How many calories are in beef tendon?
Three pieces of beef tendon balls weigh 57 g and carry 100 calories. Per 100 g the same product runs 175 calories, with 21.05 g of protein and 7.02 g of fat. Tendon is mostly collagen, so it is far lighter than the marbled cuts it usually shares a menu with.
You'd need to walk about 20 minutes to burn the 100 calories in three pieces (57 g).
How long does it take to burn off beef tendon?
Three pieces (57 g) is 100 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 100 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 20 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 12 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 14 min |
| Jogging | 12 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 22 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 (57 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Beef tendon quick facts
- US servings, from one piece to four ounces
- Tendon balls, tripe, heart, tongue and liver
- Sodium is the row to watch, not calories
- How does beef tendon compare?
- Most popular beef tendon brands
- FAQ
Beef tendon quick facts
There is no USDA record for plain simmered beef tendon. Foundation, SR Legacy and FNDDS all skip it, and the only tendon product in the US database with a real label behind it is BEEF & BEEF TENDON BALLS, fdc_id 2623419, a frozen hot-pot item sold under GTIN 072869411204. That single label is what the table below reports. It is ground beef plus tendon, seasoned, so it is saltier than a bowl of braised tendon you make yourself, but the calorie and protein picture is the closest thing the US database has.
Everything else on this page is built out of the neighboring variety-meat records, which do have full USDA entries and cook the same slow way.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 3 pieces (57 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 175 | 100 | — |
| Total fat | 7.02 g | 4.0 g | 5% |
| Saturated fat | 2.63 g | 1.5 g | 8% |
| Carbohydrate | 7.02 g | 4.0 g | 1% |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Total sugars | 0 g | 0 g | — |
| Protein | 21.05 g | 12.0 g | 24% |
| Sodium | 1175 mg | 670 mg | 29% |
| Cholesterol | 70 mg | 40 mg | 13% |
% 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 not find here: added sugars and potassium. The manufacturer does not declare either one on this label, so rather than guess at them we left them out. Cholesterol is on the label and sits at 70 mg per 100 g, 40 mg in a three-piece serving.
US servings, from one piece to four ounces
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 piece | 19 g | 33 kcal |
| 1 oz | 28 g | 50 kcal |
| 3 pieces, the label serving | 57 g | 100 kcal |
| 4 oz, a restaurant portion | 113 g | 198 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 175 kcal |
Only one line in that table is an official USDA serving: three pieces at 57 g, the household measure printed on the package. The single piece, the ounce and the 4 oz portion are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings. They are there because nobody eats in grams — you eat what the tongs dropped in your bowl.
Four ounces is the number worth memorizing. That is roughly what a generous hot-pot helping or a pho bowl's tendon share comes to, and at 198 calories it still costs less than the 321 in the same 4 oz of simmered beef tongue. The pieces are dense and slippery, so a cup measure is useless here; weight or piece count is the only honest way to log it.
Tendon balls, tripe, heart, tongue and liver
Tendon almost never shows up alone. It arrives next to tripe in a hot pot, next to tongue on a taco plate, next to liver on a Chinese-American lunch menu. Here is how those records line up, all cooked the slow way except where noted.
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beef tendon balls, frozen | 175 kcal | 3 pieces (57 g) | 100 kcal |
| Beef tripe, cooked | 94 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 106 kcal |
| Beef tripe, raw | 85 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 96 kcal |
| Beef heart, simmered | 165 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 186 kcal |
| Beef tongue, simmered | 284 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 321 kcal |
| Beef liver, braised | 191 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 216 kcal |
Notice the raw-versus-cooked line. Tripe goes from 85 calories per 100 g raw to 94 cooked, because simmering drives out water and concentrates what is left. The same thing happens to tendon in your pot: the piece shrinks, the calories per gram climb, and the total on your plate barely moves. If you weigh tendon raw and log it as cooked, you overcount; weigh it cooked and log it raw, you undercount. Weigh it in the state you eat it.
The spread across these six lines is bigger than most people expect. Cooked tripe at 94 calories per 100 g and simmered tongue at 284 are three times apart, and both are chewy, collagen-heavy, slow-cooked beef. Tendon balls land at 175, third-highest of six, closer to heart than to tongue.
Sodium is the row to watch, not calories
The interesting number on this label is not the calorie count. It is 1,175 mg of sodium per 100 g — 51% of the FDA Daily Value of 2,300 mg — sitting alongside a modest 175 calories. Three pieces give you 5% of a day's fat and 29% of a day's sodium. Salt climbs about six times faster than fat here.
