Glycemic Load Calculator
Work out the glycemic load (GL) of a single food, an entire meal, or a whole day. Pick from 50+ common foods or enter your own glycemic index and carbs — the calculator adds each item up and tells you whether the total lands in the low, medium or high band.
Pick a food to auto-fill its glycemic index and carbs, or leave on “Custom” to type your own.
Glucose = 100 scale.
Available carbs (total − fibre).
How many of this serving you are eating.
| Food | Servings | GL |
|---|
How to Use This Glycemic Load Calculator
- Choose a food from the list to auto-fill its glycemic index and carbohydrate, or leave it on “Custom” and type your own values from a food label.
- Set the number of servings you are actually eating — glycemic load scales with the amount, so two servings doubles the load.
- Press “Add to meal”. Repeat for every food on your plate to build a full meal or a running daily total.
- Read the total glycemic load and its band. Remove any item to see how a swap changes the number.
Unlike single-item calculators, this tool sums several foods at once, so you can see the glycemic load of a whole plate — a bowl of rice with beans and a banana, say — rather than one ingredient in isolation.
What Is Glycemic Load?
Glycemic load is a way of ranking a carbohydrate food that captures both how fast it raises blood glucose and how much carbohydrate is actually in your serving. The glycemic index on its own only measures speed, using a fixed 50 g carbohydrate test dose — which rarely matches a real portion. Glycemic load corrects for that by folding in the grams of carbohydrate you eat.
Glycemic load formula
Available carbohydrate means total carbohydrate minus fibre. For example, a 150 g baked potato has a glycemic index around 111 and roughly 30 g of available carbohydrate: (111 × 30) ÷ 100 = a glycemic load of about 33, which is high.
The classic illustration is watermelon: its glycemic index is high (~72), which makes it look alarming, but a 120 g serving holds only about 6 g of carbohydrate, so its glycemic load is just 4 — genuinely low. That gap between index and load is exactly why glycemic load is the more practical number at the dinner table.
Glycemic Load Ranges: Low, Medium and High
These cut-offs come from the same research group that developed the international glycemic index and load tables. The per-serving bands classify a single food; the daily bands classify everything you eat in a day added together.
| Band | Per serving | Per day (total) |
|---|---|---|
| Low | 10 or less | Under ~80 |
| Medium | 11 – 19 | ~80 – 120 |
| High | 20 or more | Over ~120 |
A single food at GL 20+ is not automatically “bad” — it may fit a balanced day. What matters most for steady blood sugar and insulin demand is the total load and how it is spread across meals.
Glycemic Load of 50+ Common Foods
Glycemic index (glucose = 100), the tested serving size, the available carbohydrate in that serving, and the resulting glycemic load. Values are averages from the international glycemic index and load tables published in Diabetes Care and summarised by Harvard Health; real foods vary with variety, ripeness and cooking.
Breads, Bakery & Tortillas
| Food | GI | Serving | Carbs (g) | GL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White wheat bread | 71 | 30 g | 14 | 10 |
| Whole wheat bread | 71 | 30 g | 13 | 9 |
| White baguette | 95 | 30 g | 16 | 15 |
| White bagel | 72 | 70 g | 35 | 25 |
| Pita bread, white | 68 | 30 g | 15 | 10 |
| Pumpernickel bread | 56 | 30 g | 13 | 7 |
| Corn tortilla | 52 | 50 g | 23 | 12 |
| Sponge cake, plain | 46 | 63 g | 37 | 17 |
Breakfast Cereals
| Food | GI | Serving | Carbs (g) | GL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornflakes | 93 | 30 g | 25 | 23 |
| Instant oatmeal | 83 | 250 g | 36 | 30 |
| Oatmeal (rolled, cooked) | 55 | 250 g | 24 | 13 |
| Muesli | 66 | 30 g | 24 | 16 |
| All-Bran | 55 | 30 g | 22 | 12 |
| Special K | 69 | 30 g | 20 | 14 |
Grains & Pasta
| Food | GI | Serving | Carbs (g) | GL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White rice, boiled | 89 | 150 g | 48 | 43 |
| Brown rice, boiled | 50 | 150 g | 32 | 16 |
| Basmati rice | 67 | 150 g | 42 | 28 |
| Quinoa | 53 | 150 g | 25 | 13 |
| Couscous | 65 | 150 g | 14 | 9 |
| Pearled barley | 28 | 150 g | 43 | 12 |
| Sweet corn | 60 | 150 g | 33 | 20 |
| Spaghetti, white | 46 | 180 g | 48 | 22 |
| Spaghetti, wholemeal | 42 | 180 g | 40 | 17 |
| Macaroni | 47 | 180 g | 49 | 23 |
| Macaroni & cheese | 64 | 180 g | 50 | 32 |
Potatoes & Vegetables
| Food | GI | Serving | Carbs (g) | GL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baked russet potato | 111 | 150 g | 30 | 33 |
| Boiled white potato | 82 | 150 g | 26 | 21 |
| Instant mashed potato | 87 | 150 g | 20 | 17 |
| Sweet potato | 70 | 150 g | 31 | 22 |
| Yam | 54 | 150 g | 37 | 20 |
| Green peas | 51 | 80 g | 8 | 4 |
| Carrots | 35 | 80 g | 6 | 2 |
Fruits
| Food | GI | Serving | Carbs (g) | GL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | 39 | 120 g | 15 | 6 |
| Banana, ripe | 62 | 120 g | 26 | 16 |
| Orange | 40 | 120 g | 10 | 4 |
| Watermelon | 72 | 120 g | 6 | 4 |
| Grapes | 59 | 120 g | 19 | 11 |
| Grapefruit | 25 | 120 g | 12 | 3 |
| Pear | 38 | 120 g | 11 | 4 |
| Dates, dried | 42 | 60 g | 43 | 18 |
| Raisins | 64 | 60 g | 44 | 28 |
Legumes & Nuts
