Calories in 1 cup of rice: cooked, dry and by type
A cup of cooked long-grain white rice has about 205 calories, while a cup of the same rice uncooked has about 675, because rice soaks up nearly twice its weight in water as it cooks. Brown, medium-grain and short-grain rice land between 218 and 248 per cooked cup.
Calories in 1 cup of rice depend first on whether the rice is cooked: 1 cup of cooked long-grain white rice has about 205 calories, and 1 cup of dry rice has about 675. The type matters next, because some rice packs more grams into a cup: medium-grain, short-grain and brown rice run 218 to 248.
Below are the cooked versus dry mix-up that can put a log off by 470 calories, why brown rice is not lighter per cup, and a pot method that works out the calories in your own batch, whatever water ratio you use. A chart of USDA values for white, brown, jasmine, basmati, sticky and wild rice follows.
In one level cup (158 g) of cooked long-grain white rice. The same cup filled with dry rice holds about 675.
How many calories are in 1 cup of cooked rice?
USDA FoodData Central lists cooked long-grain white rice at 130 calories per 100 grams and weighs a level cup at 158 grams, which gives about 205 calories. That cup holds about 44.5 grams of carbohydrate, 4.3 grams of protein, under half a gram of fat and 0.6 grams of fiber. Plain jasmine and basmati are long-grain white rices, and by our estimate from their package labels they come out about the same, near 200 calories a cooked cup.
Medium-grain and short-grain white rice also have 130 calories per 100 grams. Their shorter, stickier grains pack more tightly, though, and USDA weighs a cup of them at 186 grams, about 242 calories. One USDA short-grain entry uses a 205 gram cup, about 267 calories. Across regular long, medium and short-grain white rice the calories per gram stay the same while the weight of a cup changes, which is why grams are the better unit to log.
Why does uncooked rice have so many more calories?
A cup of dry rice simply holds more rice. Rice soaks up water as it cooks, and cooked long-grain white rice weighs about 2.8 times what it did dry, so the same calories are spread over more grams: 365 per 100 grams dry, 130 per 100 grams cooked. By our estimate from the USDA figures, a cup of dry rice (185 grams, about 675 calories) makes about 3.3 cups cooked, and one rice brand's cooking chart gives 3 to 4.5 cups.
That gap causes the most common rice logging error, and it runs both ways. The two versions of the mistake, and the fix:
- Logging a cup of cooked rice against a dry rice entry: about 675 calories logged instead of about 205, which is 470 too many.
- Weighing 75 grams of dry rice, then logging 75 grams with a cooked entry: about 98 calories logged instead of about 274, which is 176 too few.
- The fix: check that the database entry says cooked or dry (raw), and that it matches the rice you put on the scale.
Is brown rice lower in calories than white rice?
Per gram, slightly. Per cup, usually not. USDA lists cooked brown rice at 112 to 123 calories per 100 grams, below white rice at 130, but weighs a cup of it at 195 to 202 grams, so a cooked cup comes to 218 to 248 calories against 205 for long-grain white. The two USDA brown rice entries, medium-grain and long-grain, differ in how much water the cooked samples held (73 versus 70 grams per 100) and in cup weight, which is why the range is wide.
Where brown rice clearly differs is fiber: about 3.2 to 3.5 grams a cup, compared with about 0.6 grams in white rice, plus a little more protein and fat from the bran and germ that white rice loses in milling. For calories alone, the gap is small enough that portion size matters more than color. If you track carbs, a cooked cup of brown rice has about 46 to 52 grams against 44.5 for long-grain white, and a macro calculator shows how much of your daily carb target that is.
How do you count the rice you actually eat?
Weighing beats measuring cups, because a cup can hold anywhere from 158 to 205 grams of cooked rice depending on the grain and how firmly it is packed. If you weigh cooked rice, use a cooked entry: about 130 calories per 100 grams for white rice and 112 to 123 for brown. Pasta and other grains swell in the pot the same way, as covered in counting cooked versus raw food.
If you cannot weigh, log a level cup of loose cooked rice as one cup and round up for a packed scoop. In calorietrack.ai you can also snap a photo of the bowl, or type "1.5 cups of jasmine rice", and get the calories and macros in seconds.
How do you work out the calories in a pot of rice?
Weigh the rice twice, dry and cooked. A standard cooked value assumes an average amount of water, while this method uses the water your batch actually absorbed, so it suits meal prep and any rice you cook often.
A worked example: 185 grams of dry rice (about 675 calories) comes out of the pot at 600 grams because you added a little extra water. That batch has 675 ÷ 600 = about 1.13 calories per gram, so a 200 gram serving is about 225 calories. The standard value of 130 per 100 grams would have logged 260, which is 35 more than you ate. To do the same with your own pot:
- Weigh the dry rice before cooking and work out its calories from the label or a dry entry: 185 grams of long-grain white rice is about 675.
