Calories in pasta (spaghetti)

Spaghetti, enriched, cooked without salt. 158 kcal (661 kJ) per 100 g. Choose a portion below and every figure on the page updates.

Dry pasta is about 371 kcal per 100 g and roughly doubles in weight when cooked, landing at 158 kcal per 100 g. Almost every calorie-counting mistake with pasta comes from mixing up the dry and cooked weights.

Where the energy comes from

Share of total energy contributed by each macronutrient, using the standard 4/4/9 kcal per gram factors:

Things worth knowing

• A standard 75 g dry portion becomes roughly 170 g cooked and supplies about 278 kcal before sauce.
• Wholewheat pasta is nearly identical in calories, about 149 kcal per 100 g cooked, with roughly three times the fibre.
• Cooking pasta al dente rather than soft lowers its glycaemic index. Cooling cooked pasta increases resistant starch and modestly reduces digestible energy.
• Sauce usually dominates the final calorie count: 100 g of a cream-based sauce can add more energy than the pasta underneath it.
• Spaghetti, penne and other dried wheat pasta shapes have essentially the same nutrition per 100 g once cooked; the shape changes the portion, not the calories.

Converting these figures

One 1 cup, cooked of pasta is 221 kcal, which is 926 kJ. To convert any other figure, divide kilojoules by 4.184 for calories, or use the converter on the home page.

It takes 151 g of pasta to reach 1,000 kJ (239 kcal). See how that compares with other foods on the 1000 kJ to calories page.