How Many Calories in a Mushroom?
Fried, they are a different food altogether; raw, mushrooms are 7 calories per 100 g, which prices a single button mushroom at about 1 kcal. So how many calories in a mushroom depends on the pan far more than the fungus: the same handful that logs 6 kcal raw comes out of a frying pan at 106 kcal per 100 g. Hardly anything in the kitchen changes that much between fridge and plate.
On this page
- Quick facts
- The frying pan decides
- Portions: buttons and handfuls
- Why American sites give a higher number
- How do mushrooms compare?
- Most popular mushroom brands
- FAQ
Quick facts
Figures are for white mushrooms, raw.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | RI% |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 7 kcal / 29 kJ | <1% |
| Protein | 1.0 g | 2% |
| Carbohydrates | 0.3 g | <1% |
| Fat | 0.2 g | <1% |
| Fibre | 0.7 g | – |
| Sugar | 0.3 g | <1% |
| Salt | 0.01 g | <1% |
RI = reference intake for an average adult (2,000 kcal a day). A full 100 g of raw mushrooms uses about a third of one percent of the day's energy.
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 →
The frying pan decides
| Mushrooms | kcal per 100 g |
|---|---|
| White, raw | 7 |
| Oyster, raw | 8 |
| Stewed | 9 |
| Shiitake, cooked | 55 |
| Fried in oil | 106 |
| Dried shiitake | 296 |
Fried is the number that matters, because it is fifteen times the raw figure. Mushroom flesh is porous and soaks up cooking oil like a sponge, quite literally, and since fat runs 9 kcal per gram, the oil's calories become the mushrooms' calories. A fry-up portion is not a vegetable portion; it is oil in vegetable form.
Cook them in liquid instead and nothing happens: stewed mushrooms measure 9 kcal per 100 g, barely above raw. That makes them one of the few foods you can add to a soup, stew or bolognese in any quantity without moving the total.
There is a middle path for fry-up lovers. Start the mushrooms in a dry non-stick pan and let their own water cook off before adding a single measured teaspoon of oil at the end; the browning and flavour arrive either way, and the mushrooms never get the chance to drink half the bottle.
The other two rows are about water, not cooking. Shiitake are denser and richer than button mushrooms at 55 kcal per 100 g cooked, and dried shiitake concentrate to 296 because the water has left entirely. Weigh dried mushrooms before soaking and the number looks alarming; in the rehydrated dish it settles back to vegetable territory.
Portions: buttons and handfuls
| Portion | kcal |
|---|---|
| 1 medium button (~15 g), raw | ~1 |
| 80 g handful, raw | 6 |
An 80 g handful is the standard UK vegetable portion and counts once towards your NHS 5 A Day. At 6 kcal, it is close to the cheapest 5-a-day tick available in the supermarket.
That is the practical use of mushrooms in a calorie budget: volume. Halve the mince in a chilli and make up the weight with chopped mushrooms, and the bowl looks and eats the same while the calories drop with the meat you removed. The Eatwell Guide wants over a third of the plate as vegetables and fruit; mushrooms fill that third for single-digit numbers.
Why American sites give a higher number
Search this question and you will meet 22, 28, sometimes 31 kcal per 100 g. Those figures come from US databases. CoFID, the UK government's measured food-composition dataset, puts white mushrooms at 7.
That is a fourfold gap between databases describing the same-looking mushroom, and it is why two calorie apps can disagree about your omelette. The difference sits in the datasets and analysis methods, not in your fridge.
For tracking purposes it barely matters. Even at the highest US figure, an 80 g handful stays under 25 kcal; on the UK number it is 6. Raw mushrooms are a rounding error either way, and the fried figure of 106 is the only one that deserves attention.
How do mushrooms compare?
Among vegetables, nothing undercuts them: even broccoli costs nearly four times as much per 80 g portion, and tomatoes and salad leaves play in the same low league without going quite this low.
The verdict: for bulk on the plate at no calorie cost, mushrooms win outright. For something that keeps you full through the morning, the egg's 72 kcal buys protein that no vegetable on this table can match.
Most popular mushroom 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. Labels round to 8; CoFID measures 7. Either way, near zero.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Tesco Closed Cup Mushrooms | 8 kcal |
| Sainsbury's Closed Cup White Mushrooms | 8 kcal |
| Tesco Chestnut Mushrooms | 8 kcal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels.
FAQ
How many calories in 100g of mushrooms?
7 kcal for raw white mushrooms, as measured in the UK's CoFID dataset, with 1 g of protein and almost no fat or sugar. Stewed they rise to only 9. The one version with a serious number is fried in oil, at 106 kcal per 100 g.
How many calories in cooked mushrooms?
It depends entirely on the method. Stewed mushrooms are 9 kcal per 100 g, barely above the raw 7. Fried in oil they reach 106 kcal per 100 g, fifteen times the raw figure, because the flesh absorbs the fat it is cooked in. The pan sets the number, not the mushroom.
How many calories in mushrooms cooked in olive oil?
Count them as fried: 106 kcal per 100 g. Mushrooms are porous, so the oil ends up inside them rather than left behind in the pan, whichever oil you use. If you are watching the total, measure the oil by the teaspoon before it goes in rather than estimating afterwards.
How many calories in mushrooms on toast?
The mushrooms are the cheapest part of the plate: an 80 g portion cooked without fat adds around 7 kcal. The bread, the butter and any frying oil supply nearly everything else, and a buttery pan pushes the mushrooms themselves towards the fried figure of 106 kcal per 100 g. Log the toast; the fungi are a footnote.
Are mushrooms a vegetable?
Botanically no; they are fungi, a kingdom of their own. In the kitchen and in UK healthy-eating guidance they behave like a vegetable, and an 80 g portion counts once towards your NHS 5 A Day at a cost of 6 calories raw. Few foods buy a portion of your day that cheaply.
Are mushrooms good for you?
At 7 kcal per 100 g with 0.7 g of fibre and next to no salt, sugar or fat, they add bulk and savoury depth to meals for almost no energy, and a handful counts towards your 5 A Day. What they are not is a protein source, at 1 g per 100 g.
How much protein is in mushrooms?
1 g per 100 g raw, about 2% of the daily reference intake. Their meaty reputation is texture and flavour, not composition. If protein is the goal, an egg at 72 kcal does a job that a whole punnet of mushrooms cannot; the mushrooms' role is volume.
How many calories in a single mushroom?
About 1 kcal for a medium raw button of around 15 g. An 80 g handful is 6 kcal, and the arithmetic stays trivial at any realistic quantity: eating enough raw mushrooms for the calories to matter is practically impossible. Only frying changes the story.
How many calories in dried mushrooms?
296 kcal per 100 g for dried shiitake, against 55 for cooked fresh shiitake, because drying removes the water and concentrates everything left. Weighed dry the number looks high, but a dish uses a small dry weight that swells back with water, so the per-bowl total stays modest.
Similar foods
- Lettuce — 3 kcal per side salad
- Salad — 13 kcal per 100 g green salad
- Cucumber — 11 kcal per 5 cm piece
- Tomato — 12 kcal per medium tomato
- Cabbage — 14 kcal per boiled portion
- Pepper — 42 kcal per red pepper
Count the pan, not just the mushrooms
One photo of the finished plate and BodyPal logs the mushrooms together with the oil they were cooked in.
