MyPlate Plan Calculator 2026 — Free, Exact, in 2 Minutes
Five quick questions — daily calories plus cups & ounces for every food group, US-Style, Mediterranean, or Vegetarian. Same equations MyPlate.gov used. No signup.
Calculate your personalized daily food group targets across three USDA dietary patterns using IOM Estimated Energy Requirement equations and the 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
How to use the MyPlate Plan Calculator
- Enter your personal information: Provide your age, biological sex, height, and weight. The calculator uses these to compute your Estimated Energy Requirement using the IOM EER equations.
- Choose your activity level: Select Sedentary, Moderately Active, or Active. The activity coefficient adjusts your calorie estimate based on physical activity beyond daily living.
- Indicate pregnancy or lactation if applicable: If you are pregnant, select your trimester. If breastfeeding, select 0–6 or 7–12 months postpartum. The calculator applies IOM-recommended energy increments.
- Review your daily food group targets: See your daily targets for fruits, vegetables, grains, protein foods, dairy, and oils across the three USDA dietary patterns: Healthy U.S.-Style, Mediterranean-Style, and Healthy Vegetarian.
Turn your calorie target into a week of meals
Once the calculator gives you a daily calorie level, our free 7-day meal plans turn that number into real food — levels from 1,200 to 2,500 calories, every meal a USDA MyPlate Kitchen recipe. Pick the plan nearest your target for a full week of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks.
MyPlate Plan calculator FAQ
What is the MyPlate Plan?
The MyPlate Plan is a personalized daily food-group target: how many cups of vegetables, fruits, and dairy, and how many ounce-equivalents of grains and protein foods you should eat, based on your age, sex, height, weight, and activity. It's the calculator half of MyPlate — the plate icon shows the proportions, the Plan puts numbers on them.
Is the MyPlate Plan still available now that MyPlate.gov was retired?
Yes. USDA retired the MyPlate.gov website in January 2026, which took the official MyPlate Plan tool offline. This calculator reproduces it using the same public methodology — the USDA Food Patterns and the Institute of Medicine energy equations — so you can still get your personalized food-group targets for free.
What do I enter, and what does each input change?
Age, sex, height, weight, and activity level — plus pregnancy or breastfeeding status, which the form adds when you choose female with an age from 14 to 50. The first four feed the energy equation; activity applies a physical-activity coefficient on top, so the same body gets a different target at sedentary than at very active. Your result is then rounded to the nearest USDA pattern level — 1,000 to 3,200 calories in 200-calorie steps — and that level sets your cups and ounce-equivalents.
What ages does this calculator cover?
Ages 2 to 120, and every age runs the equation its own life stage defines: the toddler equation up to the third birthday, the children's equations from 3 to the ninth birthday and from 9 to the nineteenth, and the adult equation from 19 on. Those boundaries are deliberately half-open — a child stays in the 3-to-8 band until the day they turn 9 — so an age like 8.5 gets a child's plan with its growth allowance, never a shrunken adult one.
Can I use centimetres and kilograms instead?
Yes. The form has an imperial/metric switch that flips height and weight together, and switching converts what you have already typed rather than clearing it. Imperial is the default in every edition except the Korean one, which starts in metric.
How is my MyPlate Plan calculated?
We estimate your daily calorie needs with the Estimated Energy Requirement (EER) equations from the National Academies' Dietary Reference Intakes, then map that calorie level to the USDA Food Pattern that assigns amounts for each of the five food groups. Pregnancy and lactation adjustments follow the DRI. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is sent to a server.
Which calorie equations should I use — IOM 2005 or NASEM 2023?
IOM 2005 is the default because those are the equations the official MyPlate Plan ran, so it gives you the number MyPlate.gov would have. NASEM 2023 is the National Academies' current re-derivation, with its own equations for adults, children, pregnancy, and lactation. The Advanced control under the form switches between them, your choice sticks on this device, and the methodology page prints both equation sets in full.
Can I print or email my plan, and do I need an account?
Printing and emailing are free and need no account. The print sheet also lets you pick which sections to include and which of the five site languages to print in, so you can read in English and hand someone the Spanish copy. Saving is the only part that needs a free MyPlan account — it keeps the plan on your dashboard so you can come back to it and track against it.
Does it handle pregnancy and breastfeeding?
Yes. Choose female with an age from 14 to 50 and the form adds trimester and breastfeeding questions; the result then shows those extra calories on their own labelled line instead of burying them in the total. The two editions differ here: IOM 2005 adds a flat trimester allowance to your non-pregnant requirement, while NASEM 2023 uses standalone pregnancy equations that move with your age, size, and activity.
Is this the official MyPlate calculator?
No. myplate.food is an independent project, not affiliated with the USDA. We implement the same publicly available USDA equations and Food Pattern tables that the official MyPlate Plan used, and cite our sources on the methodology page.