Food, portions and preparation

Find your food. Work out your portion.

Choose the closest preparation, then use household measures or your weighed grams to estimate calories. Every guide links to the USDA records behind its numbers.

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Complete meal guide directory

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Search 625 guides by food or preparation. Try “potato”, “lasagna”, or “scrambled egg”.

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Useful starting points

Practical guides for everyday meals

24 focused guides cover the decisions that change an estimate: serving size, cooking method, added fat, toppings and leftovers.

Boiled potato

Choose whether you ate the skin and whether butter or oil was added, then enter the cooked potato amount. A plain potato entry and a buttered potato entry describe different preparations.

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Lasagna

A slice of lasagna has no single standard weight. Pick the closest recipe and preparation, then use the weight of your piece or a clearly matched serving from the calculator.

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Cheeseburger

Choose the whole sandwich that matches your burger's size and patty count. The cheeseburger examples include a bun and cheese; fries, drinks, and separately added extras need their own entries.

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Nachos

For nachos, choose the toppings first and estimate only your share of the plate. A menu 'order' and a handful of chips are not reliable substitutes for the amount you actually ate.

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Cornmeal mush

Use a cooked amount for cooked cornmeal mush. Choose the no-added-fat or added-fat preparation, and include any milk, butter, syrup, or other additions that your recipe uses.

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Plain pancakes

Pancake count is useful only alongside size. Choose the preparation, use the matching pancake weight, and check any syrup or extra butter added to the stack.

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Muffins

Choose the muffin type and its size before using a calorie value. A bakery-style muffin, mini muffin, and English muffin are different foods and portions.

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Tuna

Choose canned, cooked, or raw tuna to match what you weighed. Then enter the edible amount; a can size, a steak, and a scoop of tuna salad need different checks.

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Mozzarella

Pick the mozzarella type, then choose the form you measured. A cup of shredded cheese, a cup of melted cheese, and one stick do not weigh the same.

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White bread

Choose the bread type and slice size, then count the slices you ate. A regular packaged slice and a thick bakery slice can have very different weights.

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Almonds

Choose the almond preparation and weigh your handful when possible. A handful is not a fixed serving, and unsalted does not necessarily mean unroasted or oil-free.

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Rice

For rice on your plate, use a cooked rice entry and the cooked amount. Choose plain rice or a preparation with fat, sauce, or other ingredients before adjusting the portion.

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Choose plain or flavored Greek yogurt and the milk-fat type, then enter the amount you eat. Container sizes vary, so check the gram weight on the package rather than assuming every tub is one serving.

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Oatmeal

Choose how your oatmeal was prepared, then use the cooked amount in the bowl. Dry oats, oatmeal cooked with water, and oatmeal cooked with milk are different measuring situations.

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Peanut butter

Use the amount of peanut butter that reaches your toast, sandwich, or bowl. A level tablespoon and a heaped spoonful are different amounts, so grams help when the spoon is hard to judge.

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Chicken breast

Choose the cooked chicken preparation you ate, including skin, coating, and sauce, then enter the edible cooked weight. One chicken breast is not a fixed amount.

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Burrito bowl

Match the protein, rice, and beans in your burrito bowl, then size the portion you ate. Extra scoops and toppings can make a custom bowl different from any single example.

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Pizza

Choose the pizza's crust, toppings, and preparation, then use the slice weight or the share you ate. Slice count alone does not describe a pizza's size or how it was cut.

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Pasta with meat sauce

Use a complete pasta-and-meat-sauce entry when the dish is already mixed. For a recipe you know, calculate the pasta, sauce, meat, and extras together, then divide by the amount served.

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Eggs

Choose whole eggs, whites, or yolks and the cooking method before entering the amount. For a boiled or poached egg, use the edible egg without its shell.

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Grits

Choose regular or instant grits and whether cheese or cooking fat is included. Use a cooked cup or finished gram weight for the bowl you eat.

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Hamburger

These hamburger entries describe sandwiches. Choose the patty size and bun, then enter the whole sandwich amount rather than the weight of the beef patty alone.

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Egg sandwich on an English muffin

Choose the English muffin egg sandwich that matches its filling, then select the sandwich size. The selected egg-sandwich example already includes the muffin, egg, and cheese.

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Scrambled eggs and omelets

Start with the eggs, cooking fat, and fillings in your scramble or omelet. A plain two-egg scramble and a cheese-and-meat omelet need different matches.

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Jelly sandwich 2 exact USDA records · meal family

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Quesadilla 8 exact USDA records · meal family

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How to read the numbers

A reference record is a comparison point, not a measurement

FNDDS records describe foods reported in a national dietary survey and attach nutrient values and household measures to those descriptions. A guide can compare those records faithfully; it cannot determine the weight, ingredient ratio, brand, or preparation of an unseen plate.

Source-serving values preserve the amount attached to the exact record. They are useful when your portion resembles that amount. Per-100-gram values hold food weight constant, making concentration differences easier to inspect. Neither view removes the need to choose a close description.

The observed low, middle, and high cards on each guide are deliberately literal: they are three records from the selected set, ordered by calories in their own source servings. They are not confidence bounds, suggested portions, or a claim about all versions of the dish.