How Many Calories in a Steak? The Cut and the Trim Move It by Half

A steak has no single calorie count. USDA FDC 168726 gives 201 kcal per 100 g for raw top sirloin with lean and fat and a 1/8-inch trim: its 608 g steak contains 1,222 kcal. A cooked, lean-only top sirloin portion is 292 g and 534 kcal in FDC 168634. Match cut, fat eaten and weighing state before choosing a figure.

Choose the steak before choosing the number

“Steak” describes how beef is cut and served, not its composition. Read past “top sirloin” in a nutrition record: lean only or lean and fat, the external fat trim, the USDA grade, and raw or cooked all belong to the name. A lean-only entry describes the separable lean tissue; it does not mean the meat contains no fat.

The published value for the raw top sirloin below is 201 kcal per 100 g, not 679 kcal per 100 g. Nor does “one steak” automatically mean 679 kcal. The source and the portion must travel together. USDA’s recorded 608 g raw steak works out to 1,222 kcal; a smaller edible portion needs its own weight.

The two all-grade cooked top sirloin records provide a useful check: lean and fat, 1/8-inch trim, is 243 kcal/100 g; lean only, 0-inch trim, is 183 kcal/100 g. But their recorded pieces are also different sizes: 306 g and 292 g. The 744 versus 534 kcal totals therefore combine a composition difference with a portion difference. Removing fat does not come with a universal “half the calories” rule.

Raw weight, cooked weight and the bone

Use a raw record for meat weighed raw and the matching cooked record for meat weighed cooked. The 608 g raw steak is not the before-picture of the 292 g cooked lean-only piece. USDA labels both cooked “piece” rows as yields from raw meat with refuse; those are not the 608 g steak portion.

For a bone-in steak, count the edible meat you actually eat, with its fat treatment stated. Do not multiply a bone-inclusive scale reading by a lean-only value. Butter, sauce and sides are separate entries. Once cut, trim, weighing state and edible weight agree, you have a usable estimate for the steak itself.

Rib eye: grade and the part eaten still matter

These are not interchangeable “rib eye” rows. The small-end records include separable lean and fat and are broiled; the boneless, lip-on records below count separable lean only and are grilled. “Lip-on” is retained from USDA’s cut description. The grade labels Choice and Select are the US database categories, not labels this page assigns to your butcher’s meat.

FDC 170838 describes a raw, bone-in, lip-on rib eye steak/roast, separable lean only, 1/8-inch trim, Select, at 155 kcal/100 g. Its portion list says “1 steak,” 471 g, but does not explicitly call that a bone-inclusive weight. That wording does not support a calorie total for 471 g of meat and bone, so no such total is published here.

How to log the steak you ate

• Keep the cut name. Top sirloin is not a generic synonym for tenderloin. Keep the package’s cut name if local butcher terminology differs.
• Say what happened to the visible fat. “I left the fat edge” is useful context; silently choosing lean and fat is a different assumption.
• Keep the weight with its state. “Weighed raw” and “weighed after grilling” are different instructions, even if the scale shows the same number.

PlateLens logs a meal from a photo, a written description, voice or a barcode. Add the cut and portion detail in your description, and use Fix it to correct the amount if needed. For the broader portion principle, see calories in common foods; for another raw-versus-cooked example, see chicken breast calories.

Where these numbers come from

USDA FoodData Central records retrieved on 7 September 2026; each record below lists its own last update as 1 April 2019. Retrieval confirms the published record, not a new laboratory analysis. All nutrient values are per 100 g. Portion calories multiply that value by the record’s own portion weight in grams and divide by 100; totals are rounded only at the end.

• FDC 168726: Beef, top sirloin, steak, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 1/8" fat, all grades, raw.
• FDC 168727: Beef, top sirloin, steak, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 1/8" fat, all grades, cooked, broiled.
• FDC 168729: Beef, top sirloin, steak, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 1/8" fat, choice, cooked, broiled.
• FDC 168634: Beef, top sirloin, steak, separable lean only, trimmed to 0" fat, all grades, cooked, broiled.
• FDC 168636: Beef, top sirloin, steak, separable lean only, trimmed to 0" fat, select, cooked, broiled.
• FDC 169556: Beef, rib eye, small end (ribs 10-12), separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0" fat, select, cooked, broiled.
• FDC 169557: Beef, rib eye, small end (ribs 10-12), separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0" fat, all grades, cooked, broiled.
• FDC 171209: Beef, rib eye steak, boneless, lip-on, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/8" fat, all grades, cooked, grilled.
• FDC 171232: Beef, rib eye steak, boneless, lip-on, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/8" fat, choice, cooked, grilled.
• FDC 171233: Beef, rib eye steak, boneless, lip-on, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/8" fat, select, cooked, grilled.
• FDC 170838: Beef, rib eye steak/roast, bone-in, lip-on, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/8" fat, select, raw.

Log the cut and portion together

Describe the steak, how it was weighed and the fat you ate in PlateLens. A photo can start the entry; your portion details make the estimate more useful.

Frequently asked questions