Calories in a Jacket Potato: The Full Breakdown
The calories in a jacket potato come to 277 for a medium one weighing 285 g, or 97 kcal per 100 g. A large 350 g baker is 340 kcal. Those numbers cover the flesh and the skin with nothing on top, which matters, because butter, beans or cheese can add more calories than the potato itself.
You'd need to walk about 55 minutes to burn the 277 calories in a medium jacket potato.
How long does it take to burn off a jacket potato?
A medium jacket potato is 277 kcal. Enter your weight to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 277 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 55 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 35 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 40 min |
| Jogging | 33 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
- Jacket potato nutrition at a glance
- UK portion sizes and calories
- Jacket potato with baked beans
- Jacket potato with cheese
- Jacket potato with tuna mayo
- Jacket potato with butter
- How does a baked potato compare?
- Three things people get wrong
- Most popular jacket potato brands
- FAQ
Jacket potato nutrition at a glance
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per medium potato (285 g) | %RI* per medium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 97 kcal / 406 kJ | 277 kcal / 1,159 kJ | 14% |
| Protein | 2.5 g | 7.1 g | 14% |
| Carbohydrate | 22.6 g | 64.4 g | 25% |
| of which sugars | 1.4 g | 4.0 g | 4% |
| Fat | 0.2 g | 0.6 g | <1% |
| Fibre | 2.6 g | 7.4 g | 25%† |
| Salt | 0.005 g | 0.01 g | <1% |
*%RI = percentage of the reference intake for an average adult (2,000 kcal; 70 g fat, 260 g carbohydrate, 90 g sugars, 50 g protein, 6 g salt). †No reference intake is set for fibre in the UK, so this is measured against the 30 g a day the NHS recommends.
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 →
Two things stand out in that table. The fat figure is 0.6 g for a whole medium potato, which is close enough to nothing that it is not worth tracking, and the salt figure is 0.01 g, roughly a sixth of one percent of a day's allowance. A plain baked potato is one of the very few filling foods that arrives on the plate with essentially no fat and no salt. Everything you put on it changes both.
The fibre is the other headline. At 7.4 g, one medium jacket potato covers about a quarter of the day's 30 g target, and most of that sits in and just under the skin.
UK portion sizes and calories
| Portion | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Medium jacket potato | 285 g | 277 kcal |
| Large jacket potato | 350 g | 340 kcal |
Supermarket baking potatoes vary far more than people expect. The loose ones in a 2 kg bag can run from a modest 220 g to a monster over 400 g, and a difference of 100 g is a difference of nearly 100 calories.
There is an easy shortcut here. A baked potato is 0.97 kcal per gram, so the weight on the kitchen scales is the calorie count, near enough. A 312 g potato is about 302 kcal. Weigh it raw or weigh it baked; the potato loses water in the oven, so the honest way to do it is to weigh it before it goes in and use that figure, since the CoFID value already accounts for the cooking loss.
If you would rather not get the scales out, scan the plate with BodyPal and log the potato and the topping in one go.
Here is what the three most popular toppings do to the number, side by side:
Jacket potato with baked beans: 445 kcal
Half a 415 g tin of baked beans in tomato sauce works out at 207 g, and at 81 kcal per 100 g on the Heinz label that is 168 kcal. Add it to a medium potato and you land on 445 kcal / 1,862 kJ.
This is the topping that gives you the most food for the fewest calories. You are adding 207 g of hot, filling beans for less than the calories in 40 g of cheese.
Jacket potato with cheese: 443 kcal
A generous grated handful of cheddar is about 40 g, and cheddar is 416 kcal per 100 g, so that handful is 166 kcal. Medium potato plus cheese comes to 443 kcal / 1,854 kJ.
Note how close that is to the beans version. Same calories, wildly different volume: 40 g of cheese against 207 g of beans. If you are eating to feel full, that comparison is the whole argument.
Beans and cheese together on a medium potato is 611 kcal, which is a full main meal rather than a light lunch.
Jacket potato with tuna mayo: 521 kcal
Ready-made tuna mayonnaise is 244 kcal per 100 g, and a standard scoop from a café counter is roughly that 100 g. Total: 521 kcal / 2,180 kJ.
Tuna mayo has a health-food reputation it has not really earned. The tuna is fine; the mayonnaise it is bound in is what pushes this past every other topping on the page. Made at home with light mayo or yoghurt, the number drops, but the exact figure depends on your jar, so weigh what you actually use.
Jacket potato with butter: 351 kcal
Ten grams of butter, which is a normal spread for a hot potato rather than a mean one, is 74 kcal at 744 kcal per 100 g. That takes a medium jacket to 351 kcal / 1,469 kJ.
Butter is the most calorie-dense thing in this article by a distance: 7.4 kcal per gram, against 0.97 for the potato. A knob that melts away to nothing costs you more than 50 g of beans. It is also the topping people forget to log, because it disappears.
