How many calories are in brisket?
A 3 oz cooked serving of brisket carries 196 calories, and per 100 g the meat runs 231 calories. That is 25 g of protein and zero carbohydrate. The number moves fast, though: the same brisket with its fat cap left on jumps to 331 calories per 100 g.
You'd need to walk about 39 minutes to burn the 196 calories in a 3 oz (85 g) cooked serving.
How long does it take to burn off brisket?
A 3 oz (85 g) cooked serving is 196 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 196 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 39 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 24 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 28 min |
| Jogging | 23 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 44 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 (85 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Brisket quick facts
- US servings, from one slice to a cup of chopped
- Fat cap, flat cut, point cut and corned beef
- Protein is the headline, sodium is the catch
- How does brisket compare?
- Most popular brisket brands
- Brisket FAQs
Brisket quick facts
USDA carries more than forty brisket records and they disagree with each other by more than a hundred calories per 100 g. The one this page leads with is FNDDS 2705851, "Beef, brisket", which describes brisket the way Americans actually eat it: cooked, sliced, seasoned, off a platter. The SR Legacy cuts further down this page describe meat in the butcher case, trimmed to a stated fraction of an inch and braised under lab conditions. Those are the right numbers for a raw packer brisket you are about to smoke. They are the wrong numbers for the slices on your plate.
That FNDDS record is also the only one that comes with household measures, which is what makes a brisket page usable at all. Slices and cups are how this meat gets served, and the gap between a thin slice and a heaping cup is bigger than the gap between two different cuts.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 3 oz cooked (85 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 231 | 196 | — |
| Total fat | 12.04 g | 10.2 g | 13% |
| Saturated fat | 4.62 g | 3.9 g | 20% |
| Carbohydrate | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Total sugars | 0 g | 0 g | — |
| Protein | 29.41 g | 25.0 g | 50% |
| Sodium | 377 mg | 320 mg | 14% |
% 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 would expect on a package label are missing here. USDA does not publish added sugars or trans fat for this FNDDS record, so both are left out rather than guessed; plain brisket has no added sugar in it anyway, though a sweet barbecue sauce would change that. Cholesterol comes in at 94 mg per 100 g, or 80 mg in a 3 oz serving, which is 27% of the FDA Daily Value. Potassium is 285 mg per 100 g, 242 mg per serving, a modest 5%.
US servings, from one slice to a cup of chopped
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28 g | 65 kcal |
| One regular slice, thin | 60 g | 139 kcal |
| One thick slice | 90 g | 208 kcal |
| 3 oz cooked | 85 g | 196 kcal |
| 1 cup, chopped | 135 g | 312 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 231 kcal |
The slices and the cup are USDA household measures, taken straight from the FNDDS record. The 3 oz serving and the 1 oz line are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings — 3 oz is simply the reference portion the Dietary Guidelines use for meat, so it is the one most people have in their head.
Here is the trap. A cup of chopped brisket weighs 135 g and costs 312 calories, which is 1.6 times the standard 3 oz serving. Chopped brisket packs, and a cup of it does not look like much on a sandwich. If you log brisket by the cup and think in 3 oz portions, you are running about 116 calories light every time.
Two thick slices and three thin ones both come to 180 g and 416 calories, our own arithmetic from the 100 g figure. Same calories, completely different-looking plates. Weight is the only honest unit here.
Fat cap, flat cut, point cut and corned beef
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical piece | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole brisket, fat cap on, braised | 331 kcal | 3 oz (85 g) | 281 kcal |
| Whole brisket, lean only, braised | 218 kcal | 3 oz (85 g) | 185 kcal |
| Flat cut, lean only, braised | 205 kcal | 3 oz (85 g) | 174 kcal |
| Point cut, lean and fat, braised | 349 kcal | 3 oz (85 g) | 297 kcal |
| Raw brisket, whole, lean and fat | 253 kcal | 4 oz raw (113 g) | 286 kcal |
| Corned beef brisket, cooked | 251 kcal | 3 oz (85 g) | 213 kcal |
The fat cap alone is worth 113 calories per 100 g. Whole brisket cooked with the cap on sits at 331; the identical cut with the fat trimmed off sits at 218. Nothing about the animal changed. Only the knife did.
The bigger spread is between the two halves of the same brisket. Point cut, the thick fatty end, is 349 calories per 100 g. Flat cut, the lean end, is 205. That is a 144-calorie gap per 100 g on a menu that almost never says which end you were handed. If you are ordering and you care, ask for lean.
Raw brisket reads lower than you might expect at 253 calories per 100 g, but raw weight is a moving target. Brisket loses roughly a quarter of its mass in the cooker as water and rendered fat run off, so 4 oz raw lands near 3 oz cooked. Weigh it after the rest, not before the rub.
Corned beef brisket is a different food, not a version of this one — it has been sitting in brine. Calories are similar at 251 per 100 g, but the sodium is not. Store-brand corned beef briskets run around 177 to 195 calories per 100 g on their labels, while one commercial smoked barbecue brisket is labeled at 257 per 100 g, or 360 calories for a 5 oz serving.
