How many calories in a potato? Baked, boiled, mashed, and fried
Potato calories by size and cooking method. Why a plain baked potato is a diet food and fries are not, plus how to log potatoes honestly without a scale.
The potato has the worst reputation of any vegetable on a diet, and almost none of it is the potato's fault. A plain potato is mostly water, starch, and fiber. It is one of the most filling foods per calorie you can put on a plate. What gets people is everything that happens to it between the soil and the fork: the oil, the butter, the cheese, the deep fryer.
Here is the honest math, by size and by cooking method.
Potato calories by weight
The starting number is low. Raw potato is about 77 kcal per 100g, and cooking without fat barely changes it. These figures track the USDA FoodData Central database for common potato preparations.
| Potato (plain, no added fat) | Portion | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Raw | 100g | 77 |
| Boiled, no skin | 100g | 87 |
| Baked, with skin | 100g | 93 |
| Small baked potato | about 140g | 130 |
| Medium baked potato | about 170g | 160 |
| Large baked potato | about 300g | 280 |
A plain medium baked potato lands near 160 kcal with around 4g of fiber, 4g of protein, and a large dose of potassium. On its own, that is a genuinely lean, satiating carbohydrate. It belongs in the same conversation as rice and pasta, and it usually wins on fullness per calorie.
Where the calories actually come from
The cooking method is the entire story. Frying makes the potato soak up oil, and oil is 9 kcal per gram. That is why the same potato can swing from a diet food to a calorie bomb.
| Preparation | Portion | Calories | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boiled, plain | 150g | 130 | Nothing added |
| Baked, plain | 170g | 160 | Nothing added |
| Mashed with butter and milk | 150g | 175 | Butter and milk |
| Roasted in oil | 150g | 215 | A tablespoon of oil |
| Home fries / saute | 150g | 250 | Pan oil |
| French fries (fast food) | 115g | 360 | Deep-fried |
| Potato chips | 50g | 270 | Fried and dehydrated |
Potato versus sweet potato
People agonize over this and the difference is small. A plain sweet potato is close in calories, with more vitamin A and a slightly gentler blood-sugar response. A regular potato has more potassium and is marginally lower in calories per gram. Pick whichever you will actually eat plain, because the topping decision matters ten times more than the variety.
How to log a potato without a scale
Potatoes vary wildly in size, which is where eyeball logging goes wrong. A few anchors:
- A potato the size of a computer mouse is roughly 150g, about 140 kcal baked.
- A potato the size of your fist is roughly 220g, about 205 kcal baked.
- A restaurant baked potato is often 300g or more, so start at 280 kcal before toppings.
- Every tablespoon of butter adds about 100 kcal, every tablespoon of oil about 120 kcal, and a handful of shredded cheese about 110 kcal.
The reliable move is to log the potato and each topping separately. A baked potato is not 160 kcal once it has butter, sour cream, and bacon bits on it. It is closer to 450. Potatoes are also a textbook high-volume, low-calorie food when you keep them plain, which is exactly why they are so easy to build a filling meal around.
For a weeknight tray that leans on plain roasted vegetables instead of fries, a sheet-pan chicken and vegetables dinner keeps the potato honest and the oil measured.
The bottom line
A plain potato is a lean, filling carbohydrate that most diets should welcome, not fear. The calorie count is almost entirely decided after the potato is cooked, by the oil and the toppings. Bake or boil it, weigh the extras, and the potato stops being the villain it was never meant to be.