How does a baked potato compare?
| Per 100 g | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacket potato (flesh and skin) | 97 kcal | 2.5 g | 22.6 g | 0.2 g |
| Boiled potatoes (flesh only) | 74 kcal | 1.8 g | 17.5 g | 0.1 g |
| Baked sweet potato | 115 kcal | 1.6 g | 27.9 g | 0.4 g |
| Boiled basmati rice | 117 kcal | 2.8 g | 26.5 g | 0.7 g |
| Chips | 273 kcal | 4.1 g | 36 g | 13.5 g |
The verdict: for weight loss the jacket potato beats everything else in this table gram for gram, and the gap to chips is enormous, at 273 kcal per 100 g against 97. For fullness it also wins, because 285 g of potato is a far bigger plate of food than the same calories in rice or chips, and it brings 7.4 g of fibre with it.
The sweet potato swap deserves a special mention: at 115 kcal per 100 g it is higher than the ordinary baked potato, not lower. Swap for the flavour if you like it. Do not swap expecting to save calories.
Same logic at breakfast: a toasted crumpet is 207 kcal per 100 g, and what you spread on it decides the rest.
Three things people get wrong
"Leave the skin and you save calories." The 97 kcal per 100 g figure is measured on flesh and skin together, so the skin is already in the number. CoFID lists baked potato flesh alone at 77 kcal per 100 g against 97 with the skin on, and that 20 kcal gap buys most of the fibre. Skipping the skin is a bad trade.
"Jacket potatoes are fattening." A medium one is 277 kcal with 0.6 g of fat. What people are actually remembering is the cheese, the butter and the coleslaw next to it. The NHS puts starchy foods like potatoes at the base of a balanced plate precisely because they are bulky and low in fat by themselves.
"I logged the potato, so I'm covered." This is the most common slip we see with jacket potatoes in food diaries. On the beans version, the topping is 168 of the 445 calories. On tuna mayo it is 244 of 521, which is nearly half the meal sitting in one scoop.
Most popular jacket potato 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.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| McCain Frozen Jacket Potatoes | 84 kcal |
| Tesco Jacket Potatoes | 107 kcal |
| Waitrose Jacket Potato & Cheese | 137 kcal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels.
Frequently asked questions
How many calories are in a jacket potato with beans?
A medium jacket potato with half a tin of baked beans is 445 kcal. That is 277 kcal for the 285 g potato and 168 kcal for 207 g of beans at 81 kcal per 100 g. A large 350 g potato with the same beans comes to 508 kcal.
How many calories are in a jacket potato with cheese?
A medium jacket potato with 40 g of grated cheddar is 443 kcal, made up of 277 kcal for the potato and 166 kcal for the cheese. Cheddar is 416 kcal per 100 g, so every extra 10 g you grate on adds another 42 kcal. Weigh it if you can.
How many calories are in a jacket potato with tuna mayo?
A medium jacket potato with a 100 g scoop of tuna mayonnaise is 521 kcal. The tuna mayo alone is 244 kcal, which is more than either the beans or the cheese option. The mayonnaise is doing most of that, not the fish.
How many calories are in the skin of a jacket potato?
The 97 kcal per 100 g figure already includes the skin, because CoFID measures baked potato as flesh and skin together. So there is nothing extra to add for eating it, and the skin is where a large share of the 7.4 g of fibre in a medium potato sits. Flesh alone measures 77 kcal per 100 g, so the skin adds about 20 kcal per 100 g and earns it.
Is a jacket potato healthy?
A medium jacket potato is 277 kcal with 0.6 g of fat, 0.01 g of salt and 7.4 g of fibre, which is about a quarter of the 30 g a day the NHS suggests. It is one of the plainest starchy foods you can put on a plate. The topping decides how the meal ends up.
Is a jacket potato good for weight loss?
At 0.97 kcal per gram, a jacket potato is one of the lowest-calorie ways to fill a plate, so it works well in a calorie deficit. The catch is protein: 7.1 g in a medium potato is not much. Pair it with tuna, beans or cottage cheese rather than butter.
How many calories are in a large jacket potato?
A large jacket potato of about 350 g is 340 kcal, against 277 kcal for a medium 285 g one. That is 63 calories of difference for a potato that does not look much bigger on the plate, which is why weighing beats eyeballing when you are tracking closely.
Does a jacket potato have more calories than rice?
No. Boiled basmati rice is 117 kcal per 100 g and baked potato is 97 kcal per 100 g, so potato is the lighter option by weight. Portion size usually settles it in practice, since a big potato is heavier than a normal serving of rice.
How much salt is in a jacket potato?
Almost none: 0.005 g of salt per 100 g, or 0.01 g in a medium potato, which is under 1% of the 6 g daily maximum for adults. Everything salty about a jacket potato comes from what goes on top, especially cheese and tinned beans. Check labels if you are watching salt.
Do the calories change if I microwave it instead of baking it?
No. Cooking does not add or remove energy, so a microwaved potato of the same weight holds the same calories. It does keep more water, so it may weigh slightly more for the same amount of potato. The published figure here is for an oven-baked potato.
Similar foods
- Cottage pie — ~444 kcal a portion
- Prawns — 77 kcal per 100 g raw king prawns
- Potatoes — 130 kcal per boiled serving
- Beans on toast — 338 kcal a plate
- Pasta carbonara — 124 kcal per 100 g the finished plate
- Instant noodles — 135 kcal per 100 g made up
Count it without the maths
BodyPal logs your jacket potato and its topping from a photo, so the butter does not go missing.
