A typical steak ranges from about 300 to 700 calories depending on the cut and portion size. A lean 8-ounce sirloin lands around 350 to 400 calories, while a well-marbled 12-ounce ribeye can push past 700. The cut you choose, how much fat it carries, and the size of your portion are the three biggest factors.
Calories by Cut
Not all steaks are created equal. USDA data for raw beef shows a wide calorie range per 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) depending on the cut and its fat content:
- Tenderloin (filet mignon): 142 to 150 calories per 100g. The leanest popular steak cut.
- New York strip: 151 to 171 calories per 100g. Moderately lean with a strip of fat along one edge.
- Top sirloin: 189 to 214 calories per 100g. A solid middle ground between lean and rich.
- Ribeye: 246 to 263 calories per 100g. The most marbled, and the most calorie-dense of the common cuts.
Those ranges reflect the difference between Select and Choice grades. Higher-graded beef has more marbling (fat woven through the muscle), which adds calories. A ribeye carries nearly twice the calorie density of a tenderloin, almost entirely because of its higher fat content.
Scaling Up to Real Portions
The numbers above are per 100 grams of raw meat, but most people eat steaks that weigh considerably more. A useful rule of thumb: raw meat loses about 25% of its weight during cooking, so a 12-ounce raw steak becomes roughly a 9-ounce cooked steak. One ounce of cooked steak provides roughly 75 calories for a moderately lean cut, dropping closer to 55 calories per ounce for very lean cuts and climbing to about 100 for fatty ones.
Here’s what that looks like for common serving sizes of cooked steak:
- 6-ounce cooked sirloin: roughly 330 to 390 calories
- 8-ounce cooked sirloin: roughly 440 to 520 calories
- 8-ounce cooked ribeye: roughly 550 to 650 calories
- 12-ounce cooked ribeye: roughly 825 to 975 calories
Restaurant steaks often start at 8 ounces and go up to 16 or more. A 16-ounce bone-in ribeye at a steakhouse can easily exceed 1,000 calories before any butter or sauce is added. If you’re tracking calories closely, weighing your steak cooked (or estimating based on the raw weight listed on the menu) gives you a much more accurate count than guessing.
Why Fat Content Matters More Than Weight
Protein and fat are the two calorie sources in steak (beef has essentially zero carbohydrates). Protein provides 4 calories per gram, while fat provides 9. That’s why fattier cuts jump so much higher in calories even at the same portion size.
A 3-ounce serving of cooked lean steak, like a top round or top loin, contains about 8 grams of fat and 26 to 28 grams of protein. That same 3-ounce serving from a ribeye contains around 17 grams of fat and 23 grams of protein. The ribeye has less protein and more than double the fat, which is why it packs noticeably more calories per bite.
How USDA Grades Affect Calories
USDA beef grades (Prime, Choice, and Select) are based on the amount of marbling in the meat. More marbling means more intramuscular fat, which directly increases the calorie count. Select-grade beef is the leanest, Choice falls in the middle, and Prime carries the most fat. A Choice ribeye has about 263 calories per 100 grams compared to 246 for Select, a difference of roughly 7%. The gap between Choice and Prime is similar or slightly larger. For a big steak, those percentage differences can add up to 50 or more extra calories on the plate.
Most grocery store beef is Choice or Select. Steakhouse beef is often Prime or upper Choice, which means restaurant steaks tend to be more calorie-dense than what you cook at home, even for the same cut and weight.
Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed
Grass-fed beef is consistently leaner than grain-fed. Some comparisons have found grass-fed cuts contain up to 62% less total fat than their grain-fed counterparts. Grain feeding encourages cattle to deposit more fat within the muscle tissue, producing richer marbling and a higher calorie count. If you’re choosing between two steaks of the same cut and weight, the grass-fed option will almost always be lower in calories. The tradeoff is that less fat can mean a firmer, less buttery texture.
Trimming Fat Before Cooking
You might assume that cutting off the visible fat cap before cooking would significantly reduce calories. Research from the Journal of Animal Science tested this directly with ribeye steaks and found something surprising: cooking steaks with the external fat cap left on did not increase the calorie content of the meat itself compared to steaks cooked with the fat removed beforehand. The fat cap helps with juiciness, flavor, and texture during cooking, but the calories in the cap don’t migrate into the lean muscle. The key is whether you eat the fat rim or leave it on the plate. If you trim it off before eating, you’re cutting calories without sacrificing the cooking benefits.
What Else You Get Besides Calories
Steak is one of the most nutrient-dense protein sources available. A 100-gram serving of lean beef provides over 60% of your daily vitamin B12, roughly 20 to 25% of your daily zinc, and a meaningful dose of iron. B12 is essential for nerve function and energy production, and beef is one of the richest natural sources. The zinc content supports immune function and wound healing.
Iron in beef is worth noting for a specific reason: daily value targets are set high enough to cover the increased needs of women, so while beef qualifies as an excellent iron source for men, it falls short of that threshold for women. It still contributes meaningfully, but women relying on steak alone for iron may need additional sources.