How Many Calories in Coconut?
Fresh coconut flesh is 351 calories per 100 g, so a 45 g handful comes to 158 kcal. The figure worth watching is underneath it: that handful carries 14.1 g of saturated fat, 71% of an adult's daily allowance. Desiccated coconut is 604 kcal per 100 g, tinned coconut milk 169, coconut water 22.
You'd need to walk about 70 minutes to burn the 351 calories in 100 g of fresh flesh.
How long does it take to burn off coconut?
100 g of fresh flesh is 351 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 351 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 1 hr 10 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 44 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 50 min |
| Jogging | 41 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 1 hr 18 min |
Times are for a 154 lb (11 st) adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (100 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Coconut quick facts
- Five coconuts, five numbers
- The saturated fat is the headline
- Fresh chunks and what the shell costs you
- Desiccated coconut, a tablespoon at a time
- Coconut milk, coconut water and a naming trap
- Coconut against the nut shelf
- Popular coconut products
- FAQ
Coconut quick facts
Fresh white flesh cut from the kernel, shell removed. A handful is roughly 45 g.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | 45 g handful | RI%* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 351 kcal / 1,469 kJ | 158 kcal / 661 kJ | 8% |
| Protein | 3.2 g | 1.4 g | 3% |
| Carbohydrates | 3.7 g | 1.7 g | <1% |
| – of which sugars | 3.7 g | 1.7 g | 2% |
| Fat | 36.0 g | 16.2 g | 23% |
| – of which saturates | 31.4 g | 14.1 g | 71% |
| Fibre | 7.3 g | 3.3 g | – |
| Salt | 0.04 g | 0.02 g | <1% |
*RI% = one handful's share of an adult's daily reference intake, based on 2,000 kcal.
One row is four times the size of everything around it. A handful of coconut costs 8% of the day's calories and 71% of the day's saturated fat — a ratio nothing else in the fruit-and-nut aisle comes close to.
The carbohydrate row surprises people. Coconut tastes sweet, but it holds 3.7 g of sugars per 100 g, less than a grapefruit. What it tastes of is fat.
Five coconuts, five numbers
"Coconut" is not one food, and treating it as one is how logging goes wrong.
| Form | Per 100 g or 100 ml | Everyday portion | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coconut water | 22 kcal | 330 ml carton | 59 kcal |
| Tinned coconut milk | 169 kcal | 100 ml, a quarter tin | 169 kcal |
| Fresh flesh | 351 kcal | 45 g handful | 158 kcal |
| Desiccated | 604 kcal | 15 g tablespoon | 91 kcal |
| Creamed coconut block | 685 kcal | 50 g | 343 kcal |
| Coconut oil | 899 kcal | 14 g tablespoon | 126 kcal |
Forty-one times separate the lightest of those from the heaviest. They all say "coconut" on the front, they all sit within two aisles of each other, and the only thing they share is a raw material.
Reading down the middle column is the fastest way to keep them straight: water is a drink, milk is a cooking liquid, flesh is a snack, desiccated is a topping, creamed is a concentrate, and oil is fat with nothing else left in it.
The saturated fat is the headline
Of the 36 g of fat in 100 g of fresh coconut, 31.4 g is saturated — 87% of it. That proportion is higher than any other whole food in the UK tables apart from coconut oil itself, which reaches 86.5 g of saturates per 100 g.
Put in portions:
- 45 g handful of fresh coconut: 14.1 g of saturates, 71% of the day
- 15 g tablespoon of desiccated: 8.0 g, 40%
- 100 ml of tinned coconut milk in a curry: 14.6 g, 73%
- 14 g tablespoon of coconut oil: 12.1 g, 61%
The daily reference intake for saturated fat is 20 g. Half a tin of coconut milk stirred into a curry for two puts most of that on each plate before anything else goes in.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from CoFID, the UK government’s Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified September 2026. How we verify our data →
None of this makes coconut a food to avoid — it is the sort of number that changes how often rather than whether. The NHS sets out the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats, and lists cutting down on saturates among the practical steps in its guidance on lowering cholesterol.
