Plain rice calories
A 200 ml katori of plain white rice, about 134 g cooked, has about 160 calories. A full plate cooked from 100 g of raw rice is about 355. The rice barely varies; a teaspoon of ghee or butter on top adds about 45. Restaurant steamed rice counts much the same, about 160 to 205 a katori with ghee.
Plain rice here means polished white rice cooked in water until the water is absorbed, with no oil or ghee: the everyday chawal or bhaat that goes with dal.
Rice takes up about three times its raw weight in water, so most of a katori is water. That's why cooked rice has far fewer calories per 100 g than raw rice: about 120 against about 356.
Typical values for a home kitchen, for the portion named next to each number. Other sites often show bigger numbers because they count a bigger serving or a restaurant recipe. Your own katori, roti and oil change the number; Slate adjusts for them.
How many calories are in plain rice?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 katori (150 ml) about 101 g | 120 | 3 g | 26 g | 0 g |
| 1 katori (200 ml) about 134 g | 160 | 4 g | 35 g | 0 g |
| 1 katori (250 ml) about 168 g | 200 | 4 g | 44 g | 0 g |
| 1 plate (100 g raw rice) about 298 g | 355 | 8 g | 78 g | 1 g |
| 100 g cooked about 100 g | 120 | 3 g | 26 g | 0 g |
How does home plain rice compare with outside?
Steamed rice from a restaurant is usually plain too, so a katori of it counts much the same as yours. Some places finish it with a spoon of ghee or butter, and the bowl is often bigger than a home katori.
We found no lab figure for restaurant rice, so the range below allows for up to a teaspoon of ghee on a 200 ml katori.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 160 | 0 g |
| Restaurant, finished with ghee | 160 to 205 | 0 to 5 g |
Calories in plain rice as a meal
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dal chawal (a katori of rice, a katori of dal tadka) | 275 | 8 g | 45 g | 6 g |
| Rajma chawal (a katori of rice, a katori of rajma) | 370 | 12 g | 58 g | 9 g |
| Chole chawal (a katori of rice, a katori of chole) | 425 | 13 g | 61 g | 12 g |
| Kadhi chawal (a katori of rice, a katori of kadhi) | 260 | 7 g | 42 g | 7 g |
What changes the calories in plain rice?
- Rice boiled in plenty of water and drained ends up wetter, so 100 g of it has fewer calories than rice cooked by absorption. Published values for cooked white rice run from about 105 to 130 calories per 100 g for this reason.
- The numbers here are for a level katori. A heaped one holds more.
- A teaspoon of ghee or butter on top adds about 45 calories.
- Jeera rice, pulao and fried rice are cooked with oil or ghee and have more calories than plain rice.
How were these numbers worked out?
Slate's rice is 100 g of raw milled white rice from IFCT 2017, cooked until the water is absorbed, with no fat. Measured yields for boiled white rice run about 2.9 to 3.0 times the raw weight; this page uses 2.98, Bognár's average for long-grain polished rice, giving about 120 calories per 100 g cooked. A katori is its volume at 0.67 g per ml, from USDA's 158 g per cup of cooked rice, so a 200 ml katori is about 134 g and 160 calories; the plate is the textbook plate of 100 g of raw rice. All four cross-checks sit within 15%: ICMR-NIN's 200 ml cup at 170 calories, USDA's cooked long-grain rice at 130 per 100 g, the Indian Nutrient Databank's boiled rice at 117 and Bognár's analysed rice at 105. No restaurant steamed rice has been analysed, so the outside range is the same rice with 0 to 1 teaspoon of ghee on top. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Rice, raw, milled | 100 g | IFCT 2017 A015 |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Rice, raw, milled (A015); values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- Bognár, Tables on weight yield of food and retention factors of food constituents, 2002. Yield of boiled polished rice
- USDA FoodData Central 168878, rice, white, long-grain, cooked. Cup weight and per-100 g values
- ICMR-NIN, Dietary Guidelines for Indians: A Manual (2011). Annexure 8: rice 170 kcal per 200 ml cup
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. Boiled rice, ASC113
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 katori of rice?
A 150 ml katori of plain cooked rice has about 120 calories, a 200 ml katori about 160, and a 250 ml katori about 200. These are level katoris.
How many calories are in 100 g of cooked rice?
About 120 calories, with about 3 g protein, 26 g carbs and very little fat.
Why do raw and cooked rice have such different calories?
Cooking adds water, which has no calories. 100 g of raw rice has about 356 calories and becomes about 298 g of cooked rice, so each 100 g of cooked rice has about a third as much.
How many calories are in a plate of rice?
A plate made from 100 g of raw rice, about 298 g cooked, has about 355 calories. Plates vary a lot, so a katori is the easier measure.
Which has fewer calories, rice or roti?
Per usual serving they're close: a 200 ml katori of rice is about 160 calories and 2 medium rotis are about 190. Per 100 g, rice has fewer because it holds more water.
How many calories are in dal chawal?
A 200 ml katori of rice with a 200 ml katori of dal tadka comes to about 275 calories, and with rajma about 370. Each has its own page with bigger plates, thick dal and ghee: dal chawal and rajma chawal. With chole, about 425.
How many calories are in kadhi chawal?
About 260 calories for a 200 ml katori of rice and a 200 ml katori of kadhi.