Food Swap Calculator

How to Use the Food Swap Calculator

1. Search for the food you eat now and pick it from the list, or tap one of the quick examples.
2. Enter how much you eat, in grams.
3. Search for the food to swap to and pick it.
4. Choose what the swap should match: calories, protein, carbs, fat, or the same weight.
5. Read the result. The calculator shows how much of the new food to eat, a table of both foods at those amounts, and the calories saved or added.

How the Swap Amount Is Worked Out

Every food in our database is stored per 100g. To match a nutrient, the calculator works out how much of that nutrient is in your portion of the first food, then finds the weight of the second food that has the same amount. In plain terms: amount of the new food = nutrient in your portion, divided by nutrient per 100g in the new food, times 100.

For example, 150g of cooked white rice has 195 kcal (130 kcal per 100g). Cooked brown rice has 112 kcal per 100g, so about 174g of it gives the same 195 kcal. Brown rice also has more fibre, about 3.1g in that portion against 0.6g, and slightly less carbohydrate.

Which Match Should You Choose?

• Calories: keeps the energy the same, so the swap does not change your total calories. Use it to replace one food with another without changing your day.
• Protein: finds the amount that gives the same protein. Useful for swaps such as chicken to salmon or beef to a plant protein, but the calories can change a lot. Match 150g of grilled chicken (46.5g protein) with baked salmon and you need about 228g, which is roughly 226 kcal more, so check the table.
• Carbs: finds the amount that gives the same carbohydrate, for example when swapping rice for potato or pasta.
• Fat: finds the amount that gives the same fat.
• Same weight: uses the same grams of both foods, which is the way to see how many calories a swap saves.

Calories Saved by a Swap

With “same weight” selected, the calculator shows how many calories each swap saves or adds. If you also enter how many times a week you swap, it multiplies that up to a weekly total, and a yearly total over 52 weeks. This is plain arithmetic, not a prediction of weight loss. What you lose or gain depends on everything else you eat and do.

Matching on calories gives a difference of about zero, because the amounts are chosen to be equal.

Compare Foods in the Same State

Cooking changes the water in a food, and so changes its calories per 100g. 100g of dry pasta is not the same as 100g of cooked pasta, and raw chicken is not the same as grilled chicken. For a fair swap, pick two foods in the same state, such as cooked rice for cooked rice, or both dry. If the amount that comes out looks very large, check that the two foods match.

Swap Calculator or Swap Finder?

They answer two different questions. This calculator takes two foods you have already chosen and works out the amounts. If you do not know what to swap to, our Healthier Food Swaps Finder suggests similar foods with less sugar, salt, fat, saturates or calories. To see every nutrient of two foods side by side, use our Food Nutrition Comparison Tool.

What This Tool Does Not Do

It does not say which food is healthier for you, and it does not take allergies, medicines or a diet plan into account. It only scales the values we have, per 100g, so a missing value shows as n/a and the calculator tells you if it cannot match on the nutrient you picked. Different brands and recipes vary, so always check the label of the product you are eating.

Sources

• Food values are from our own database, and each food's page shows where its figures come from.