How many calories in paneer?
260–300 kcal
100 g of full-fat paneer is roughly 260–300 calories. It is the most useful vegetarian protein in Indian cooking and also one of the most calorie-dense — both facts matter.
By serving
Serving by serving.
Ranges rather than single numbers. Home cooking has no standard serving, and the same dish made in two kitchens genuinely differs by this much — a single figure would be false precision.
| Serving | Calories |
|---|---|
| 100 g, full-fat | 260–300 |
| 100 g, low-fat or toned | 150–190 |
| 1 katori paneer butter masala | 300–450 |
| 1 katori palak paneer | 200–300 |
Per 100 g of full-fat paneer: 18–20 g protein · 3–5 g carbs · 20–22 g fat
Why the range
What moves this number.
If you want a better estimate than the table gives, these are the things worth paying attention to. Everything else is noise by comparison.
- Full-fat or toned. Paneer made from toned milk has nearly the same protein for around 40% fewer calories. This is the largest single lever.
- The gravy. Butter masala is cream, butter and cashew — often more calories than the paneer in it.
- Raw or fried. Cubes shallow-fried before going into the dish absorb 40–80 calories per serving.
- Portion. A restaurant paneer dish often contains only 60–80 g of paneer across the whole bowl.
Logging it
You do not need this table every day.
Looking a number up works once. Doing it for every item of every meal is the reason most people stop tracking within a fortnight.
BetterCal has no database to search. Say or type the meal the way you would describe it to a person — "paneer and dal" — and it is logged with calories and macros in one go. If your version differs from the estimate, correct it once and it remembers, so over a few weeks the numbers converge on your kitchen rather than an average of everyone else's.
Frequently asked questions
How much protein is in 100 g of paneer?
About 18–20 g, which makes it one of the strongest vegetarian protein sources available in an Indian kitchen.
Is paneer good for weight loss?
The protein is genuinely useful, but full-fat paneer is calorie-dense. Toned-milk paneer keeps almost all the protein at a much lower calorie cost, which is usually the better trade in a deficit.
How many calories in paneer butter masala?
A katori is typically 300–450, and most of that is the gravy rather than the paneer.
Why is this a range and not one number?
Because the honest answer is a range. Serving sizes are not standardised and cooking fat varies enormously between kitchens. A single confident figure would be more convenient and less true. See how accurate calorie estimates really are.
Do I need to weigh food to track it properly?
No. Weighing improves precision that you mostly do not need — being consistently within 10% is enough to lose or gain weight predictably. The easiest way to track calories covers the method.
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