Calculator
Your fat budget, in grams
How many grams of fat you can eat today, split over 5 or 6 meals. With the calories and protein that have to come along, so a low-fat day doesn't turn into a low-everything day.
Free to use without signing up until 31 October. From 1 November it asks for your email address once. Still free.
Pick your phase, pick how many meals you eat a day, fill in your body. You get your fat budget per meal, plus the calories and protein that still have to come in. It saves in your browser only, nothing leaves your phone.
Your phase
These are my phases, from the book. Pick the one you're in, then fine-tune the grams.
Your meals
You
For the calories and protein. Fat is fixed by your phase, the rest of the day isn't.
Your day
What today looks like in numbers
Fat is the ceiling. Protein and carbohydrate fill the room underneath it.
Day total
Saved in this browser only. Nothing leaves your device.
Sources
Where the numbers come from
Checked 7 October 2026. The phases are mine. Everything else is linked.
Guidelines on fat, meals, protein and calories
- ESPEN guideline on clinical nutrition in acute and chronic pancreatitis (Arvanitakis et al., Clinical Nutrition 2020). No fat restriction in chronic pancreatitis unless steatorrhea can't be controlled with enzymes. Low-fat soft diet as soon as tolerated after mild acute pancreatitis. Five to six small meals for malnourished patients. Protein 1.0 to 1.5 g per kg. Very high-fibre diets to be avoided. The 25 to 35 kcal per kg band is how Dike et al. (HepatoBiliary Surgery and Nutrition) summarise the energy need.
- National Pancreas Foundation, nutrition. Most people with chronic pancreatitis 30 to 50 g fat a day over 4 to 6 small meals. Strictest plan: 20 g a day, no meal over 10 g.
- Columbia Pancreas Center, Deborah Gerszberg. About 25% of calories from fat, 55 g on a 2,000 kcal day.
- UEG HaPanEU guideline on chronic pancreatitis (2017). Enzyme replacement starts at 40,000 to 50,000 lipase units with a main meal, half with a snack.
- Martinez-Moneo et al., Pancreatology 2016. Meta-analysis: vitamin D deficiency in 57.6% of chronic pancreatitis patients, vitamin E 29.2%, vitamin A 16.8%.
Reference intakes, label rules, formulas
- Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, Annex XIII: adult reference intakes on EU labels. 2,000 kcal (8,400 kJ), fat 70 g, saturates 20 g, carbohydrate 260 g, sugars 90 g, protein 50 g, salt 6 g. Annex XIV: fat 9 kcal/g, protein and carbohydrate 4, fibre 2, alcohol 7.
- Regulation (EC) 1924/2006, Annex: "low fat" means 3 g per 100 g or less (1.5 g per 100 ml for liquids), "fat-free" 0.5 g or less.
- EFSA dietary reference values: fat 20 to 35% of energy, carbohydrate 45 to 60% of energy, fibre 25 g a day, protein 0.83 g per kg for healthy adults.
- WHO guideline: sugars intake for adults and children (2015). Free sugars under 10% of total energy, strong recommendation; under 5% as a conditional one. EFSA scientific opinion on dietary sugars (2022): no safe upper level could be set, intake of added and free sugars should be as low as possible.
- Mifflin-St Jeor equation (1990): 10 x weight in kg + 6.25 x height in cm, minus 5 x age, + 5 for men or minus 161 for women. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' preferred estimate for resting energy. The activity multipliers (1.2 to 1.725) are the conventional ones; they are estimates.
Food values
- USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 28 (September 2015), per 100 g, cooked where the name says so. The search covers 8,422 SR28 foods (baby foods left out) plus my own tagged list; each food in the planner shows its USDA record name and number when you hover or focus it. The same records live on in FoodData Central as "SR Legacy".
- Phase tags and the short notes are from my own food sheet. Tolerances are personal. Test carefully and confirm with your team.
The book
Living with Pancreatitis
The two phases, 75 recipes with the fat per serving, and a plan for the day a flare starts. The calculator is the short version.