to find per-100 g values
USDA FoodData Central lists nutrients per 100 g, unrounded. For plain ingredients, its SR Legacy and Foundation entries are the ones to look for, and every value in the default example comes from SR Legacy.
A US Nutrition Facts label gives values per serving, with the serving's grams in brackets. Divide each value by those grams and multiply by 100: a made-up label with 150 kcal per 40 g serving is 375 kcal per 100 g. Label figures are rounded under 21 CFR 101.9 (calories to the nearest 5 up to 50 and the nearest 10 above, protein and carbs to the nearest gram, fat to the nearest 0.5 g below 5 g), so a converted value is approximate.
Weigh instead of measuring by the cup, because a cup isn't a fixed weight. FoodData Central puts 1 cup of dry oats at 81 g, 2% milk at 244 g, olive oil at 216 g and honey at 339 g.
The calculator adds the calorie figures you enter rather than rebuilding them from protein × 4, carbs × 4 and fat × 9. Those general factors don't reproduce many FDC or label values, as one of the questions below explains.
Logging the dish in Counter44
Counter44 has no recipe builder, but it stores every food, custom ones included, as calories, protein, carbs and fat per 100 g (or mL), with a serving size (100 g unless you set one) and an optional serving name. The per-100 g figures and the serving weight above are those values for one custom food, so you can save the dish once and log it from My Foods or the Add Food search, by grams or by servings.
For a one-off meal, Quick Add takes calories and macros directly, so the per-serving figures work there. Custom foods are unlimited on the free plan. The app needs no account, and your data stays on your phone. Log this dish as a custom food in Counter44.
Other Counter44 calculators are listed on the tools page as they are published. If you log workouts too, the exercise calories eat back calculator shows how a logged burn changes the day's target.
This calculator and the figures on this page are estimates for planning, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or have a history of disordered eating, talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before changing how you eat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about recipe calorie calculator
How do I calculate the calories in a homemade recipe?
Multiply each ingredient's grams by its calories per 100 g and divide by 100, add up the rows, then divide by the number of servings. Protein, carbs and fat work the same way. For example, 81 g of dry oats at 379 kcal per 100 g (USDA FoodData Central, FDC 173904) is 81 × 379 ÷ 100 = 306.99 kcal. With 244 g of 2% milk and a 118 g banana, the recipe comes to 534 kcal, or 267 kcal per serving for 2 servings. The FAO's guide to food composition data sets out the same procedure: sum the ingredient weights, sum their nutrients, then work out values per 100 g or per serving.
Should I weigh a recipe before or after cooking?
Both. Weigh each ingredient in the state its nutrition numbers describe, usually raw or dry, to get the recipe's totals. Then weigh the whole finished dish without the pot, either by subtracting the empty pot's weight or by putting a bowl on the scale and pressing tare before adding the food. The FAO method takes the totals from the raw ingredients, then says: "Divide the total nutrients in the dish calculated from the raw ingredients by the weight of the cooked dish and multiply by 100." Enter that weight as the cooked weight in the calculator.
Does cooking change the calories in a recipe?
In the standard method, the dish's calories are the sum of its raw ingredients, and the change in weight during cooking is treated as water: "The difference in weight is taken as being accounted for by water" (FAO). What changes is the weight those calories are spread over, so calories per 100 g rise when water cooks off and fall when the food absorbs water. Calories do leave the dish when food stays on utensils or in the pot, and when fat drips off or is poured away. The FAO procedure corrects for both, and the USDA Table of Cooking Yields for Meat and Poultry records moisture and fat changes in cooked meat and poultry.
How do I find calories per 100 g of a cooked dish?
Divide the recipe's total calories by the cooked weight and multiply by 100. Say your ingredients add up to 2,400 kcal and your scale reads 1,500 g for the finished food (made-up numbers). That's 2,400 ÷ 1,500 × 100 = 160 kcal per 100 g, so a 300 g bowl is 480 kcal. Protein, carbs and fat per 100 g come from the same division. Enter the cooked weight in the calculator and it does this for you.
Should I count all the cooking oil?
Count the oil that ends up in the food. If you pour off oil or fat, you can weigh what you poured off, or what's left in the pan, and subtract it from the oil row's grams. If you can't measure it, counting all of it gives an estimate that errs high. Oil adds up quickly: USDA FoodData Central lists olive oil (FDC 171413) at 884 kcal per 100 g and weighs its tablespoon at 13.5 g, so one tablespoon is about 884 × 13.5 ÷ 100 = 119 kcal.
My label lists calories per serving, not per 100 g. What do I enter?
Divide the per-serving value by the serving's grams and multiply by 100. A made-up label with 150 kcal per 40 g serving works out to 150 ÷ 40 × 100 = 375 kcal per 100 g. Do the same for protein, carbs and fat. US labels round their figures (under 21 CFR 101.9, calories to the nearest 5 up to 50 and the nearest 10 above, protein and carbs to the nearest gram, and fat to the nearest 0.5 g below 5 g), so a converted value is approximate. USDA FoodData Central values are already per 100 g and unrounded.
Why don't protein × 4 + carbs × 4 + fat × 9 match the calories?
Because many calorie figures aren't worked out that way. For the default recipe, 4/4/9 on the totals gives about 548 kcal, while FoodData Central's own calorie values give 534. FDC uses food-specific factors for these foods: for dry oats, 3.46, 4.12 and 8.37 kcal per gram of protein, carbs and fat, which reproduce its 379 kcal per 100 g. US labels may use any of five methods listed in 21 CFR 101.9(c)(1)(i), from specific Atwater factors to bomb calorimetry. So the calculator adds the calorie figures you enter instead of recomputing them from the macros.
How do I log a homemade recipe in Counter44?
Counter44 has no recipe builder, but it stores every food, custom ones included, as calories, protein, carbs and fat per 100 g (or mL) with a serving size. So the dish becomes one custom food: its per-100 g figures from this calculator, one portion's grams as the serving size, and a serving name such as "1 bowl" if you want one. Then log it from My Foods or the Add Food search, by grams or by servings. For a meal you won't repeat, Quick Add takes the per-serving calories and macros directly. Custom foods are unlimited on the free plan.