How Much Sugar Per Day for Weight Loss? The Indian Guidelines, in Grams

General information: This article is information about food data. No dietitian or doctor has reviewed it, and it is not a substitute for their advice.

By NYUS Inc. · October 2026

"How much sugar per day?" is usually answered with teaspoons from a reel. India's guidelines answer it as a share of energy and as grams. This page works both out and shows what the numbers cost in rotis.

The short answer

There is no official weight-loss amount of sugar. The Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024 (ICMR-NIN) say sugar should be less than 5% of the total energy per day (PDF page 28), and that added sugar must be restricted to under 5% of daily energy (PDF pages 80 and 82). In their sample day for adults they add that one may take sugar, but it must be restricted to 25 to 30 grams a day, and that cereals must be reduced to adjust the total calories if sugar is taken (PDF pages 80 and 82). These are healthy-adult limits, not a weight-loss prescription: scale them to your own energy target.

5% of your day, in grams

Table 1.6 of the guidelines (PDF page 28) lists the energy of the reference diets for a 55 kg woman and a 65 kg man. Sugar is carbohydrate, and the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (IFCT 2017) count a gram of carbohydrate as 4 Cal (PDF page 10), so 5% of the day's energy becomes grams like this:

Reference diet (DGI 2024)	Energy of the day	5% of that energy	As grams of sugar
Woman, sedentary, 55 kg	~1,660 kcal	83 kcal	20.8 g
Woman, moderate work, 55 kg	~2,125 kcal	106.25 kcal	26.6 g
Man, sedentary, 65 kg	~2,080 kcal	104 kcal	26.0 g
Man, moderate work, 65 kg	~2,680 kcal	134 kcal	33.5 g

Notice the first row. For the sedentary woman's 1,660 kcal day, 5% is 20.8 g, below the 25 to 30 g in the sample menu. The guidelines also call sugar "high" when it is over 5% of energy or 25 g a day, based on a 2,000 kcal diet (PDF page 111), and they add that limiting it to 25 g a day is better for health and that, if possible, added sugar may be left out entirely, since it adds no nutrition besides calories. Which limit applies depends on how much you eat in total.

What counts as added sugar

The guidelines define added sugars as sugars and syrups added to foods and drinks during processing and preparation, including table sugar, jaggery, honey, glucose, fructose and dextrose (PDF page 111). So the spoon in the chai, the jaggery in the laddoo and the honey in the water all count. Sugars that are naturally present, such as fructose in fruit and lactose in milk, are described separately.

White sugar has no row in IFCT 2017, so its energy here is the carbohydrate factor, 4 kcal a gram. Jaggery does: IFCT lists cane jaggery at 1,480 kJ per 100 g (PDF page 56), which is 354 kcal per 100 g, so 25 g is about 88 kcal against 100 kcal for 25 g of sugar. Swapping one for the other saves little; our jaggery vs sugar guide has the detail.

What the grams cost in rotis

The guidelines' rule is simple: if you take sugar, reduce the cereals to keep the total the same. Using atta at 1,340 kJ per 100 g (IFCT 2017, PDF page 42), here is the energy of some sugar amounts as flour, and as rotis if one roti is 30 g of atta (our assumption):

Sugar	Energy at 4 kcal/g	Atta with the same energy	In rotis (30 g atta each)
10 g	40 kcal	12 g	0.4
25 g	100 kcal	31 g	1.0
30 g	120 kcal	37 g	1.2

So 25 g of sugar a day, the guidelines' "high" line at 2,000 kcal, is the energy of about one roti. Two sweet chai and a mithai can reach it unnoticed.

Turning it into your own number

Count grams, not spoons. The guidelines give no gram weight for a teaspoon of sugar, so weigh your own once.
Count every added sugar: tea and coffee, mithai, packaged drinks, jaggery and honey included. Our chai and biscuit guide shows how small leaks add up.
Start from your own energy target, not the table. For fat loss it is lower, so 5% of it is lower too. A TDEE calculator gives the starting point.

This is general information about food data, not a diet plan or medical advice. If you have diabetes or another condition, or take medicines, ask your doctor or a registered dietitian how much sugar suits you.

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Frequently asked questions

How much sugar per day is okay for weight loss?

There is no official weight-loss amount of sugar. The Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024 say added sugar must be kept under 5% of daily energy and, in their sample day, that one may take sugar but restrict it to 25 to 30 g a day (PDF pp. 28, 80 and 82). For the four reference diets in Table 1.6, 5% of energy is 20.8 to 33.5 g of sugar a day.

Do jaggery and honey count as sugar?

Yes. The guidelines define added sugars as sugars and syrups added during processing and preparation, including table sugar, jaggery, honey, glucose, fructose and dextrose (PDF p. 111). IFCT 2017 lists jaggery at 1,480 kJ per 100 g, so 25 g is about 88 kcal against 100 kcal for 25 g of sugar at 4 kcal per gram.

Does the sugar in fruit and milk count?

The limit is for added sugar. The guidelines describe sugars that are naturally present in foods, such as fructose in fruit and lactose in milk, separately from added sugars (PDF p. 111). Fruit and milk have their own places in the guidelines' balanced day (Table 1.6, PDF p. 28).

What should I cut if I have sugar?

The guidelines say to reduce cereals if sugar is taken, to adjust the total calories (PDF pp. 80 and 82). By the IFCT numbers, 25 g of sugar is 100 kcal, which is about 31 g of atta, roughly one roti at 30 g of flour each (that roti weight is our assumption).

Sources (read 22 October 2026)

ICMR-NIN, Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024: Table 1.6, notes and reference diets (PDF p. 28): sugar should be less than 5% of the total energy per day, reference diets of about 1,660, 2,125, 2,080 and 2,680 kcal; the same for adults (PDF p. 29); the sample day for adults (PDF pp. 80 and 82): "One may consume sugar, but it must be restricted to 25–30 grams per day. To adjust the total calories, cereals must be reduced if sugar is taken" and added sugar under 5% of daily energy; "high" sugar, "limiting sugar to 25g/day is better for health", and what counts as added and as naturally occurring sugars (PDF p. 111).
Longvah T. et al., Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (IFCT 2017), ICMR-NIN: a gram of carbohydrate yields 4 Cal (PDF p. 10); Table 1 per 100 g: wheat flour atta A019, 1,340 kJ (PDF p. 42), jaggery cane I001, 1,480 kJ (PDF p. 56); energy kcal = kJ ÷ 4.184, rounded half-up. Sugar has no IFCT row, so its energy is the carbohydrate factor times the grams.
The roti weight (30 g of atta) and the three steps are NYUS's own assumptions and examples, not guideline figures.