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Food

12 calculators — Calculate calories, nutrition, recipe scaling, and cooking conversions

Food and nutrition calculators for calorie counting, macro tracking, recipe scaling, cooking unit conversions, and meal planning. Tools for home cooks, dietitians, and fitness enthusiasts.

Air Fryer Conversion

Air Fryer Time & Temp Conversion Calculator

Convert conventional oven time and temperature to equivalent air fryer settings instantly using the standard -25°F and -20% time rule of thumb.

Baker's Percentage

Baker's Percentage Calculator

Calculate baker's percentages for any bread formula. Enter flour weight as the 100% baseline and get every ingredient's percentage instantly.

Cocktail Dilution

Cocktail Dilution Calculator

Calculate total volume and ABV after ice-melt dilution for any cocktail. Enter spirit volume, starting ABV, and dilution percentage for instant results.

Coffee Ratio

Coffee-to-Water Ratio Calculator

Calculate the exact grams of coffee and milliliters of water for your desired brew strength ratio (1:15 to 1:18) and number of cups instantly.

Food Cost %

Restaurant Food Cost Percentage Calculator

Calculate restaurant food cost percentage from ingredient cost and menu price, plus an ideal price range against a 28-35% target food cost benchmark.

Grocery Budget

Grocery Budget Planner Calculator

Plan your grocery budget by category — produce, meat, dairy, pantry, and more. Calculate total spend and cost per person for any household size.

Meat Cooking Time

Meat Cooking Time & Temperature Calculator

Calculate estimated cooking time and target internal temperature for beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and lamb by weight, method, and doneness in seconds.

Dough Hydration

Pizza Dough Hydration Calculator

Calculate pizza dough hydration percentage from flour and water weight, or reverse it to find the water needed for your target hydration level.

Recipe Cost

Recipe Cost Calculator

Calculate the total cost of any recipe and the cost per serving. List each ingredient's cost and servings for instant, accurate meal cost breakdowns.

Recipe Scaling

Recipe Scaling Calculator

Scale any recipe up or down instantly. Enter original and target servings, list your ingredients, and get every quantity recalculated proportionally.

Slow Cooker Conversion

Slow Cooker Conversion Calculator

Convert an oven recipe's cooking time and temperature into equivalent slow cooker Low and High settings instantly, with standard conversion assumptions.

Wine Servings

Wine Servings Per Bottle Calculator

Find out how many glasses a wine bottle pours and how many bottles you need for your guests, based on standard, magnum, or custom bottle sizes.

About Food Calculators

Food calculators bridge the gap between nutritional science and practical everyday cooking. Whether you are trying to lose weight, build muscle, manage a health condition, plan a family meal, or run a food business, accurate food-related calculations help you make decisions based on real numbers rather than rough estimates.

Calorie and nutrition tracking

Understanding calorie balance — calories in versus calories out — is the most fundamental principle in nutrition. No single food is inherently fattening or healthy in isolation; what matters is the overall pattern and total intake relative to expenditure. Our calorie calculators help you understand your actual needs based on your body composition, age, and activity level rather than relying on generic round-number guidelines that may not apply to you.

Macronutrients and diet planning

Protein, carbohydrates, and fat each serve distinct physiological roles and have different effects on satiety, energy, and body composition. For someone trying to build muscle, adequate protein intake (not just total calories) is the critical variable. For managing blood sugar, the glycaemic load of carbohydrate sources matters more than the total carbohydrate count. Our macro calculators help you dial in the composition of your diet for your specific goal.

Recipe scaling and cooking conversions

Home cooks and professional chefs alike face the constant challenge of scaling recipes. A recipe written for 4 people at a dinner party needs to feed 50 at a function — and the maths of scaling, combined with the non-linear nature of cooking time and spice adjustment, can easily go wrong without a systematic approach. Our recipe tools handle the multiplication while flagging ingredients that need special attention when scaled.

Food cost and meal planning

Whether you are managing a household budget or running a food business, knowing the cost per serving of every dish puts you in control of your finances. Food cost estimation tools help home cooks plan meals that fit a weekly grocery budget, and help small restaurant owners or caterers price their menus accurately. A 10% error in food cost estimation — common when working from memory — can mean the difference between profit and loss in a food business.

Frequently Asked Questions

What food calculators are available on thecalcu.com?

thecalcu.com's food category includes calculators for calorie counting, macronutrient (protein, carbs, fat) tracking, recipe scaling, cooking unit conversions, daily calorie needs (TDEE), meal planning, food cost estimation, and portion size guidance. These tools are built for home cooks, fitness enthusiasts, dietitians, and anyone wanting to eat more mindfully.

How do I calculate my daily calorie needs?

