Finding the right nutrition calculator for recipes can be tricky! That’s why we found one for you!
In today’s post, we’ll show you how to get nutrition facts for a recipe in a few different ways.
Let’s get into it!
How do you calculate the nutritional value of a recipe?
Knowing what's in your food is the first step towards healthy eating! That's why calculating the nutritional value of a recipe is so important.
To calculate the nutritional information of a recipe, you need to:
- Collect all the individual ingredients you'll be using and how much of each you'll need.
- Find out how many nutrients are in each serving of those ingredients.
- Multiply the nutrient values by the ingredient amount.
- Add up the nutrient values for all the recipe ingredients.
Many people use recipe calorie calculators, recipe organizers, or even calculator Excel spreadsheets. That way, they can keep track of detailed nutritional information.
But seriously, who has the time and energy to go through all that trouble for just one recipe? It's a whole lot of work!
Like many others, you may have wondered if there’s an easier way. Is there an app to calculate nutritional value? Is there a recipe builder that calculates nutritional information?
Yes, there is!
That’s why we’ve found and tested the top nutrition facts calculators for recipes!
Testing various nutrition calculators
Now remember that automatic nutrition calculators might give you inaccurate results.
Why? Different brands or cooking methods can have varying calories, carbs, and other nutrients.
To show you how food nutrition calculations can vary, we tested:
- Verywell Fit (an online recipe analyzer)
- MyFitnessPal (a calorie counter app)
- Nutrifox (a nutrition facts label maker)
We used the Thai Yellow Chicken Curry with Potatoes recipe from Pinch of Yum for our tests.
Here are the nutrition labels we got.
VERYWELL FIT NUTRITION CALCULATIONS
Time to create: Automatic
Calories: 851
Total Fat: 32.4g
Cholesterol: 67mg
Sodium: 624mg
Total Carbohydrates: 110.2g
Protein: 33.8g
MyFitnessPal nutrition calculation
Time to create: 5 minutes
Calories: 455
Total Fat: 20.3g
Cholesterol: 36.7mg
Sodium: 357.2mg
Total Carbohydrates: 58.8
Protein: 21.7g
Nutrifox nutrition calculation
Time to create: 1 minute
Calories: 461
Total Fat: 16.9g
Cholesterol: 55.2mg
Sodium: 393.1mg
Total Carbohydrates: 53.7g
Protein: 24g
There are big differences in calorie intake and macronutrients between the three labels.
Here's a table summarizing some of the results:
| Nutrient | Verywell Fit | MyFitnessPal | Nutrifox |
| Calories | 851 | 455 | 461 |
| Fat (g) | 32.4 | 20.3 | 16.9 |
| Carbs (g) | 110.2 | 58.8 | 53.7 |
| Protein (g) | 33.8 | 21.7 | 24 |
| Time to create (mins) | 0 | 5 | 1 |
There's a 390-calorie difference between Verywell Fit and Nutrifox! You can also see a difference of 51.4g of carbohydrates between Verywell Fit and MyFitnessPal.
Such mixed results make it difficult to know whether your creations are genuinely low-carb or healthy recipes.
So why does this happen?
Automatic nutrition calculators and apps will match your recipe ingredients to the ingredients in their database. The first match is the one that gets used.
Many simple ingredients have multiple entries, which can be confusing. So, you pick a random one without knowing if it's accurate.
Nutrifox, on the other hand, shows you what's being used and lets you easily change the ingredients if needed.
On top of that, Nutrifox uses fancy tools and machine learning to improve how it matches ingredients. So every time Nutrifox gets used, it gets smarter. Pretty nifty!
If you don't see the food item you need, it’s no problem! You can add it to the database, making sure the nutrition info you put in is accurate.
Nutrifox gives you different label styles to pick from. That way, you can choose the one that looks best on your site.
Lastly, you can also easily import recipes that have already been published. Just remember to adjust the number of servings to your liking, and your label will be good to go!
Does Tasty Recipes calculate nutrition facts?
Tasty Recipes works with Nutrifox! This means you can calculate nutrition info for your recipes with accuracy and ease.
If you prefer to use another method for calculating nutrition information, no worries! Tasty Recipes has fields where you can add that information too.
Are you a food blogger? Do you want to know more about publishing beautiful recipes that show up on Google? Read here about our recipe schema WordPress plugin.
Which is the best nutrition calculator for recipes?
We recommend calculating your recipe nutrition information with Nutrifox. It makes sure that the nutrition labels your readers see are accurate!
(So when you share your awesome healthy snacks recipe, you'll have the nutritional information to show it!)
Other methods like calorie counters or Excel sheets can give the wrong nutrition data or be a hassle to use. But Nutrifox finds a good balance.
Pro tip: If you're not sure whether Nutrifox is right for you, no worries! You can give it a test run with a 14-day free trial.
Read more: Should I add nutrition information to my recipes?
