How many calories are in coconut flakes?
A 1-cup (85 g) serving of sweetened flaked coconut carries 388 calories, and the packaged flakes run 456 calories per 100 g. It is a topping people scatter without measuring: 2 tablespoons is 48 calories, a full cup is 388, and that cup carries more saturated fat than a whole day allows.
You'd need to walk about 78 minutes to burn the 388 calories in a 1-cup (85 g) serving.
How long does it take to burn off coconut flakes?
A 1-cup (85 g) serving is 388 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 388 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 1 hr 18 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 48 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 55 min |
| Jogging | 46 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 1 hr 26 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
- Coconut flake quick facts
- US servings, from two tablespoons to a full cup
- Sweetened, unsweetened, shredded and toasted
- Saturated fat is the row that moves
- How do coconut flakes compare?
- Most popular coconut flake brands
- Coconut flake FAQs
Coconut flake quick facts
The record used here is SR Legacy 170577, "Nuts, coconut meat, dried (desiccated), sweetened, flaked, packaged". That is the bag off the baking aisle shelf — the thing a person is actually holding when they look this up — rather than the canned version, which is a different product with different numbers. It is also the flake record that publishes total sugars, so the sugar row below is real data and not an estimate.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 cup (85 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 456 | 388 | — |
| Total fat | 27.99 g | 23.8 g | 31% |
| Saturated fat | 26.4 g | 22.4 g | 112% |
| Carbohydrate | 51.85 g | 44.1 g | 16% |
| Dietary fiber | 9.9 g | 8.4 g | 30% |
| Total sugars | 36.75 g | 31.2 g | — |
| Protein | 3.13 g | 2.7 g | 5% |
| Sodium | 285 mg | 242 mg | 11% |
% 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 →
There is no added sugars row above because SR Legacy does not publish added sugars for this record. That is a documentation gap, not a nutrition finding: sweetened flaked coconut is dried coconut meat plus sugar syrup, and dried coconut on its own is nowhere near 36.75 g of sugar per 100 g, so nearly all of that total arrived in the factory. Cholesterol is 0 mg, as it is in every plant food, and the cup delivers 307 mg of potassium, 7% of the Daily Value.
One row deserves a second look before you scroll past it. Sodium at 285 mg per 100 g is not a rounding artifact — sweetened flake is salted during processing, and a cup puts 242 mg on the plate, about a tenth of a teaspoon of table salt. Most people never think of a dessert topping as a sodium source.
US servings, from two tablespoons to a full cup
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Tbsp | 10.6 g | 48 kcal |
| 1/4 cup | 21.3 g | 97 kcal |
| 1 oz | 28.35 g | 129 kcal |
| 1/2 cup | 42.5 g | 194 kcal |
| 1 cup, flaked | 85 g | 388 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 456 kcal |
The 1-cup (85 g) and 1-ounce weights are USDA household measures for this record. The half cup, quarter cup and 2-tablespoon lines are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings — they exist because those are the amounts recipes actually call for.
The gap between the top and bottom of that table is where the tracking mistakes happen. Two tablespoons over yogurt is 48 calories, a rounding error in a day. A cup folded into a cake batter or piled onto a frosted layer is 388, which is a whole snack. Coconut flake also packs unevenly: pressed into a measuring cup it weighs noticeably more than a cup filled by shaking the bag. If a number matters to you, weigh it once and learn what your own scoop looks like.
Store labels use a smaller unit than USDA does. Sweetened flake sold as ShopRite or Great Value lists a 15 g serving — about 2 tablespoons — at 70 calories, and puts the product at 467 calories per 100 g rather than 456. That 11-calorie-per-100 g spread between a national label and the USDA record is normal manufacturer variation, and it is far too small to matter next to the difference between two tablespoons and a cup.
Sweetened, unsweetened, shredded and toasted
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweetened flaked, packaged | 456 kcal | 1 cup (85 g) | 388 kcal |
| Sweetened flaked, canned | 443 kcal | 1 cup (77 g) | 341 kcal |
| Sweetened shredded | 501 kcal | 1 oz (28.35 g) | 142 kcal |
| Unsweetened flakes, label | 667 kcal | 15 g (1/4 cup) | 100 kcal |
| Toasted unsweetened flakes, label | 667 kcal | 15 g (3 Tbsp) | 100 kcal |
| Organic unsweetened flakes, label | 733 kcal | 15 g (2 Tbsp) | 110 kcal |
Canned versus bagged. The canned sweetened flake sits at 443 calories per 100 g against 456 for the bag. The difference is moisture and processing, not a different food: canned carries 40.91 g of carbohydrate to the bag's 51.85 g, more fat at 31.69 g, and only 20 mg of sodium against 285 mg. If you are watching sodium, the canned version is genuinely the quieter choice; on calories the two are close enough to ignore.
