Glycemic Load Calculator
See a food's real impact on your blood sugar
Result
How it is calculated
The tool multiplies the glycemic index by the available carbohydrate in one serving and divides by 100: GL = GI × carbs / 100. GI is a number from 0 to 100 (no unit) and carbs is in grams per serving. A GI below 0 or above 100, or negative carbs, returns no result. The load is shown to one decimal place and sorted into a band: 10 or below is Low, above 10 up to 19 is Medium, and above 19 is High.
The carbs figure must be for the portion you actually eat, not per 100 g, unless your portion is exactly 100 g.
Worked example
Take a food with GI = 55 and a serving containing 30 g of carbohydrate. Step 1: 55 × 30 = 1650. Step 2: 1650 / 100 = 16.5. Since 16.5 is above 10 but not above 19, the tool reports the band Medium. The glycemic load of this serving is 16.5.
Common mistakes
- Entering carbs per 100 g from the label when you eat a different portion; the load then describes the wrong amount of food.
- Entering total weight of the food in grams instead of the carbohydrate grams inside it.
- Typing the GI as a fraction such as 0.55; the tool expects 55, so the result would be 100 times too small.
- Entering a GI above 100 (for example a value relative to glucose bread scale); the tool returns nothing for it.
Sources
- International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: 2008 — Diabetes Care, 2008
- Glycemic Load and Glycemic Index — University of Illinois Extension
About this calculator
This calculator computes glycemic load as GL = (GI × carbohydrate grams per serving) / 100, combining a food's glycemic index (how fast its carbs raise blood sugar) with the actual amount of carbs in a real portion. A food can have a high GI but a low GL if a typical serving contains little carbohydrate — watermelon is the classic example — which is why GI alone can be misleading.
Diabetes educators and dietitians rely on GL rather than GI alone to plan meals that keep blood sugar stable, and endurance athletes use it to choose carbohydrate sources that release energy at the right speed before, during and after training.
Was this helpful?
You can pick up to 3 reactions.
Popular calculators
Loan Calculator
Monthly payment, total interest and full amortization schedule.
Percentage Calculator
Percent change, percent of, and ratio calculations.
Discount Calculator
Calculate final price, savings, and discount amount.
BMI Calculator
Body mass index from height and weight (metric or imperial).
Age Calculator
Compute your exact age in years, months and days from a birth date.
Compound Interest Calculator
Calculate the final amount and interest earned with compounding.
All Calculators
- Loan Calculator
- Profit Calculator
- Discount Calculator
- BMI Calculator
- Percentage Calculator
- Ideal Weight Calculator
- Age Calculator
- Pregnancy Due Date Calculator
- Compound Interest Calculator
- BMR Calculator (Basal Metabolic Rate)
- Tip Calculator
- Fuel Cost Calculator
- Date Difference Calculator
- Sleep Cycle Calculator
- Daily Water Intake Calculator
- Simple Interest Calculator
- Heart Rate Zones Calculator
- Running Pace Calculator
- Pet Age Calculator
- Calories Burned Calculator
- Macro Calculator
- TDEE Calculator (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)
- Waist-to-Hip Ratio Calculator
- Honor Roll Calculator
- One Rep Max (1RM) Calculator
- Ovulation Calculator
- Electricity Cost Calculator
- Unit Price Calculator
- Savings Goal Calculator
- Break-Even Point Calculator
- Paint Calculator
- Course Grade Average Calculator
- Business Days Calculator
- Time Duration Calculator
- Fuel Economy Calculator
- Temperature Converter
- Tile Calculator
- Aspect Ratio Calculator
- Roman Numeral Converter
- Goal Weight Timeline Calculator
- Salary Converter (Hourly to Annual)
- Credit Card Validator (Luhn)
- Body Surface Area (BSA) Calculator
- Feels-Like Temperature Calculator
- Ohm’s Law Calculator
- PPI (Pixel Density) Calculator
- Molar Mass Calculator
- Zodiac Sign Calculator (Western + Chinese)
- IBAN Validator
- Shoe Size Converter
- Country Info & Dialing Code Lookup
- Time Zone Difference (World Clock)
- CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) Calculator
- Rule of 72 Calculator
- Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Calculator
- Lean Body Mass (LBM) Calculator
- Pythagorean Theorem Calculator
- Speed Converter
- Download Time Calculator
- Date Calculator (Add/Subtract)
No calculators found
Comments (1)
This tool scores one food at a time, so for a whole plate you add up the individual loads by hand. The GI value itself is not looked up for you; it comes from whichever published table you use, and it can differ between tables. A GI of 72 with only 11 g of carbohydrate gives a load of 7.9, in the Low band, which shows how portion size changes the picture. Which food or portion are you trying to compare?