Fresh chunks and what the shell costs you
A whole coconut is mostly not food. The official edible proportion is 0.70, so 100 g of kernel as bought yields 70 g of flesh — 246 kcal for every 100 g you carry home.
Supermarket bags of ready-cut chunks skip that arithmetic and label the flesh directly:
| Pack | Per 100 g | Pack size | Pack total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesco coconut chunks | 371 kcal | — | — |
| Asda coconut chunks | 371 kcal | 80 g | 297 kcal |
| Waitrose coconut chunks | 394 kcal | 90 g | 355 kcal |
| Sainsbury's coconut pieces | 394 kcal | — | — |
Those labels sit above the 351 kcal reference figure, and the reason is visible in the carbohydrate column: Waitrose counts 15.2 g of carbohydrate per 100 g where the reference method counts 3.7 g, because the label arrives at carbohydrate by subtraction and sweeps the fibre in with it. The fat is identical at 33.5–36 g either way.
Practical answer: log a labelled pack by its label, and loose flesh from a whole nut at 351. A 90 g bag eaten in front of the television is 355 kcal, which is more than most people would guess for something that feels like a snack rather than a meal.
Desiccated coconut, a tablespoon at a time
Desiccated coconut is not a different food from fresh — it is the same flesh with the water taken out. Fresh coconut holds 45 g of water per 100 g; desiccated holds 2.3 g. Remove that and everything left behind concentrates: 351 kcal becomes 604.
| Amount | Reference figure | UK label (Tesco) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon, 5 g | 30 kcal | 32 kcal |
| 1 tablespoon, 15 g | 91 kcal | 96 kcal |
| 25 g serving | 151 kcal | 171 kcal |
| 100 g | 604 kcal | 637 kcal |
UK packets run from 632 to 684 kcal per 100 g, above the 604 reference. The fat (62 g) and fibre (13.7 g) on those packets match the reference almost exactly, so the gap is in the energy factor applied, not in what is in the bag. Either number is defensible; the label is the one printed on the thing in your cupboard.
Fibre is where desiccated coconut quietly wins. At 13.7 g per 100 g it beats brazil nuts (2.4 g), cashews (4.6 g) and almonds (4.5 g) outright, and a single tablespoon contributes 2.1 g towards the 30 g a day the NHS recommends for 91 calories.
Coconut milk, coconut water and a naming trap
The UK reference tables contain an entry called "Coconut milk" listed at 22 kcal per 100 g. It is not coconut milk. Read its description and it says drained fluid from fresh coconut — the liquid that runs out when you crack the shell. That is coconut water.
Tinned coconut milk, the thick white stuff for curries, is a separate entry at 169 kcal per 100 g. Anyone who takes the 22 and applies it to a tin will be out by a factor of eight: a 400 ml tin logged that way reads 88 kcal instead of 676.
| Liquid | Per 100 ml | Container | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coconut water | 22 kcal | 330 ml carton | 59 kcal |
| Coconut drink (dairy alternative) | 20–34 kcal | 250 ml glass | 50–85 kcal |
| Tinned coconut milk, light | 79 kcal | 400 ml tin | 316 kcal |
| Tinned coconut milk, full fat | 169 kcal | 400 ml tin | 676 kcal |
Three drinks, three orders of magnitude, near-identical names. The cartons of coconut drink beside the oat and almond milks are 20 to 34 kcal per 100 ml — those are mostly water with a little coconut in them, and they are no substitute for a tin in a curry. UK tins vary widely themselves, from 109 kcal per 100 ml at the cheaper end to 185 for the richest Thai brands, so a tin can be anywhere from 436 to 740 kcal. Check the tin rather than assuming.
