How many calories in a steak? By cut, weight and doneness

Steak is the food where the menu number and the plate number are furthest apart, and almost none of the gap is the steak.

A 10oz sirloin is 442 kcal. The same plate with peppercorn sauce, chips and onion rings is 1,592. Here is where every one of those calories actually sits.

The quick answer

Menus and butchers quote raw weight. That is the number to work from. USDA reference data puts trimmed sirloin at about 155 kcal per 100g raw, which is 212 per 100g once it is cooked and has lost around a quarter of its weight in water.

Every cut, ranked

Cut names differ between the UK and the US for the same piece of meat, so both are listed. Figures are per 100g, trimmed of the outer fat.

The spread from fillet to ribeye is about 45%. Everything below the T-bone line is a normal lean protein source. Everything above it is a fattier meal that happens to be shaped like the same food.

Marbling cannot be trimmed. The white flecks running through a ribeye are inside the muscle. Cutting the fat off the edge of a sirloin genuinely removes 20 to 30 kcal per 100g. Doing the same to a ribeye removes almost nothing, because the fat you are paying for is not on the edge.

(For the same beef in its cheapest and most-tracked form, the ground beef calorie breakdown covers mince by fat percentage.)

Raw versus cooked, and why well done reads higher

This is the number-one source of double-counting on steak.

A steak loses water in the pan. It does not lose calories. So the same piece of meat has a higher figure per 100g the longer it cooks, while the total stays fixed.

The total column never moves. If you weigh a cooked steak and use a cooked-weight figure, you are fine. If you weigh it raw and use a raw figure, you are fine. Mixing the two is how people end up 100 kcal out in either direction.

What the pan adds

Steak cooked dry is the number above. Steak cooked the way most people cook it is not.

A butter-basted ribeye with bearnaise has around 400 kcal of added fat sitting on top of a 484 kcal steak. That is the single biggest swing available, and it is entirely optional.

(For how much of a pan pour actually reaches the plate, the olive oil calorie breakdown has the transfer rates.)

The rest of the plate

A 10oz sirloin steakhouse dinner adds up fast: 442 (steak) + 180 (peppercorn sauce) + 620 (chips) + 340 (onion rings) = 1,582 kcal, of which the steak is 28%.

The same steak with a jacket potato and steamed greens is 742 kcal, with the same 66g of protein. Nothing about the steak changed.

Steak as a protein tool

This is where lean steak earns its place rather than just being permitted.

An 8oz raw sirloin gives about 52g of protein for 349 kcal, which is 6.7 kcal per gram of protein. For comparison, chicken breast is around 4.5, which is better, and most other whole foods are considerably worse.

Lean steak is a strong protein source. Ribeye is a good meal that is not primarily a protein source, and pretending otherwise is how the numbers get away from people. (How much protein you need per day covers the target one of these meals is filling, and the chicken breast calorie breakdown has the leanest comparison.)

Steak is also unusually satiating for its calories. A 350 kcal steak keeps most people full for hours in a way a 350 kcal sandwich does not, which matters more for adherence than the raw figure suggests.

What about red meat and health?

Worth stating plainly, because it is the obvious question and dodging it would be dishonest.

The World Health Organization classifies red meat as probably carcinogenic to humans, and processed meat such as bacon and salami as carcinogenic. The evidence is considerably stronger for processed meat than for unprocessed red meat, and the association scales with intake. UK guidance suggests keeping red and processed meat to around 70g a day averaged out, which is roughly two or three steak dinners a week with room to spare.

Steak also carries saturated fat, more in the marbled cuts. American Heart Association guidance recommends limiting saturated fat, particularly for anyone managing cholesterol. A ribeye carries roughly 12g per 100g cooked; a fillet, about 4g.

None of this makes steak a food to avoid. It makes it a food with a sensible frequency, and it makes the lean cuts the better default.

Steak mistakes to avoid

Using cooked figures on a raw weight

The most common error, and it inflates a steak by around 30%. A 225g raw steak logged at 212 kcal per 100g comes out at 477 instead of 349.

Assuming a well done steak saved you calories

It shrank. That is not the same thing. The energy you bought is all still there in a smaller, drier piece of meat.

Trimming a ribeye and expecting a lean steak

The fat you can see on the edge is a small share of a ribeye's fat. Buy sirloin or fillet if lean is the goal, and enjoy the ribeye as what it is.

Forgetting the butter that went on after the photo

Restaurant steaks are very often finished with butter you never see. Add 100 to 150 kcal to any steak that arrived glossy.

Logging the steak and ignoring the plate

The steak is usually the smallest number in front of you. Chips and a creamy sauce together are typically double the meat.

Three steak dinners that work

The lean weeknight plate (520 kcal, 58g protein)

• 200g raw sirloin, dry-seared in a hot pan (310 kcal)
• 300g roasted vegetables tossed in 1 tsp oil (150 kcal)
• 30g chimichurri (120 kcal)

Adds up to: 580 kcal with 58g of protein. Chimichurri instead of a cream sauce saves 130 kcal and tastes sharper against the beef anyway.

The steakhouse order that still fits (742 kcal)

• 285g raw sirloin (442 kcal)
• Jacket potato, plain, with a fork of butter (275 kcal)
• Steamed greens (45 kcal)
• Red wine jus rather than peppercorn (60 kcal)

Adds up to: 822 kcal, against 1,582 for the default version of the same order. Same steak, same restaurant, 760 kcal saved on the parts nobody remembers eating.

The ribeye you actually wanted (613 kcal)

• 285g raw ribeye (613 kcal)
• Big salad with 1 tsp olive oil and vinegar (80 kcal)
• No sauce, no butter, salt and pepper

Adds up to: 693 kcal. If ribeye is the point of the meal, buy the ribeye and remove everything that was never the point. (High-protein dinners in 30 minutes covers the rest of the week around it.)

The verdict

Lean steak is 1.55 kcal per gram raw and about 30g of protein per 100g cooked, which makes it one of the better things on a menu. Ribeye is 40% higher and worth it occasionally.

Weigh it raw, use the raw column, and put the attention on the sauce and the chips. That is where a 350 kcal dinner turns into a 1,600 kcal one.

Pairs well with: the ground beef calorie breakdown, the chicken breast calorie breakdown, and how much protein you need per day.