Daily calorie needs = BMR × Activity Factor. First calculate BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation — for women: BMR = (10 × weight kg) + (6.25 × height cm) − (5 × age) − 161; for men add 5 instead of subtracting 161. Then multiply by your activity factor: sedentary (desk job, no exercise) = 1.2; lightly active (1–3 workouts/week) = 1.375; moderately active (3–5 workouts/week) = 1.55; very active (hard training 6–7 days/week) = 1.725. A 30-year-old woman, 60 kg, 165 cm, moderately active has a TDEE of approximately 2,000 kcal/day.

How do I calculate macronutrient targets for my diet?

Start with your total daily calorie target, then distribute across macros based on your goal. A common starting point: Protein = 1.6–2.2 g per kg of body weight (for muscle gain or maintenance); Fat = 20–35% of total calories; Carbohydrates = remaining calories. For a 70 kg person on 2,200 kcal aiming for muscle maintenance: protein = 140 g (560 kcal), fat = 65 g (585 kcal, ~27%), carbs = 264 g (1,055 kcal). Protein and carbs provide 4 kcal/g; fat provides 9 kcal/g.

How do I scale a recipe for a different number of servings?

Scaling factor = Desired servings ÷ Original servings. Multiply every ingredient quantity by this factor. For a recipe serving 4 that you want to serve 10: factor = 2.5. If the original uses 200 g of flour, use 500 g. Note that cooking time does not scale linearly — a larger cake or roast takes more time, but not proportionally more. For baking, leavening agents (baking powder, baking soda, yeast) should be scaled with some caution — slightly less than the full factor often works better for large batches.

How do I convert cooking measurements — cups to grams?

Cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons are volume measures; grams are weight measures — the conversion depends on ingredient density. Common conversions: 1 cup of water or milk = 240 g; 1 cup of all-purpose flour ≈ 120–130 g (if spooned, not packed); 1 cup of sugar = 200 g; 1 cup of butter = 227 g; 1 cup of rice = 185 g (uncooked). A kitchen scale gives far more consistent baking results than measuring by volume, especially for flour where compaction varies significantly between cups.

How many calories are in common Indian foods?

Approximate calorie content per serving of common Indian foods: 1 medium chapati (30 g) ≈ 80 kcal; 1 cup cooked rice (200 g) ≈ 260 kcal; 1 cup dal (200 g) ≈ 150–180 kcal; 1 samosa ≈ 150–200 kcal; 1 cup paneer curry (200 g) ≈ 280–350 kcal; 1 glass whole milk (250 ml) ≈ 150 kcal; 1 cup curd/dahi (150 g) ≈ 90 kcal; 1 banana (medium) ≈ 90 kcal. Values vary based on cooking oil, portion size, and specific recipe.

How do I calculate food cost per serving for a recipe?

Food cost per serving = (Total cost of all ingredients used in the recipe) ÷ Number of servings. Total ingredient cost = sum of (Quantity used ÷ Purchased quantity) × Purchase price for each ingredient. For a restaurant or catering context, food cost percentage = (Food cost per serving ÷ Selling price) × 100. A target food cost percentage of 25–35% is standard for restaurant operations; home cooking is typically far lower as there is no overhead to recover.

How do I convert between common Indian and metric cooking units?

Common Indian cooking unit conversions: 1 katori (small steel bowl) ≈ 150–180 ml; 1 glass ≈ 200–250 ml; 1 cup (standard) = 240 ml; 1 tablespoon = 15 ml; 1 teaspoon = 5 ml; 1 pinch ≈ 0.3 g (for spices). 1 kg of onions yields approximately 700–750 g after peeling and trimming; 1 kg of spinach yields about 600 g after washing and de-stemming. Regional Indian recipes may use different cup sizes — a Bengali cup is smaller than a South Indian cup, so weight measurements are always more precise.

How do I calculate how much food to cook for a group?

General per-person quantities for a typical Indian meal: rice (uncooked) 80–100 g; dal (dry) 50–60 g; vegetables (per dish) 100–150 g; chicken/mutton (bone-in) 250–300 g; roti/chapati 3–4 pieces. For larger gatherings, scale quantities slightly down per person as variety reduces individual portions of each item. For buffet-style serving, add 15–20% extra. Always cook more for family functions with elderly guests who may serve themselves conservatively — running short on food at a gathering is far worse than having leftovers.

How do I calculate the glycaemic index (GI) and glycaemic load (GL) of a meal?

Glycaemic Index is a fixed property of a food (measured against pure glucose = 100). Glycaemic Load accounts for portion size: GL = (GI × grams of carbohydrate per serving) ÷ 100. A GL under 10 is low; 10–20 is medium; over 20 is high. White rice has a GI of about 73 — a 200 g cooked serving (45 g carbs) has a GL of 33, which is high. Adding dal, vegetables, and curd to the same meal slows digestion and effectively lowers the meal's GI impact, even though the GI values of individual foods don't change.