Rice calories: cooked vs uncooked, white and brown
Quick answer: 100 g of cooked white rice has about 130 calories. 100 g of uncooked white rice has about 365. The rice is the same, but cooked rice has soaked up a lot of water.
Rice calories per 100 g
| Type | Calories | Carbs | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|
| White, long-grain, uncooked | about 365 | about 80 g | about 7 g |
| White, long-grain, cooked | about 130 | about 28 g | about 2.7 g |
| Brown, long-grain, cooked | about 123 | about 26 g | about 2.7 g |
Why cooked rice has fewer calories per gram
Dry rice absorbs water as it cooks and roughly triples in weight. The calories do not change, they are just spread across more grams. So 100 g of dry rice and about 280 g of cooked rice contain about the same energy.
How many calories in a cup of cooked rice?
A US cup of cooked white long-grain rice weighs about 158 g, which is about 205 calories. Cup measures vary with how firmly the rice is packed, so a scale is more accurate. Our guide to why cups do not convert to a single weight explains the difference.
Weigh dry or cooked?
- Dry weight is the steadier choice. It does not depend on how much water your rice absorbed. Multiply the dry weight by 3.65 to get calories for white rice.
- Cooked weight is easier when you are serving from a pot. Multiply by 1.3 for white rice.
The important part is to keep the method consistent. Using the cooked figure on dry rice will under-count by a lot.
White rice vs brown rice
The calories are close. The difference is mostly fiber: brown rice keeps its bran layer, and the USDA lists roughly 1.5 to 2 g of fiber per 100 g cooked versus about 0.4 g for white. That extra fiber is the main nutritional difference for most people.
Does cooling rice change calories?
Some of the starch in cooked, cooled rice becomes resistant starch, which is digested less fully. Research suggests the effect on calories is small, so for everyday counting you can use the standard figures.
See the same effect for meat in chicken breast raw vs cooked, or search any food in our nutrition facts.