How many calories are in a bowl of beef pho?
A 2-cup restaurant bowl of beef pho, 490 g of broth, rice noodles and sliced beef, comes to 377 calories. Per 100 g the soup runs 77 calories, one of the lowest densities of any full meal you can order in a US restaurant. The calorie count is not the problem here. The salt is.
You'd need to walk about 75 minutes to burn the 377 calories in a 2-cup bowl (490 g).
How long does it take to burn off beef pho?
A 2-cup bowl (490 g) is 377 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 377 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 1 hr 15 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 47 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 54 min |
| Jogging | 44 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 1 hr 24 min |
Times are for a 155 lb adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (490 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Beef pho quick facts
- US servings, from one cup to a large restaurant bowl
- Broth, big bowls and instant packets
- Sodium is the row to watch, not calories
- How does beef pho compare?
- Most popular beef pho brands
- FAQ
Beef pho quick facts
The row used on this page is FNDDS 2707124, "Soup, pho, with meat". That is the assembled dish as it reaches the table: broth, rice noodles, sliced beef and herbs together. It is the right match for what someone actually holds, which is a full bowl, not a ladle of stock and not a dry packet. USDA gives one household measure for it, 1 cup at 245 g. The 490 g bowl below is our own arithmetic from that 100 g figure, not a USDA serving.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 2-cup bowl (490 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 77 | 377 | — |
| Total fat | 3.33 g | 16.3 g | 21% |
| Saturated fat | 1.28 g | 6.3 g | 31% |
| Carbohydrate | 5.6 g | 27.4 g | 10% |
| Dietary fiber | 0.4 g | 2.0 g | 7% |
| Total sugars | 0.46 g | 2.3 g | — |
| Protein | 5.81 g | 28.5 g | 57% |
| Sodium | 365 mg | 1789 mg | 78% |
% Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from USDA FoodData Central, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food composition database, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified September 2026. How we verify our data →
Two rows you will see on a packaged label are missing here on purpose. USDA does not publish added sugars or trans fat for this prepared-soup record, so listing either one would mean inventing it. Cholesterol and potassium are published: a 490 g bowl carries 88 mg of cholesterol, 29% of the Daily Value, and 382 mg of potassium, 8%. Daily Values follow the FDA Nutrition Facts label.
The protein row is the one people miss. Beef pho delivers 28.5 g in a bowl, 57% of a day's value, for 377 calories. Very few 400-calorie restaurant dishes do that.
US servings, from one cup to a large restaurant bowl
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28.4 g | 22 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 77 kcal |
| 1 cup, the USDA measure | 245 g | 189 kcal |
| Small bowl, 1.5 cups | 367.5 g | 283 kcal |
| Standard bowl, 2 cups | 490 g | 377 kcal |
| Large restaurant bowl, 3 cups | 735 g | 566 kcal |
Only the 1-cup line and the 100 g line come from USDA directly. The 1 oz, 1.5-cup, 2-cup and 3-cup rows are our own scaling from the USDA 100 g figure, because pho is not sold by a standard portion and every shop pours a different bowl.
That spread matters more than any ingredient swap. The gap between a small bowl and a large one is 283 calories, the whole small bowl over again. If you log pho by eye, guess the bowl size first and worry about the beef second.
One practical trick: a takeout container that fills to the brim is usually closer to 3 cups than 2. Measure your own bowl once with water and you will never have to guess again.
Broth, big bowls and instant packets
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pho broth with no meat | 37 kcal | 1 cup (245 g) | 91 kcal |
| Beef pho, standard bowl | 77 kcal | 2 cups (490 g) | 377 kcal |
| Beef pho, large restaurant bowl | 77 kcal | 3 cups (735 g) | 566 kcal |
| Instant beef pho packet, dry | 367 kcal | 1 packet (60 g) | 220 kcal |
| Chicken pho (pho ga), instant | 317 kcal | 1 package (60 g) | 190 kcal |
| Vegetable pho, instant | 356 kcal | 1.6 oz (45 g) | 160 kcal |
| Store-bought pho beef broth | 16 kcal | 1 cup (244 g) | 39 kcal |
The no-meat row is the cleanest lesson on this page. Same broth, same noodles, no beef: 37 calories per 100 g against 77. A cup drops from 189 calories to 91. Ordering pho and leaving the sliced beef aside cuts a bowl roughly in half, which almost nothing else on a Vietnamese menu does that cleanly.
Instant packets look alarming and are not. A dry packet reads 367 calories per 100 g, nearly five times the cooked bowl, but the packet itself weighs 60 g. Snapdragon's beef pho packet lands at 220 calories, Mike's Mighty Good at 190 for a 48 g package, and One Culture Foods at 190 for a 53 g container. Compare cooked to cooked, or packet to packet, and never the two side by side. A fresh refrigerated bowl such as Sushic's, at 78 calories per 100 g, sits right on top of the USDA restaurant figure.
Store-bought pho broth sold in cartons is a different product again at 16 calories per 100 g. It is stock, not soup, and it is what you build a bowl from rather than what you eat.
Sodium is the row to watch, not calories
A 490 g bowl carries 1,789 mg of sodium. That is 78% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value, or about three quarters of a teaspoon of table salt, in a dish that costs you only 377 calories. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans put the limit at 2,300 mg a day for adults, so one bowl uses most of it.
