A single steak ranges from about 300 to over 700 calories depending on the cut and size. A typical 8-ounce ribeye comes in around 400 to 450 calories, while a leaner cut like sirloin of the same size sits closer to 350. The biggest factors are how much fat is marbled through the meat, how large the portion is, and what you cook it in.
Calories by Cut for Common Steak Sizes
Not all steaks are created equal. A 3-ounce serving of broiled ribeye contains roughly 200 calories, with about 24 grams of protein and 11 grams of fat. That’s USDA data for a plain ribeye cooked without added oil or butter. Double that to a 6-ounce portion and you’re at roughly 400 calories. A full 8-ounce ribeye, which is a standard restaurant size, lands around 450 to 500 calories.
Leaner cuts have noticeably fewer calories at the same weight:
- Sirloin (8 oz): roughly 350 to 400 calories, with less marbling and about 6 to 8 grams of fat per 3-ounce serving
- Filet mignon (8 oz): roughly 440 to 480 calories, moderately lean but often served in smaller 6-ounce portions (330 to 360 calories)
- Ribeye (8 oz): roughly 450 to 540 calories, the most marbled of the three
- T-bone (8 oz): roughly 400 to 480 calories, since it combines a strip and a tenderloin section
- Flank steak (8 oz): roughly 340 to 380 calories, one of the leanest options
The difference between the fattiest and leanest cuts at the same portion size can be 150 calories or more. That gap comes almost entirely from fat content, since protein stays relatively consistent across cuts at about 7 grams per ounce.
How Portion Size Changes the Math
What counts as “one steak” varies enormously. A USDA serving is 3 ounces of cooked meat, which is roughly the size of a deck of cards. Almost nobody eats a steak that small. Restaurant steaks typically range from 8 to 12 ounces (roughly 225 to 340 grams), and some steakhouses serve 16-ounce cuts or larger.
Here’s a rough calorie range for a moderately marbled steak like a New York strip, scaled by size:
- 6 oz: 300 to 350 calories
- 8 oz: 400 to 470 calories
- 10 oz: 500 to 590 calories
- 12 oz: 600 to 700 calories
- 16 oz: 800 to 940 calories
If you’re tracking calories, weighing your steak raw gives you the most accurate count. Cooked steak loses about 25% of its weight from moisture, so a raw 10-ounce steak becomes roughly 7.5 ounces on the plate. Nutrition labels for raw meat reflect the pre-cooking weight.
Cooking Method Adds More Than You Think
A plain grilled or broiled steak adds zero extra calories from cooking. But most home cooks and restaurants use fat to sear or baste. One tablespoon of vegetable oil adds 124 calories and 14 grams of fat. One tablespoon of butter adds 102 calories and 12 grams of fat. A restaurant steak basted with two tablespoons of butter picks up an extra 200 calories that won’t show up on any nutrition chart for “steak.”
If you’re trying to keep the calorie count low, grilling, broiling, or using a hot cast-iron pan with minimal oil are your best options. You don’t necessarily need oil to get a good sear. A well-dried steak on a very hot surface will brown on its own, especially fattier cuts like ribeye that render their own fat as they cook.
One thing that doesn’t matter as much as you’d expect: trimming the visible fat cap before cooking. Research from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada found that cooking steaks with the external fat cap on did not increase the calorie content compared to steaks cooked with the cap completely removed. The cap fat doesn’t migrate into the meat during cooking the way many people assume.
Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed Beef
Grass-fed cattle take longer to reach their target weight, which results in leaner meat with less marbling. In practice, this means a grass-fed steak of the same cut and size will have somewhat fewer calories than its grain-fed equivalent, though the difference is modest. For an 8-ounce steak, expect roughly 20 to 50 fewer calories from a grass-fed version. The nutritional profiles are otherwise similar, with grass-fed beef containing about twice the omega-3 fatty acids, though the total amount is still small (around 30 milligrams more per serving).
Why Steak Protein Works in Your Favor
Steak is one of the most protein-dense foods you can eat, delivering roughly 7 grams of protein per ounce of cooked meat. An 8-ounce steak provides about 50 to 60 grams of protein, which is a full day’s worth for many people in a single meal.
That high protein content has a practical calorie benefit. Protein has the highest thermic effect of any macronutrient, meaning your body burns 15 to 30% of protein calories just digesting and processing them. So if your steak contains 400 calories and roughly 200 of those come from protein, your body spends 30 to 60 of those calories on digestion alone. Fat, by contrast, has a thermic effect of only about 2 to 3%. This is one reason high-protein meals tend to feel more satisfying relative to their calorie count.
Quick Reference for Common Orders
If you’re sitting in a restaurant or standing at the meat counter trying to estimate, these are practical ballpark numbers for cooked steak with no added butter or oil:
- 6 oz filet mignon: 330 to 360 calories
- 8 oz sirloin: 350 to 400 calories
- 8 oz New York strip: 400 to 470 calories
- 8 oz ribeye: 450 to 540 calories
- 12 oz ribeye: 680 to 800 calories
- 16 oz T-bone: 750 to 900 calories
Add 100 to 200 calories if the steak is finished with butter, which is standard at most steakhouses. A compound butter topping or garlic butter baste is delicious, but it can push a 500-calorie steak past 700 before any sides hit the plate.