Calories in common foods: a quick-reference guide

Here's the fuller table by category, and then the part worth actually understanding.

The quick answer

Typical values for the plain, minimally prepared version of each food — no sauce, no oil added unless noted. Source: USDA FoodData Central.¹

If you eat a lot of one of these, it's worth knowing by heart. If you don't — and most people's diets are more varied than any single table can cover — the number you actually need is for the plate in front of you right now, cooked the way you cooked it, at the size you're actually eating. That's the part a static list can't give you.

Why the same food never has exactly one calorie number

Cooking method and added fat

"Chicken breast" at 165 calories assumes it's grilled or baked dry. Pan-fry the same piece in a tablespoon of oil and you've added roughly 120 calories before you've changed the meat itself. Bread it and deep-fry it and a 165-calorie food can easily become a 350-calorie one — see the bars above. The chicken didn't change; what you did to it did. Same story for vegetables sautéed in butter, rice cooked in stock with oil versus plain water, or "grilled" restaurant chicken that's actually basted.

Portion size vs. the "per 100g" trap

Nutrition databases default to 100g because it's a clean unit for comparison, not because that's what's on your plate. A restaurant chicken breast is routinely 170-220g, not 100g — so the "165-calorie chicken breast" people quote from memory is often closer to 300 in practice. Weighing or estimating the actual portion matters more than getting the per-100g number exactly right.

There's also a regulatory reality worth knowing: under US law, packaged-food calorie declarations are allowed to vary from the true value by up to 20% and still be compliant (21 CFR 101.9, the FDA's nutrition-labeling rule).² So even the number printed on a box isn't a lab-exact measurement of the food in your hand — it's a legally permitted estimate. That's not a reason to ignore labels; it's a reason to treat every calorie number, including the ones in this article, as a good estimate rather than a fact carved in stone.

Calories in common foods, by category

• Protein — chicken breast (100g, cooked): ~165 · salmon (100g, cooked): ~208 · egg (1 large): ~72 · Greek yogurt, plain nonfat (170g): ~100 · ground beef, 85% lean (100g, cooked): ~250 · tofu, firm (100g): ~76
• Carbs & grains — white rice, cooked (100g): ~130 · pasta, cooked (100g): ~131 · oats, dry (40g): ~150 · bread, white (1 slice): ~75 · sweet potato, baked (100g): ~90
• Fruit & veg — banana (1 medium): ~105 · apple (1 medium): ~95 · avocado (100g): ~160 · broccoli (100g): ~34 · mixed leafy greens (100g): ~20-25
• Dairy & fats — cheddar cheese (28g): ~113 · whole milk (1 cup, 244g): ~149 · olive oil (1 tbsp): ~119 · almonds (28g): ~164 · peanut butter (2 tbsp): ~188

These are still typical values for the plain version. A restaurant Caesar salad is nowhere near "broccoli + chicken" math once the dressing, cheese, and croutons are counted — often 500-700 calories for what looks like a light lunch.

Memorizing numbers vs. just checking each meal

A table like this is genuinely useful for the handful of foods you eat on repeat — your usual breakfast, your go-to protein. But most days aren't made of foods from a memorized list; they're a mix of home cooking, restaurant meals, and things you didn't make yourself, in portions that change every time. Trying to mentally track "165, minus the oil I can't measure, times a portion I'm guessing at" for every meal is exactly the kind of friction that makes people quit tracking within a couple of weeks — we hear this from almost every user who tried a food database before Bocco.

How Bocco helps

This is where a photo beats a memorized table. Take a picture of your actual plate — cooked the way you cooked it, at the size you're actually eating — and Bocco estimates the calories and macros directly from the photo, no lookup required. It won't be a lab measurement any more than the label on a box is (see the 20% tolerance above — nobody's is), but it's estimating your food, not a 100g reference version of it. And if it gets an item wrong, you correct it in a sentence and the whole entry recalculates — no re-entering the meal from scratch.