Published guidance gives no single number. The American Heart Association’s 2009 statement puts an upper limit at 100 calories a day for most women and 150 for most men, or 25 g and 37.5 g by our arithmetic. WHO’s 2015 guideline sets free sugars below 10% of energy, with 5% linked to further benefit.
| Source | Year | Unit | Figure for adults |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Heart Association (Johnson et al.) | 2009 | Fixed calories | No more than 100 kcal (women) or 150 kcal (men) from added sugars; about 25 g and 37.5 g (calculated) |
| World Health Organization | 2015 | Percent of energy | Free sugars below 10% (strong recommendation); below 5% may add benefit (conditional) |
| Dietary Guidelines for Americans | 2025-2030 | Grams per meal | No amount is recommended; one meal should contain no more than 10 g of added sugars |
| FDA Nutrition Facts label | Current page | Daily Value | 50 g a day, based on a 2,000 calorie diet |
The gram conversions in the AHA row are our arithmetic: 100 and 150 calories divided by 4 kcal per gram. The AHA abstract states calories, not grams.
This page lines those numbers up, converts percent-of-calories limits into grams at illustrative calorie levels, and shows how to find added sugar on a label. It is general information about published guidance. It is not advice about what you should eat, and a doctor or registered dietitian is the right person for that.
How much added sugar per day? The short answer
Three bodies describe limits in three different ways, so the numbers do not line up at first glance.
The American Heart Association (AHA) published its scientific statement in Circulation in 2009. It recommends reducing added sugars and calls half of the discretionary calorie allowance in the 2005 US Dietary Guidelines “a prudent upper limit of intake.” For most American women, the statement says, that is no more than 100 calories a day from added sugars. For most American men it is no more than 150. This is a fixed amount. It does not change with how many calories a person eats.
The World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 2015 uses a percentage. It recommends that adults and children reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake. A further reduction to below 5%, roughly 25 g or 6 teaspoons a day, would give additional health benefits. WHO’s healthy diet fact sheet describes the 10% figure as equal to 50 g, or about 12 level teaspoons, for a person of healthy body weight eating about 2,000 calories a day.
The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans take a third approach. The edition we read says no amount of added sugars is recommended or considered part of a healthy or nutritious diet. It then gives a limit per meal instead of per day: one meal should contain no more than 10 g. For snacks it points to the FDA “Healthy” claim limits. Grain snacks such as crackers should not exceed 5 g of added sugar per three-quarter ounce whole-grain equivalent, and dairy snacks such as yogurt should not exceed 2.5 g per two-thirds cup. For children aged 5 to 10, the same document says no amount of added sugars is recommended, and it advises avoiding added sugars in infancy and early childhood.
One point we could not confirm is whether the earlier 2020-2025 edition used a percent-of-calories limit that this edition dropped. The 2025-2030 document we read has no percent-of-calories figure for added sugars, and we did not retrieve the 2020-2025 text, so we make no claim about a change.
Added sugars, free sugars, total sugars: what each term counts
The three terms sound alike, and each counts something different.
Total sugars on a label include every sugar in the food, whether it was in the ingredients from the start or put in during processing.
Added sugars are a subset. The FDA describes them as sugars added during processing (such as sucrose or dextrose), foods packaged as sweeteners (such as table sugar), sugars from syrups and honey, and sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices. The Dietary Guidelines add that the sugars in fruit and plain milk are naturally occurring and not counted as added.
Free sugars is WHO’s term. It covers monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods and drinks by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. The WHO and FDA definitions are close but not identical, so a percent figure for one is not an exact match for the other.
For how sugars differ from starch as a carbohydrate type, see our guide to complex versus simple carbs. This page stays on the amounts.
Turning “10% of calories” into grams
Percent-based limits scale with energy intake, which is why the gram figure moves. The arithmetic is short: calories multiplied by the percentage, divided by 4 kcal per gram of sugar. Four kcal per gram is the standard energy factor for carbohydrate and is our convention here. None of the sources printed the gram figures below.
| Illustrative daily calories | 10% of calories in grams (calculated) | 5% of calories in grams (calculated) |
|---|---|---|
| 1,200 (women’s floor used on this site) | 30 g | 15 g |
| 1,500 (men’s floor used on this site) | 37.5 g | 18.8 g |
| 1,800 | 45 g | 22.5 g |
| 2,000 | 50 g | 25 g |
| 2,500 | 62.5 g | 31.3 g |
Every calorie level is illustrative, not a target. The 2,000 row matches the 50 g and 25 g figures WHO and the FDA give for that calorie level, a useful check on the method. The table starts at the 1,200 kcal (women) and 1,500 kcal (men) floors this site uses and does not go lower.
The AHA comparison is worth a moment. Its 25 g and 37.5 g are fixed, so the share of calories they represent changes with intake. For women, 100 calories is about 6.7% of 1,500 calories and 5% of 2,000. For men, 150 calories is 10% of 1,500 calories and 7.5% of 2,000. At 2,000 calories, 10% is 50 g, about twice the AHA figure for women. The two ways of stating a limit agree at some calorie levels and diverge at others.
To see which calorie level a percentage would apply to, the TDEE calculator estimates a starting point. The macro calculator then splits that into protein, carbohydrate and fat, and the carbohydrate there includes sugars of every kind.