Protein is the headline, sodium is the catch
At 25 g of protein for 196 calories, a 3 oz serving of brisket covers half the Daily Value for protein and leaves 1,804 calories of the day untouched. That is a strong ratio for a cut with a reputation for being indulgent, and it holds up next to anything in the MyPlate protein group. Trim to the flat cut and a 3 oz serving gives 28 g of protein for 174 calories.
Saturated fat is where the cuts separate. A 3 oz serving of the main record has 3.9 g, 20% of the Daily Value. The same weight of point cut has 9.0 g, 45%. Fat-cap-on whole brisket has 8.0 g, 40%. Flat cut has 2.3 g, 11%. Order two of those and check the box on saturated fat for the whole day; order two of the other and barely notice. Those per-serving protein and saturated fat grams are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g rows.
Sodium is the quiet one. The FNDDS record already assumes brisket arrives seasoned, so it lists 377 mg per 100 g — 320 mg in a 3 oz serving, or about a seventh of a teaspoon of table salt. That is fine. Corned beef brisket is 973 mg per 100 g, which puts 827 mg in the same 3 oz. If you are watching sodium, the smoked brisket is the better pick and it is not close.
How does brisket compare?
| Beef | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brisket | 231 kcal | 3 oz cooked, 85 g | 196 kcal |
| Beef, not further specified | 231 kcal | 3 oz cooked, 85 g | 196 kcal |
| Ribeye steak, lean only eaten | 230 kcal | 3 oz cooked, 85 g | 196 kcal |
| Chuck steak | 225 kcal | 3 oz cooked, 85 g | 191 kcal |
Our take: as it is actually eaten, brisket is unremarkable beef. All four rows above sit inside a 6-calorie band per 100 g, and three of them land on exactly 196 calories per 3 oz, so swapping brisket for ribeye or chuck changes nothing worth logging. What moves the number is the part of the brisket you get and how much fat came with it — 174 calories for lean flat cut, 297 for point cut, a 123-calorie swing inside one piece of meat. Choose the cut carefully and the portion honestly, and stop worrying about which beef it was.
Most popular brisket 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) |
|---|---|
| O'Donnell's Corned Beef Brisket | 195 cal |
| Myron Mixon Barbecue Smoked Beef Brisket | 257 cal |
| Certified Angus Beef Corned Beef Brisket | 177 cal |
| Ahold Point Cut Corned Beef Brisket | 195 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Brisket FAQs
How many calories are in brisket?
Brisket runs 231 calories per 100 g, so a 3 oz cooked serving is 196 calories. That is the FNDDS figure for brisket as it is eaten in the United States: cooked and sliced. Leave the fat cap on and the same weight climbs to 331 calories per 100 g.
How many calories in 3 oz of brisket?
A 3 oz cooked serving of brisket is 196 calories, with 25 g of protein and no carbohydrate at all. Three ounces is roughly the size of a deck of cards, and it is our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure rather than a USDA household measure.
How many calories in a slice of brisket?
One regular slice weighs about 60 g and carries 139 calories. A thick slice at 90 g is 208. Slice thickness is the whole story here: three thin slices and two thick ones both land at 180 g and 416 calories, our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure.
How many calories in smoked brisket?
USDA does not publish a record for Texas barbecue brisket with rub and sauce, so the honest answer is the meat itself: 231 calories per 100 g, 196 per 3 oz. One commercial smoked brisket, Myron Mixon's, is labeled at 257 calories per 100 g, or 360 per 5 oz serving.
Flat cut vs point cut brisket calories?
Flat cut is 205 calories per 100 g and point cut 349, a gap of 144 calories for the same animal and the same braise. Per 3 oz that is 174 against 297. The point half carries the fat cap; the flat half is the leanest cooked brisket on this page.
Is brisket high in protein?
Yes — a 3 oz serving delivers 25 g of protein, 50% of the Daily Value, for 196 calories. Per 100 g brisket is 29.41 g of protein against 12.04 g of fat. Trim to the flat cut and a 3 oz serving climbs to 28 g of protein for 174 calories.
How much sodium is in corned beef brisket?
Cooked corned beef brisket carries 973 mg of sodium per 100 g, so a 3 oz serving is 827 mg, 36% of the Daily Value and about a third of a teaspoon of table salt. Plain brisket is 377 mg per 100 g. The brine, not the beef, is doing that.
How many calories in 4 oz of raw brisket?
Four ounces of raw whole brisket, fat and all, is 113 g and 286 calories at 253 per 100 g. It does not stay 4 oz: meat loses roughly a quarter of its weight in the cooker, so 4 oz raw lands near 3 oz cooked on the plate.
Similar foods
- Beef brisket — 208 cal per thick slice
- Chile relleno — 326 cal per chile relleno
- Chuck Steak — 360 cal per steak
- Chicken — 203 cal for 3 oz roasted
- Roast Chicken — 203 cal per 3 oz
- Skirt Steak — 187 cal for 3 oz cooked
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the platter and BodyPal counts the brisket for you, slices and all.
