A cooked strip steak has about 250 to 278 calories per 3.5 ounces (100 grams), depending on the grade and how much fat you eat. A typical restaurant portion is closer to 10 or 12 ounces before cooking, which shrinks to roughly 7 to 9 ounces on the plate. That means a real-world strip steak dinner lands somewhere between 450 and 750 calories before any butter, oil, or sides.
Calories by Serving Size
The USDA standard serving size for cooked beef is 3 ounces (84 grams), which is roughly the size of a deck of cards. At that size, a cooked Choice-grade strip steak contains about 236 calories and 15 grams of fat. A Select-grade strip steak, which has slightly less marbling, comes in at about 213 calories and 13 grams of fat for the same portion.
Most people eat more than 3 ounces of steak at a sitting, though. Here’s how the numbers scale for Choice-grade strip steak, cooked with a normal fat rim:
- 3 oz (85g): ~236 calories
- 6 oz (170g): ~473 calories
- 8 oz (227g): ~630 calories
- 12 oz (340g): ~945 calories
Keep in mind that raw weight and cooked weight are different. A steak labeled 12 ounces at the butcher counter will lose roughly 25% of its weight during cooking from moisture loss. That 12-ounce raw steak becomes about 9 ounces on your plate.
How USDA Grade Changes the Count
The grade on your steak reflects how much fat is marbled through the muscle, and that marbling directly affects calorie content. USDA Choice and Select are the two grades most commonly sold in grocery stores. Prime, the highest grade, has the most marbling and is typically found at steakhouses and specialty butchers.
For a cooked 100-gram portion of strip steak with the fat cap trimmed to a thin edge, USDA data shows a clear gap between grades. Choice-grade strip steak has 278 calories and 18 grams of fat. Select-grade has 250 calories and 15 grams of fat. That’s about a 10% difference, entirely from the extra intramuscular fat in the Choice cut. Prime-grade strip steak, with even more marbling, likely adds another 10 to 15% on top of Choice, putting it in the range of 300 to 320 calories per 100 grams cooked.
Trimming the Fat Makes a Big Difference
Strip steak has a distinctive strip of fat along one edge. Whether you eat that fat cap or cut it off changes the calorie count significantly. USDA data for Choice-grade strip steak shows 278 calories per 100 grams when cooked with the fat, but only 201 calories per 100 grams when you eat the lean portion alone. That’s a 28% drop in calories just from trimming.
For Select-grade, the difference is even more dramatic: 250 calories with the fat versus 177 calories for lean only. If you’re tracking calories closely, trimming the visible fat before eating is the single most effective move you can make without changing your portion size.
Protein and Fat Breakdown
Strip steak is a high-protein cut. A 3-ounce cooked serving delivers about 23 grams of protein with roughly 3 grams of saturated fat when trimmed. That protein-to-calorie ratio makes it one of the more efficient red meat options, particularly if you choose Select grade or trim the fat.
A 6-ounce portion, which is a more realistic dinner serving, provides around 46 grams of protein. For context, that covers roughly 70 to 90% of most adults’ daily protein needs in a single sitting. Strip steak contains zero carbohydrates, so its calories come entirely from protein and fat.
How Cooking Method Affects Calories
The cooking method itself doesn’t change the calories already in the meat, but what you add during cooking can. A plain grilled or broiled strip steak retains its baseline calorie count. Pan-searing in a tablespoon of oil or butter adds about 100 to 120 calories. A steakhouse-style finish with a pat of butter on top adds another 100 calories easily.
Cooking temperature matters indirectly too. A well-done steak loses more moisture than a medium-rare one, so it weighs less after cooking. Ounce for ounce, well-done steak is slightly more calorie-dense than medium-rare because the water has cooked off while the fat and protein remain. The total calories in the whole steak stay roughly the same, but if you’re measuring a portion by weight after cooking, a well-done piece will have more calories per ounce than a juicier one.