| Food | GI | Serving | Carbs (g) | GL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chickpeas | 28 | 150 g | 29 | 8 |
| Kidney beans | 29 | 150 g | 24 | 7 |
| Lentils | 29 | 150 g | 17 | 5 |
| Black beans | 30 | 150 g | 23 | 7 |
| Baked beans | 40 | 150 g | 15 | 6 |
| Soybeans | 15 | 150 g | 7 | 1 |
| Cashews, salted | 27 | 50 g | 11 | 3 |
| Peanuts | 7 | 50 g | 4 | 0 |
Dairy, Drinks & Sugars
| Food | GI | Serving | Carbs (g) | GL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milk, full fat | 41 | 250 mL | 12 | 5 |
| Milk, skim | 32 | 250 mL | 13 | 4 |
| Low-fat fruit yogurt | 33 | 200 g | 33 | 11 |
| Ice cream, regular | 57 | 50 g | 11 | 6 |
| Orange juice, unsweetened | 50 | 250 mL | 24 | 12 |
| Coca-Cola | 63 | 250 mL | 25 | 16 |
| Honey | 61 | 25 g | 20 | 12 |
| Potato chips | 51 | 50 g | 24 | 12 |
| Pretzels | 83 | 30 g | 19 | 16 |
How to Lower the Glycemic Load of a Meal
You do not have to cut carbohydrate entirely to bring a meal's glycemic load down. Small, practical swaps usually do more than they look:
- Right-size the carb portion. Because load scales with grams, halving the rice does more than switching rice types.
- Pair carbs with protein, fat and fibre. Adding beans, eggs, olive oil or vegetables slows digestion and blunts the glucose rise.
- Choose whole over refined. Whole wheat, brown rice, oats and legumes carry a lower load than their white, instant equivalents.
- Use the cook-and-cool trick. Cooking then chilling potato, rice or pasta forms resistant starch that lowers the effective load, even after gentle reheating.
- Add acidity. A splash of vinegar or lemon on a carb-heavy dish measurably reduces the post-meal spike.
Who Should Track Glycemic Load?
Glycemic load is most useful when steady blood sugar matters day to day:
- People with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes — lower-load meals tend to produce gentler glucose and insulin responses. Pair this with our type 2 diabetes insulin calculator and HbA1c estimator.
- People with insulin resistance or PCOS — reducing daily load can ease insulin demand. Check where you stand with the HOMA-IR calculator.
- Anyone managing appetite or weight — lower-load meals help avoid the sharp rise-and-crash that drives hunger.
- People with type 1 diabetes — glycemic load explains why two equal-carb meals can behave differently, but insulin doses still come from carb counting and your insulin-to-carb ratio.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate glycemic load?
Multiply the food's glycemic index by the grams of available carbohydrate in your serving, then divide by 100. For example, a serving with a glycemic index of 70 and 30 g of available carbohydrate has a glycemic load of (70 × 30) ÷ 100 = 21.
What is a good daily glycemic load?
A whole day's glycemic load under about 80 is considered low and over 120 is high, with 80–120 in between. Per single serving, 10 or under is low, 11–19 is medium, and 20 or more is high. Use the calculator's “add to meal” feature to total a full day.
Is glycemic load better than glycemic index?
For a realistic meal, yes. Glycemic index rates carbohydrate quality using a fixed test dose and ignores portion size, while glycemic load combines that index with the carbohydrate you actually eat. Watermelon shows why it matters: high index, but low load in a normal serving. See our glycemic index calculator for the index side.
What is the glycemic load of white rice, banana and watermelon?
A 150 g serving of boiled white rice has a glycemic load of about 43 (high), a ripe medium banana about 16 (medium), and a 120 g serving of watermelon about 4 (low). Watermelon's high index is offset by its small carbohydrate content, so its load stays low.
Which foods have a high glycemic load?
Large servings of white rice (GL ~43), baked potato (~33), macaroni and cheese (~32), instant oatmeal (~30), raisins (~28), cornflakes (~23) and sugary drinks all sit at 20 or more per serving because they pair a high index with plenty of carbohydrate.
Does portion size change glycemic load?
Yes — directly. Glycemic load rises and falls with the carbohydrate you eat, so doubling the portion doubles the load. That is why this calculator asks for the number of servings: a small serving of a high-index food can still be a low load.
Does glycemic load help with diabetes or weight loss?
Lower-glycemic-load eating patterns are associated with smaller post-meal glucose and insulin spikes, which can support blood-sugar control and appetite management. It is a dietary guide, not a treatment — it does not replace medication, and for insulin you still count total carbs.
Does glycemic load replace carb counting for insulin?
No. Mealtime insulin is dosed from total carbohydrate and your insulin-to-carb ratio, not glycemic load. Load is a complementary guide to choosing and balancing meals. For dosing, use the insulin-to-carb ratio calculator.
Sources
- Atkinson FS, Brand-Miller JC, Foster-Powell K, et al. International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values 2021. Diabetes Care / Am J Clin Nutr.
- Harvard Health Publishing. Glycemic index and glycemic load for 100+ foods (reviewed 2024).
- Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University. Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load.
Last reviewed: July 2026