Calories in potatoes: raw, boiled and baked

Potatoes are the food people most often assume they have logged wrongly, and most often have not. After rice and pasta — where the dry and cooked numbers differ by a factor of nearly three — a potato feels like it must hide a similar trap. It does not. Potatoes are one of the best-behaved foods in a calorie log, and knowing why makes the number easy to remember.

The numbers

USDA FoodData Central values, per 100 g:

And by the potato, which is how anyone actually eats them:

Look at the first two rows together, because they are the whole point: a large potato weighed raw and the same potato weighed after baking give almost the same answer — 284 and 278 kcal. It got lighter, from 369 g to 299 g, and denser per gram, from 77 to 93. Those two changes cancel, because the only thing that left the potato was water.

Why potatoes do not behave like rice

Dry rice and dry pasta are dehydrated on purpose. Cook them and they take on water — around 1.4 times their weight for pasta — so 100 g of the cooked product is now mostly water and the calories per 100 g collapse: 365 down to 130 for rice.

A potato arrives already full of water, about 79% of it. Cooking cannot add much more. Baking drives some off, which is why the baked figure is *higher* per 100 g than the raw one. Boiling is somewhere in between, and the USDA boiled row is measured without skin, so part of its lower figure is the missing skin rather than the water.

That gives a rule worth carrying around: things that start dry get less caloric per gram when cooked; things that start wet get more. Meat behaves like the potato, in the same direction and for the same reason — a roasted chicken breast is 165 kcal per 100 g against 120 raw. The cooked-versus-raw post has the full version of this idea.

Sweet potatoes are not the lighter choice

This one is worth stating flatly, because the opposite is repeated constantly. Raw, a sweet potato is 86 kcal per 100 g against a regular potato's 77 — about 12% more, not less. Baked, they are 90 and 93: near enough identical that the difference is not worth a decision.

Sweet potatoes do have a real nutritional argument — vitamin A, in quantities a white potato cannot approach, and a somewhat gentler blood-sugar response. Those are good reasons to eat one. Calorie saving is not among them, and any plan built on "I switched to sweet potatoes" is built on a number that does not exist.

What actually changes a potato's calories

Almost nothing that happens to the potato matters. Everything that happens to the pan does.

A potato is roughly 0.1 g of fat per 100 g. It is, in its natural state, one of the least calorie-dense filling foods available. Every large number attached to potatoes in popular nutrition writing comes from what was added: the oil they were fried in, the butter melted into them, the cheese on top. If you want the potato number to stay small, the thing to watch is the fat, not the potato.

This is also why "are potatoes fattening?" has no useful answer. A boiled potato and a portion of chips are not the same food in a log, and the gap between them is oil.

How calorie.one handles it

The cooked state is a field in the analysis, not a footnote. "A baked potato" matches the baked row at 93 kcal per 100 g; "I boiled 300 g of potatoes" matches the boiled row. If the guess is wrong you will see it, because every ingredient line shows which USDA row priced it, and you can change the row or the grams and watch the total recompute.

The fat gets its own line too — so "baked potato with butter" is two lines, not one, and the 100 kcal that came out of the butter dish is visible rather than buried. The full pipeline is on the methodology page, or log tonight's dinner and see the breakdown.

FAQ

How many calories are in a baked potato?

A large baked potato with skin, about 299 g, is roughly 278 kcal — USDA lists baked potato at 93 kcal per 100 g. That is the plain potato. A tablespoon of butter adds about 100 kcal on top.

Are potatoes fattening?

Not in themselves. A potato is about 0.1 g of fat per 100 g and 77 kcal raw, which makes it one of the least calorie-dense filling foods available. Every large number attached to potatoes comes from what was added — the oil they were fried in, the butter melted into them, the cheese on top.

Do sweet potatoes have fewer calories than regular potatoes?

No. Raw, a sweet potato is 86 kcal per 100 g against a regular potato’s 77 — about 12% more. Baked they are near identical, 90 against 93. Sweet potatoes have a real vitamin A argument; a calorie saving is not one of them.

Should potatoes be weighed raw or cooked?

Either, as long as you use the matching row — and unlike rice it barely matters. A large potato is 284 kcal weighed raw and 278 weighed after baking. It gets lighter and denser at the same time, because the only thing that left was water, and the two changes cancel.

How many calories are in boiled potatoes?

86 kcal per 100 g, or about 258 kcal for a large 300 g potato. The USDA boiled row is measured without skin, so part of the gap to the baked figure is the missing skin rather than the water.