- Weigh all of the cooked rice, minus the weight of the pot.
- Divide the dry calories by the cooked weight to get calories per gram for this batch.
- Weigh your serving and multiply it by that number.
What adds calories to a bowl of rice?
Plain rice has almost no fat, so most extra calories come from what goes into the pot or on top. By USDA figures, butter has about 102 calories per tablespoon and olive oil about 119. One tablespoon of oil stirred into a pot made from a cup of dry rice adds roughly 40 calories to each of its 3 or so cooked cups. Fried rice, pilaf and rice finished with butter all carry that fat, so log the fat on its own or pick an entry for the finished dish rather than plain rice.
Does cooling rice lower its calories?
Only by a few calories. Chilling cooked rice turns some of its starch into resistant starch, which the small intestine does not digest. In a 2015 study, white rice chilled for 24 hours and then reheated had 1.65 grams of resistant starch per 100 grams, against 0.64 grams when freshly cooked. In 15 healthy adults, the chilled rice produced a blood sugar response about 18% lower than fresh rice.
That extra gram of resistant starch still carries energy. A 2019 calorimetry study in 18 adults found that a resistant starch still supplied about 2.7 calories per gram, against the usual 4 for digestible starch, so by our estimate the saving is about 2 calories per cup, and 6 at most. Log chilled rice like any other cooked rice. If you do chill it, get it into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking, as USDA advises for leftovers, because rice left at room temperature is a known source of Bacillus cereus food poisoning.
| Rice | 1 cup weighs | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| White, long-grain, cooked | 158 g | 205 |
| Jasmine, cooked | ~158 g | ~200 |
| Basmati, cooked | ~158 g | ~200 |
| White, parboiled, cooked | 158 g | 194 |
| White, medium-grain, cooked | 186 g | 242 |
| White, short-grain, cooked | 186 g | 242 |
| Brown, medium-grain, cooked | 195 g | 218 |
| Brown, long-grain, cooked | 202 g | 248 |
| Sticky (glutinous), cooked | 174 g | 169 |
| Wild rice, cooked | 164 g | 166 |
| White, long-grain, dry | 185 g | 675 |
| Brown, long-grain, dry | 185 g | 679 |
| Jasmine, dry | 180 g | 640 |
See how a cup of rice fits your macros
Set daily protein, carb and fat targets, then check how much of your carb budget a cup or two of rice takes up.
Open the calculatorLog it by snapping a photo.
What this is based on.
- 01USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy). Calories, macronutrients and cup weights for cooked and dry white, brown, parboiled, sticky and wild rice, plus butter and olive oil.
- 02Mahatma and Tilda package nutrition labels. Jasmine rice at 160 calories per 45 g dry and basmati rice at 351 calories per 100 g dry, the basis for the jasmine and basmati estimates.
- 03Sonia S, Witjaksono F, Ridwan R. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2015. Effect of cooling cooked white rice on resistant starch content and glycemic response in 15 healthy adults.
- 04Giles ED, et al. Nutrients, 2019. Net energy content of resistant starch measured by whole-room calorimetry in 18 healthy adults.
- 05USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and FoodSafety.gov. Refrigerating leftovers within 2 hours, and cooked rice as a source of Bacillus cereus.
Questions, answered.
Keep reading.
- 01How to count calories in foodLabels, USDA data and portion math, including raw versus cooked weights.
- 01Calories in alcohol: beer, wine and spiritsOne standard drink holds about 14 grams of alcohol, which is roughly 100 calories on its own, so most single drinks land between 100 and 200 calories. Beer and wine add some carbs on top, and sweet or creamy cocktails can push one glass past 350.
- 02Calorie calculatorDaily calories to maintain, lose, or gain weight, from your stats and activity.
- 03How to count caloriesTo count calories, set a daily target based on your goals, then log everything you eat by reading nutrition labels, weighing or estimating portions, and recording each item. Accuracy comes from doing it every day, not from being perfect on any one meal.
- 04Steps to calories calculatorEstimate the calories you burn for any step count, body weight, and walking pace.
- 05YAZIO alternativesAI photo logging vs YAZIO database search, with a free web tier.
- 06MyFitnessPal alternativesLighter, AI-first options to MyFitnessPal, compared.
Rice is easy to miscount. Snap it instead.
calorietrack.ai. Snap, say or type your bowl, like "1.5 cups of jasmine rice with chicken", and get calories and macros in seconds. Free on the web, no signup.