How to read the Nutrition Facts label for added sugar
The US label lists total sugars and, beneath it, “Includes X g Added Sugars.” The added figure sits inside the total, so the two numbers should not be added together.
The label also shows a % Daily Value. The FDA sets the Daily Value for added sugars at 50 g a day, based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Its own worked example says 7 g of added sugars is 14% of the Daily Value, and it describes 5% Daily Value or less as low and 20% or more as high. At a different calorie level, the percentage is a reference point, not a personal measure.
The ingredient list shows where the sugar comes from. The Dietary Guidelines suggest looking for ingredients that contain the word “sugar” or “syrup” or that end in “-ose.” Names they list include high-fructose corn syrup, agave syrup, corn syrup, rice syrup, fructose, glucose, dextrose, sucrose, cane sugar, maltose, fruit juice concentrate, honey and molasses.
Where added sugar hides in a typical day
The USDA FoodData Central figures below come from the food database on this site. They are total sugars per serving, calculated from the USDA per-100 g value and the serving weight. USDA lists total sugars here, so they do not split out added sugar. The label on a specific product does.
| Food (serving) | Total sugars per serving (calculated) | What to note |
|---|---|---|
| Regular cola (1 can, 355 g) | 35.3 g | The Dietary Guidelines say to avoid sugar-sweetened beverages |
| Orange juice (1 cup, 248 g) | 20.8 g | Check the label: the FDA counts sugars from concentrated juice as added |
| Apple with skin (1 medium, 182 g) | 18.3 g | Fruit sugars are naturally occurring, per the Dietary Guidelines |
| Whole milk (1 cup, 244 g) | 12.3 g | Plain milk sugars are naturally occurring, per the Dietary Guidelines |
| Granola bar, hard, plain (1 bar, 24 g) | 6.9 g | USDA lists the total; the label shows how much is added |
| Greek yogurt, plain, lowfat (170 g) | 6.1 g | Flavoured versions add sugar; compare the 2.5 g snack limit above |
Values are calculated from USDA FoodData Central entries as stored in the Calorilator food database. See the apple and Greek yogurt pages, or the full food table.
The cola row shows why liquid sugars get so much attention. One can holds more total sugars than the AHA figure for women and close to the AHA figure for men, all in a single drink. Sauces, cereals, flavoured yogurt and bars follow the same pattern on a smaller scale: the amount per serving looks modest until several are eaten in a day.
Foods that are mostly whole and minimally processed often show little or none on the label. We cover that pattern in whole versus processed foods, and how a sugary snack compares with a protein-and-fibre snack in snacks that fit your target.
What the evidence can and cannot show
The limits above come from expert panels. They are not lines drawn by a single experiment.
The AHA abstract is direct about its base. It says trial data are limited and that observational studies indicate a higher intake of soft drinks is associated with greater energy intake, higher body weight and lower intake of essential nutrients. Observational studies show association. They cannot show that sugar itself caused the difference, because people who drink more soft drinks also differ in other ways.
WHO grades its two recommendations differently. The 10% recommendation is classed as strong. The 5% recommendation is conditional because of limited epidemiological studies in populations with low sugar intake. In plain terms, WHO had less data to work from at the lower level.
The weight-loss question follows from this. None of the sources we read gives an added-sugar amount for losing weight, and we do not either. Calorie balance across the whole diet is a separate topic, and our calorie deficit calculator covers the mechanics. The Dietary Guidelines also list low-calorie non-nutritive sweeteners as something to limit, which is a different question and outside this page.
Do fruit, milk and honey count?
By the FDA label definition, honey counts as an added sugar when it is packaged as a sweetener or added to a food, and so do syrups and concentrated juices. By WHO’s definition, sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices count as free sugars even when no manufacturer added them.
Whole fruit and plain milk are treated differently. The Dietary Guidelines say the sugars in these foods are naturally occurring and not considered added.
That split is why a label reading of total sugars alone can mislead. An apple and a can of cola can list a similar total, and only one of them is what the added-sugar limits are about. The complex versus simple carbs guide explains why the food around the sugar matters, and the glycemic index guide covers how quickly different foods raise blood glucose.
Common mistakes when tracking sugar
- Comparing the wrong number. The AHA’s 100 and 150 calories are for added sugars. A tracker that logs total sugars will read higher than the limit’s own definition.
- Adding total and added together. On the US label, the added figure is already inside the total.
- Mixing units. A percent-of-calories limit and a fixed-gram limit answer different questions. Converting one to the other needs a calorie level, as in the table above.
- Skipping the drinks. Liquid sugars are easy to overlook because they do not feel like a meal, yet the cola row shows how much one serving can hold.
- Treating the Daily Value as a personal figure. The 50 g reference is built on 2,000 calories, so it is a label yardstick.
- Overlooking the serving size. The label’s gram figure is for the serving listed. Eating two servings doubles it.
When to talk to a clinician
General limits are written for populations. Several situations call for an individual answer, and a doctor or registered dietitian is the right source: diabetes or any condition that involves glucose management, medication that affects appetite or blood sugar, pregnancy or breastfeeding, and any history of disordered eating, where counting grams can be unhelpful. Children’s needs also differ from adults’, and guidance for them comes from a paediatric clinician rather than from adult figures on a page like this one.
Nothing here is a personal target. It describes what published guidance says.