Coconut against the nut shelf
| Item | Per 100 g | Typical portion | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coconut, fresh flesh | 351 kcal | 45 g handful | 158 kcal |
| Coconut, desiccated | 604 kcal | 15 g tablespoon | 91 kcal |
| Almonds | 554 kcal | 30 g | 166 kcal |
| Pistachios | 601 kcal | 30 g | 180 kcal |
| Chia seeds | 486 kcal | one tablespoon | 58 kcal |
| Olive oil | 899 kcal | one tablespoon | 124 kcal |
| Dates | 124 kcal | one fresh date | 30 kcal |
Our take: on calories alone fresh coconut is the lightest thing in the nut section, undercutting almonds by 200 kcal per 100 g because a third of it is still water. On saturated fat it is the heaviest by a distance — almonds carry 3.8 g per 100 g against coconut's 31.4. For a daily handful, almonds are the better habit. Coconut earns its place as a topping and a flavour: a tablespoon of desiccated over porridge is 91 kcal and 2.1 g of fibre, and that is a good trade. For the fewest calories of anything on the list, dates at 30 kcal each are hard to beat.
Popular coconut products in the BodyPal food database
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United Kingdom, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each label. These are all desiccated, not fresh — drying removes the water and roughly doubles the figure per 100 g.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Desiccated Coconut (Sainsbury's) | 639 kcal |
| Dry Desiccated Coconut (Holland & Barrett) | 660 kcal |
| Desiccated Coconut (East End) | 633 kcal |
| Desiccated Coconut (Buy Whole Foods Online) | 604 kcal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels.
Coconut FAQs
How many calories in coconut?
351 kcal per 100 g of fresh flesh, so a 45 g handful is 158 kcal. A whole coconut is only 70% edible, so 100 g of kernel as bought works out at 246 kcal. Supermarket bags of chunks label a little higher, at 371 to 394 kcal per 100 g.
How many calories in desiccated coconut?
604 kcal per 100 g on the reference figure and 632 to 684 on UK packets. A 15 g tablespoon is 91 to 96 kcal and a teaspoon is 30 to 32. It is the same flesh as fresh coconut with the water removed, which is why the number nearly doubles.
How many calories in coconut milk per 100 ml?
169 kcal for full-fat tinned coconut milk and 79 kcal for the reduced-fat version. UK tins range from 109 to 185 kcal per 100 ml depending on the brand. The 100 ml that goes into a curry also brings 14.6 g of saturated fat, 73% of the daily allowance.
How many calories in a tin of coconut milk?
676 kcal for a 400 ml tin of full-fat, or 316 kcal for a light one. Popular UK brands land between 436 and 740 kcal a tin. Split across a curry for four, a full-fat tin adds 169 kcal to each plate before rice.
How many calories in coconut water?
22 kcal per 100 ml on the reference figure and 18 on the leading UK brand, making a 330 ml carton about 59 kcal and a litre 180. Coconut water is the liquid drained from a fresh nut, which is why it has almost nothing in common with tinned coconut milk.
Why do coconut milk and coconut water have such different calories?
Because they are different parts of the nut. Water is the fluid inside the shell, at 22 kcal per 100 ml. Milk is pressed from the flesh, at 169. One reference entry is labelled "coconut milk" but described as drained fluid, and using it for a tin puts you out by a factor of eight.
How much saturated fat is in coconut?
31.4 g per 100 g of fresh flesh, which is 87% of its total fat. A 45 g handful carries 14.1 g, or 71% of the 20 g daily reference intake. Desiccated coconut holds 53.4 g per 100 g and coconut oil 86.5 g.
How many calories in a bag of coconut chunks?
297 kcal for an 80 g bag at 371 kcal per 100 g, or 355 kcal for a 90 g bag at 394. Those labels sit above the 351 reference figure because they count carbohydrate by subtraction and include the fibre, while the fat content matches either way.
Similar foods
- Dates — 30 kcal per fresh date
- Banana — 81 kcal per medium fruit
- Grapes — 52 kcal per 80 g handful
- Cherries — 5 kcal per cherry
- Mango — 48 kcal per 80 g portion
- Apple — 66 kcal a medium apple
One name, six different numbers
Point the camera at the tin, the bag or the shell and BodyPal works out which coconut you are actually eating.
