How many calories in plain rice?
180–210 kcal
One katori of cooked white rice is about 180–210 calories. Rice is the food where portion size matters most, because uncooked and cooked weights differ by a factor of nearly three and people quote both.
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 |
|---|---|
| 1 katori, cooked (~150 g) | 180–210 |
| 1 cup, cooked (~200 g) | 240–270 |
| Per 100 g, cooked | 120–135 |
| Per 100 g, uncooked | 345–360 |
Per one katori of cooked rice: 3–4 g protein · 40–46 g carbs · 0.3–1 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.
- Cooked or uncooked. 100 g of dry rice becomes roughly 280–300 g cooked. Quoting the dry figure for a cooked serving nearly triples it.
- Vessel size. A katori is not a standard unit. Household katoris run from about 120 ml to 200 ml, which is a 60-calorie spread on its own.
- White, brown or basmati. Calories are near enough identical. Brown rice has more fibre and a slower glycaemic response, but not fewer calories.
- Anything cooked into it. Jeera rice, ghee rice and pulao carry added fat — usually 60–150 calories a serving above plain rice.
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 — "plain rice 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
Is rice or roti better for weight loss?
Neither is decisive. A katori of rice and two rotis land in a similar calorie range. What matters is the quantity you serve yourself, and rice is easier to over-serve because it fills a bowl rather than arriving as counted pieces.
Does brown rice have fewer calories than white rice?
No — the two are within a few calories of each other. Brown rice is more filling and higher in fibre, which can indirectly help, but the calorie count is not the reason.
Does washing or cooling rice reduce calories?
Cooling cooked rice increases its resistant starch a little, which may shave a small percentage off what you absorb. It is a real effect and a very small one — not something to plan around.
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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