For scale, 670 mg of sodium is roughly a third of a teaspoon of table salt, and that is before the hot-pot broth or the dipping sauce. If you are watching sodium, the plain USDA variety meats are a different world: simmered tripe carries 68 mg per 100 g and simmered heart 59 mg, because those records are cooked without salt. Seasoning, not the animal, is what moves this row.
The protein side is genuinely good news. Twelve grams in a 100-calorie serving is 24% of the Daily Value, which puts tendon balls in the same conversation as the lean picks on MyPlate's protein foods page. Collagen-rich cuts are not complete-protein superstars, and USDA does not break collagen out as its own line, but 21.05 g per 100 g is 21.05 g per 100 g.
How does beef tendon compare?
Same 4 oz portion, four slow-cooked cuts, so the comparison is fair.
| Cut | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beef tendon balls | 175 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 198 kcal |
| Beef tripe, cooked | 94 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 106 kcal |
| Beef heart, simmered | 165 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 186 kcal |
| Beef tongue, simmered | 284 kcal | 4 oz (113 g) | 321 kcal |
Our take: for weight loss, tripe wins this table outright — 106 calories for 4 oz and the same chew. For protein per calorie, heart is the pick, with 28.48 g per 100 g at 165 calories. Tendon sits in the middle and earns its spot for a different reason: it is the one that makes a bowl feel rich without the fat bill, since 7.02 g of fat per 100 g is under a third of what tongue carries. Tongue is the one to portion carefully, at 321 calories for the same 4 oz.
Most popular beef tendon 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) |
|---|---|
| Wei-Chuan Beef & Beef Tendon Balls | 175 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Beef tendon FAQs
How many calories are in beef tendon?
100 calories in three pieces of beef tendon balls, a 57 g serving, and 175 calories per 100 g. That is the only US label in the USDA database that contains tendon. A 4 oz portion works out to 198 calories, our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure.
Is beef tendon high in protein?
21.05 g of protein per 100 g, and 12.0 g in a three-piece serving, which is 24% of the Daily Value for only 100 calories. That is a strong protein-to-calorie ratio. Simmered beef heart beats it at 28.48 g per 100 g, but tendon holds its own against most cuts.
Does beef tendon have carbs?
7.02 g of carbohydrate per 100 g on this label, or 4.0 g in a three-piece serving, just 1% of the Daily Value. Those carbs come from the binders and seasoning in the tendon balls, not from tendon itself. Fiber is 0 g and total sugars are 0 g.
How many calories in 4 oz of beef tendon?
198 calories in 4 oz, which is 113 g, scaled from the USDA figure of 175 calories per 100 g. It is our own arithmetic, not a USDA serving. That portion also brings about 23.8 g of protein and roughly 1,328 mg of sodium, more than half a day's worth.
How much sodium is in beef tendon balls?
1,175 mg of sodium per 100 g, which is 51% of the FDA Daily Value of 2,300 mg, and 670 mg in a three-piece serving. That single serving is 29% of a day, about a third of a teaspoon of table salt, before any broth or dipping sauce goes in the bowl.
How many calories in beef tendon in pho?
Roughly 100 calories for the two ounces of tendon a typical bowl holds, scaled by us from the USDA 175 per 100 g figure. USDA has no record for a whole pho bowl, so the broth, noodles and other meats are not in that number. The noodles usually cost more than the tendon.
Is beef tendon high in collagen?
21.05 g per 100 g is the total protein figure, and tendon is connective tissue, so most of that protein is collagen. USDA does not publish a separate collagen line for this record, so any gram count you see elsewhere is not from the US database. The gelatinous texture is the collagen melting.
Is beef tendon healthier than beef tongue?
175 calories per 100 g for tendon balls against 284 for simmered beef tongue, and 7.02 g of fat against 22.3 g. On calories and fat, tendon wins clearly. Tongue carries less protein per gram at 19.29 g against 21.05 g, but the plain USDA tongue record is far lower in sodium.
Similar foods
- BBQ Chicken — 149 cal per 3 oz
- Onigiri — 180 cal per onigiri
- Stuffed pepper — 265 cal for 1/2 pepper with filling
- Taco Salad — 564 cal per medium taco salad
- Spaghetti And Meatballs — 961 cal per plate
- Steelhead trout — 143 cal for 3 oz cooked
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the bowl and BodyPal counts the tendon for you, sauce and all.
