How Many Calories in a Cob of Corn?
How many calories in a cob of corn has a smaller answer than most people expect: 84 kcal for the kernels on a medium cob, with boiled sweetcorn at just 67 kcal per 100 g. Add a 10 g knob of butter and the same cob nearly doubles to 158 kcal. The corn was never the problem.
You'd need to walk about 17 minutes to burn the 84 calories in kernels from 1 medium cob.
How long does it take to burn off a cob of corn?
Kernels from 1 medium cob is 84 kcal. Enter your weight to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 84 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 17 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 10 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 12 min |
| Jogging | 10 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 19 min |
Times are for a 154 lb (11 st) adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Quick facts
- Calories in one cob
- Butter and baby corn
- How does corn on the cob compare?
- Vegetable or carb?
- Most popular corn on the cob brands
- FAQ
Quick facts
Sweetcorn kernels, boiled on the cob, per the UK government's food composition data:
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per medium cob (~125 g kernels) | % RI (per cob) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 67 kcal / 280 kJ | 84 kcal / 351 kJ | 4% |
| Protein | 3.6 g | 4.5 g | 9% |
| Carbohydrates | 9.5 g | 11.9 g | 5% |
| Fat | 1.9 g | 2.4 g | 3% |
| – of which saturates | 0.25 g | 0.3 g | 2% |
| Fibre | 5.1 g | 6.4 g | – |
| Sugar | 2.5 g | 3.1 g | 3% |
| Salt | trace | trace | 0% |
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 August 2026. How we verify our data →
RI = Reference Intake of an average adult (2,000 kcal a day). Fibre has no formal RI.
What that means on the plate: a buttered cob at a barbecue is a 158-kcal side, still lighter than almost everything next to it. Unbuttered, at 84 kcal, it barely registers in the day's log, and it arrives with more fibre than most breakfast cereals manage per serving.
Calories in one cob
| Serving | Calories |
|---|---|
| Kernels from 1 medium cob (~125 g) | 84 kcal |
| Whole cob weighed with core (~200 g) | 78 kcal |
| 1 medium cob with 10 g butter | 158 kcal |
There are two correct ways to weigh a cob, and CoFID, the UK government's food dataset, covers both. Strip the kernels and use 67 kcal per 100 g. Weigh the whole cob, inedible core included, and use 39 kcal per 100 g instead.
Same corn, two denominators. The practical rule: whatever lands on your kitchen scale decides which figure you apply. A ~200 g whole cob and the ~125 g of kernels on it are the same 80-ish kcal either way, which is the reassuring part.
Butter and baby corn
Butter is the whole story of a "fattening" cob. A 10 g knob adds 74 kcal, taking a medium cob from 84 to 158 kcal, and hot corn melts butter so willingly that a second knob rarely gets recorded. Salt from the shaker lands on top of that; the corn itself contributes only a trace.
Baby corn plays in a different league again: 31 kcal per 100 g boiled, so an 80 g side of it comes to roughly 25 kcal. It is picked immature, before the kernels fill with starch, which is why it eats like a green vegetable rather than a starchy one.
How does corn on the cob compare?
| Side | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Broccoli | 80 g portion | 22 kcal |
| Carrot | 1 medium | 27 kcal |
| Corn on the cob, boiled | kernels from 1 medium cob | 84 kcal |
| Sweet potato | medium, baked | 207 kcal |
| Jacket potato | medium | 277 kcal |
The verdict: among the starchy sides, corn is the light option by a distance, less than a third of a jacket potato's calories. If the target is the absolute lowest-calorie plate-filler, green veg still wins; if the target is a side people actually fight over at a barbecue, the cob earns its 84.
Vegetable or carb?
Both, and the numbers say it leans vegetable. A cob's kernels carry 11.9 g of carbohydrate, modest next to any bread roll, and only 3.1 g of sugar despite the "sweet" in sweetcorn. Corn on the cob also counts towards your 5 A Day, which potatoes famously do not.
The quiet headline is fibre: 5.1 g per 100 g, or 6.4 g from one cob, about a fifth of the 30 g daily fibre target the NHS points to. For 84 kcal, very little on a summer plate works that hard.
Most popular corn on the cob brands in the United Kingdom
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. Pack labels often quote the cob as prepared; plain boiled kernels measure 67 kcal per 100 g.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Tesco Corn on the Cob | 120 kcal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels.
FAQ
How many calories in corn on the cob with butter?
158 kcal for a medium cob with a 10 g knob of butter, against 84 kcal plain. The butter contributes 74 kcal, almost as much as the corn itself, and it is easy to use more than 10 g on a hot cob. Log the butter separately and the estimate stays honest.
How many calories in corn on the cob without butter?
84 kcal for the kernels on a medium cob, from 67 kcal per 100 g boiled. Weighed whole with the core, a ~200 g cob works out around 78 kcal. Either way of counting lands in the same low-80s range, making the plain cob one of the lightest starchy sides going.
How many calories in boiled sweetcorn per 100 g?
67 kcal per 100 g of kernels boiled on the cob, with 3.6 g of protein, 9.5 g of carbohydrate and 5.1 g of fibre. If you weigh the cob whole, core included, the figure to use is 39 kcal per 100 g, because the inedible core is part of the weight.
Is corn on the cob healthy?
At 84 kcal a cob with 6.4 g of fibre, 4.5 g of protein and only a trace of salt, it is one of the better sides on a summer plate, and it counts towards your 5 A Day. The usual caveat applies: butter and salt are additions, not properties of the corn.
Is corn on the cob fattening?
Not on its own numbers: 84 kcal for a medium cob is less than a third of a jacket potato. What earns corn the reputation is the serving style, since butter nearly doubles the cob to 158 kcal. The dressing, not the vegetable, is what to keep an eye on.
Is corn a vegetable or a carb?
Nutritionally it sits in both camps, but the portions are vegetable-sized: 11.9 g of carbohydrate per cob, far below bread or rice territory, plus 6.4 g of fibre. The NHS counts corn on the cob towards your 5 A Day, a status potatoes do not get.
How many calories in baby corn?
31 kcal per 100 g boiled, so a typical 80 g side is about 25 kcal. Baby corn is harvested before starch develops in the kernels, which keeps it closer to green beans than to mature sweetcorn at 67 kcal per 100 g. Stir-fry portions are effectively free.
How many carbs in a cob of corn?
11.9 g of carbohydrate in the kernels of a medium cob, from 9.5 g per 100 g, of which just 3.1 g is sugar. That is a modest carb load for a food this filling, and the 6.4 g of fibre alongside it slows things down further. A cob fits most eating patterns easily.
Similar foods
- Onions — 53 kcal per medium onion
- Carrot — 27 kcal per medium carrot
- Mashed potato — 102 kcal per 100 g with butter
- Cauliflower — 23 kcal per 80 g portion
- Broccoli — 22 kcal per 80 g portion
- Cabbage — 14 kcal per boiled portion
One photo instead of kitchen scales
Point the camera at the barbecue plate and BodyPal logs the cob and its butter in one shot, 84 kcal or 158, whichever you actually built.
