Type the free sugars in your day and the calories they sit inside.
Estimates are for general guidance only and are not medical advice. For a personalised plan, book a free guided tour at RPM Gym.
The headline is a percentage because WHO's guidance is a percentage. Sugar carries 4 kcal a gram, so the page multiplies your grams by four, divides by the calories you entered, and reports what proportion of the day's energy those sugars supplied. The two gram figures underneath are that same guidance converted back at your own calorie intake, which is why they are not 50 g and 25 g unless you happen to eat 2,000 kcal.
Free sugars are a defined category, not a synonym for sugar. They are what a manufacturer, a cook or you added, plus the sugars already present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. Sugars inside intact fruit and vegetables sit outside the definition, as do lactose and galactose in milk. WHO's reason for the exclusion is narrower than it is usually repeated as: no evidence of adverse effects from those sugars was reported. That is not the same claim as total sugars being irrelevant.
Fruit juice counts in full, with nothing added to it. It is the point readers get wrong most often, and it is why the total-sugar line on a nutrition label is the wrong number to type here: that line adds the lactose in the milk and the fructose in the fruit to whatever was actually sweetened, so it runs high on some foods and low on a day built from juice.
The two levels do not carry equal weight, and the page keeps them apart. Below 10% of total energy is a strong recommendation. Below 5% is separate — WHO suggests it for additional health benefits, conditionally, resting on evidence it grades as very low quality: population-level data on dental caries from three national datasets rather than trials. Neither figure is a maximum, a cap or a personal allowance, and nothing switches on when you cross one.
Share of energy = free sugars (g) × 4 kcal/g ÷ daily calories × 100 Grams at 10% of energy = daily calories × 0.10 ÷ 4 Grams at 5% of energy = daily calories × 0.05 ÷ 4 Teaspoons = free sugars (g) ÷ 4 No bodyweight, age or sex term. WHO's guidance is written against energy intake, not against a person.
A day already totalled from packets and labels: 60 g of free sugars across about 2,200 kcal. The total includes a 250 ml glass of orange juice with nothing added to it.
10.9%, from 60 g. The last line is the one to keep. Nothing about the food changed between 2,200 and 2,000 kcal, and the share still moved to 12%, because the guidance is a proportion and eating less of everything else raises it. The juice matters in the other direction: leave it out of the 60 g on the grounds that nobody sweetened it and the reading drops for a reason WHO's definition does not accept.
Less than 10% of total energy intake from free sugars, for adults and children, as a strong recommendation. WHO then suggests below 5% for additional health benefits. At about 2,000 kcal those work out at 50 g and roughly 25 g, which WHO describes as about 12 and 6 level teaspoons. Both are proportions of energy, so at other calorie intakes the grams differ.
Yes, in full, even with nothing added to it. WHO's definition names fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates alongside honey and syrups. The sugar in an intact orange does not count; the sugar in a glass of orange juice does. Freshly squeezed and unsweetened make no difference to the definition.
No. Intrinsic sugars inside intact fruit and vegetables, and the lactose and galactose in milk, sit outside the definition WHO's levels apply to. The stated reason is that no adverse effects from those sugars were reported. That is an exclusion from the scope of the guidance rather than a verdict on the foods.
Because that line adds intrinsic sugars to free ones. A fruit yoghurt's total-sugar figure counts the lactose and the fruit's own sugars alongside what the manufacturer put in, so it overstates free sugars — while a day built on juice can be understated by anyone assuming juice is exempt. The label is the right place to start; the total-sugar line is the wrong row on it.
They are different kinds of statement rather than two options. Below 10% is what WHO recommends, and it is graded strong. Below 5% is what WHO suggests on top of it, graded conditional, on evidence WHO itself calls very low quality — ecological data on dental caries. The page shows both because leaving the second one out would hide the guidance, and dressing it up as a target would misrepresent it.
The definition does not change for people who train: sugar added to a drink is a free sugar whether it is drunk at a desk or in the last kilometre. Whether carbohydrate during exercise is worth taking is a performance question with its own answer, and this page does not attempt it. It counts what you consumed.
Getting a free-sugars total right takes a day of reading packets, and it is almost always the drinks that decide it. If you want that turned into something you actually eat around training, book a free guided tour at RPM Gym in Al Manhal.