Two details make it worse than the table suggests. First, the number is measured before the hoisin and sriracha squirted in at the table, and before any fish sauce. Second, skipping the beef does almost nothing for it: the no-meat broth still runs 357 mg per 100 g against 365 mg for the version with beef. The salt lives in the stock.
If you are watching sodium, the useful move is portion size, not toppings. A 1-cup starter portion is 894 mg, roughly half a bowl's worth, and leaving some broth behind is the only real lever, since you cannot drain the salt out of the meat. Practical background on where sodium hides in restaurant food is collected at nutrition.gov.
Saturated fat deserves a glance too: 6.3 g a bowl, 31% of the Daily Value, mostly from the beef and the marrow-rich stock. That is high for a soup and about what a fast-food cheeseburger patty contributes.
How does beef pho compare?
| Soup | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beef pho | 77 kcal | 1 cup, 245 g | 189 kcal |
| Ramen noodle soup, water added | 66 kcal | 1 cup, 245 g | 162 kcal |
| Wonton soup | 33 kcal | 1 cup, 245 g | 81 kcal |
| Miso or tofu soup | 24 kcal | 1 cup, 245 g | 59 kcal |
Beef pho is the heaviest of the four per cup, and it is also the only one that eats like a meal. The protein gap is the whole story: 14.2 g in a cup of pho against 3.7 g for ramen soup, 5.9 g for wonton and 5.4 g for miso. Per gram of protein, pho costs about 13 calories, roughly a third of what ramen soup charges for the same gram.
Our take: if you want a light starter, miso at 59 calories a cup wins and nothing else is close. If lunch has to hold until dinner, order the pho, take the standard bowl rather than the large one, and treat the 377 calories as a genuinely good deal for 28.5 g of protein. Just do not stack a second salty dish next to it, because the sodium, not the calories, is what runs out first.
Most popular beef pho brands in the United States
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United States, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each Nutrition Facts label, checked against USDA FoodData Central.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Snapdragon Beef Pho Noodle Soup | 367 cal |
| Snapdragon Beef Pho Flavored Noodle Soup | 367 cal |
| Mike's Mighty Good Beef Pho Rice Noodle Soup | 396 cal |
| One Culture Foods Mild Vietnamese Beef Pho | 358 cal |
| Kusari Beef Pho Noodle Dish | 341 cal |
| Sushic Beef Pho Rice Noodle Bowl | 78 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Beef pho FAQs
How many calories are in a bowl of beef pho?
A 2-cup bowl of beef pho, 490 g, comes to 377 calories. That is our arithmetic from the USDA figure of 77 calories per 100 g, or 189 calories for the 1-cup household serving. Restaurant bowls are often larger; a 3-cup bowl lands near 566 calories.
How many calories in beef pho broth only?
Broth with no meat is 37 calories per 100 g, so a 1-cup serving is 91 calories. Store-bought pho beef broth is lighter still at 16 calories per 100 g, about 39 calories a cup. Skipping the beef takes roughly half the calories out of every cup.
How much protein is in beef pho?
A 2-cup bowl gives 28.5 g of protein, 57% of the Daily Value, from 5.81 g per 100 g. One cup is 14.2 g. That is more protein than most soups deliver: wonton soup gives about 5.9 g a cup and miso soup about 5.4 g.
How much sodium is in a bowl of pho?
One 490 g bowl carries 1,789 mg of sodium, 78% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value, and that is before hoisin or fish sauce at the table. A single cup is 894 mg. Broth without meat is barely lower at 357 mg per 100 g.
Is beef pho good for weight loss?
At 77 calories per 100 g, beef pho is one of the lighter restaurant meals by weight, and a 377-calorie bowl with 28.5 g of protein is filling for the calories. Sodium is the catch at 78% of a day's value, so it works better as an occasional lunch than a daily one.
How many carbs are in beef pho?
A 2-cup bowl has 27.4 g of carbohydrate, 10% of the Daily Value, from 5.6 g per 100 g. One cup is 13.7 g. Most of that is the rice noodles; the fiber is only 2.0 g a bowl, and total sugars just 2.3 g.
Is beef pho healthier than ramen?
Per 100 g, beef pho is 77 calories against 66 for ramen noodle soup, so pho is denser by weight. Per cup, though, pho is 189 calories to ramen's 162 and delivers 14.2 g of protein against 3.7 g. Sodium runs high in both bowls.
How many calories in a large pho vs a small pho?
A small 1.5-cup bowl of 367.5 g is 283 calories, a standard 2-cup bowl is 377, and a large 3-cup restaurant bowl is 566. All three are our arithmetic scaled from the USDA 1-cup figure of 189 calories. Bowl size, not the recipe, is what moves the number between shops.
Similar foods
- Pomegranate — 72 cal for 1/2 cup arils
- Ceviche — 158 cal per cup
- Clam Chowder — 237 cal per cup
- Chinese Chicken and Broccoli — 206 cal per cup
- Pork And Beans — 273 cal per cup
- Turkey deli meat — 89 cal for 3 slices
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the bowl and BodyPal counts the pho for you, broth and beef together.
