How I Calculate Nutrition

Every calorie and gram of protein on this site is calculated from real ingredient data, never guessed and never copied from another recipe. Here's exactly how I get to those numbers, so you don't have to take it on faith.

Where the numbers come from

I calculate every recipe's macros from USDA FoodData Central, the U.S. government's public nutrition database. It's the same data source professional nutrition calculators are built on, and it's free and public, not a private estimate from an aggregator site or a number lifted from someone else's version of a similar recipe.

How I calculate each recipe

For every recipe, I take the exact ingredients and quantities as written, not a rounded-off version, and look up each one's real macros in FoodData Central. I add up calories, protein, carbs, fat, and fiber across the whole recipe, then divide by the number of servings it actually makes. The number you see is per serving, and the serving size is always stated right next to it.

I round the final numbers to reflect how precisely they were actually measured, not to make them look more exact than they are. If I change a recipe's ingredients, quantities, or serving size later, I recalculate the macros from scratch. A stale number after an edit is a mistake, not a rounding choice. In practice that means calories to the nearest 5 and grams to the nearest whole gram.

Raw weight vs. cooked weight

Meat and fish lose water as they cook, so a pound of raw chicken doesn't weigh a pound once it's done. When a recipe lists meat or fish by raw weight, which is what you buy and measure, I apply a cooked yield to that weight and use USDA's entry for the cooked version of the same food. The yields I use are 74% for whole cuts of chicken and steak, 75% for ground meat, 80% for fish, and 85% for shrimp. When USDA lists both a raw and a cooked weight for the same item, like a sausage link, I use its numbers instead.

Grains and legumes absorb water instead of losing it. When a recipe calls for dry quinoa or dry lentils, I calculate from that dry weight, not from a guess at how much it cooks up to.

Packaged products and protein powder

For a few packaged ingredients, like canned chicken breast or buffalo sauce, I use USDA's branded entry for a widely sold version and name it in the recipe's sources. Everything else uses USDA's generic entries.

Protein powder varies a lot from brand to brand, so I don't pick one. Recipes use USDA's generic whey powder entry: a 32g scoop with 25g of protein and 113 calories, which lands right at the middle of the branded whey powders USDA lists. If a recipe specifically calls for a plant-based powder, I use the middle of USDA's branded plant-based powders instead. Your scoop size and label may differ, and the recipe's numbers will move with it.

Check the math yourself

Every recipe has a "Where these numbers come from" list right under its nutrition table. It names the USDA entry used for each ingredient, the weights I counted, and the batch totals before dividing by servings. Each FDC number links straight to that entry on the USDA site, so you can check any figure against the source.

What can make your numbers come out different

Nutrition data isn't identical across every brand or product. The chicken breast, cheese, or protein powder in your kitchen might carry a slightly different label than the one I calculated from, and exact weights vary with how you measure. If you swap an ingredient or change a quantity, the real macros change with it. I'd rather tell you that upfront than pretend one number applies to every version of a recipe forever.

What I don't do

I don't estimate macros with AI, and I don't guess at a "close enough" number. I don't copy a nutrition figure from another site's version of a similar recipe, because their number was calculated from their ingredients, not mine. If I haven't actually calculated a recipe's macros yet, it doesn't get published with numbers attached.

Found a number that looks off?

Tell me. I'd rather fix a mistake than leave it sitting there wrong.