Shredded versus flaked. Shredded coconut is cut finer and dries harder, so it packs more grams into the same space and lands at 501 calories per 100 g. Per ounce that is 142 calories against 129 for flakes. Same plant, same sugar treatment, denser cut.
Unsweetened is not the light option. This is the result most people get backwards. Unsweetened coconut flakes on US labels run 667 to 733 calories per 100 g — half again as much as the sweetened flakes at 456. Removing the sugar removes the cheapest, lightest ingredient in the bag and leaves a higher share of coconut fat behind. Unsweetened is the right pick if you are cutting sugar. It is the wrong pick if you thought you were cutting calories.
Toasted. Toasting drives off a little water and browns the sugars already present; it does not add calories of its own. The toasted unsweetened flakes on the shelf land at the same 667 calories per 100 g as their untoasted counterpart, 100 calories for a 15 g serving.
Saturated fat is the row that moves
Coconut is the one plant fat that behaves like a dairy fat on a label. Of the 27.99 g of total fat in 100 g of sweetened flake, 26.4 g is saturated — 94% of it. A 1-cup (85 g) serving therefore delivers 22.4 g of saturated fat, which is 112% of the FDA Daily Value of 20 g. One cup of a garnish covers a full day's allowance and then some.
Scaled down, it is much less dramatic. One ounce is 7.5 g of saturated fat, 37% of the Daily Value; two tablespoons is under 3 g. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend keeping saturated fat below 10% of daily calories, which is where the 20 g figure comes from on a 2,000-calorie day. Coconut flake is not a food you have to avoid — it is a food where the serving size does all the work.
The counterweight is fiber. A cup carries 8.4 g, 30% of the 28 g Daily Value, which is more fiber than most sweet toppings offer at any dose. Protein is negligible at 2.7 g a cup, so coconut flake is not going to hold anyone over. Use it for texture and flavor, count it as a fat, and let something else do the filling up.
How do coconut flakes compare?
| Food | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweetened coconut flakes | 456 kcal | 1 oz (28.35 g) | 129 kcal |
| Sweetened shredded coconut | 501 kcal | 1 oz (28.35 g) | 142 kcal |
| Almond paste | 458 kcal | 1 oz (28.35 g) | 130 kcal |
| Chia seeds, dried | 486 kcal | 1 oz (28.35 g) | 138 kcal |
Our take: on calories alone these four are effectively the same food — 129 to 142 per ounce, with sweetened coconut flakes the lightest per gram of the group by a single calorie over almond paste. The separation is in what you get for those calories. Chia brings 16.54 g of protein per 100 g and almond paste 9 g, against 3.13 g for coconut flake. If the ounce is going into a breakfast bowl and you want it to do nutritional work, chia is the better buy at nearly the same price in calories. If it is going on top of a cake for the flavor and the ribbon of texture, coconut flake earns its place — just keep it to an ounce rather than a cup.
Most popular coconut flake 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) |
|---|---|
| ShopRite Sweetened Coconut Flakes | 467 cal |
| Great Value Sweetened Coconut Flakes | 467 cal |
| Clearly Organic Organic Unsweetened Coconut Flakes | 733 cal |
| Let's Do Organic Unsweetened Toasted Coconut Flakes | 667 cal |
| PCC Unsweetened Coconut Flakes | 507 cal |
| Bob's Red Mill Unsweetened Coconut Flakes | 667 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Coconut flake FAQs
How many calories are in coconut flakes?
Sweetened flaked coconut runs 456 calories per 100 g, so a 1-cup serving of 85 g is 388 calories and 1 ounce is 129. Unsweetened flakes on US labels are higher per gram, 667 to 733 calories per 100 g, because they carry more fat and less filler sugar.
How many calories in 1 cup of coconut flakes?
388 calories for a 1-cup, 85 g serving of packaged sweetened flaked coconut. That cup also brings 44.1 g of carbohydrate, 31.2 g of sugars and 22.4 g of saturated fat. Coconut packs unevenly in a measuring cup, so weigh the portion when the number has to be right.
Are unsweetened coconut flakes lower in calories than sweetened?
No, they are higher per gram: 667 to 733 calories per 100 g on US labels, against 456 for the packaged sweetened flakes in the USDA record. Taking the sugar out leaves more fat per gram, so unsweetened wins on sugar and loses on calorie density.
How much sugar is in sweetened coconut flakes?
36.75 g per 100 g, which works out to 31.2 g in a 1-cup (85 g) serving, roughly seven teaspoons. The USDA record does not split out added sugars for this food, but sweetened flake is dried coconut plus sugar syrup, so nearly all of that total was added during processing.
Is coconut flake high in saturated fat?
Yes — a 1-cup (85 g) serving has 22.4 g of saturated fat, 112% of the FDA Daily Value of 20 g. One ounce, 28 g, is 7.5 g and 37%. Coconut fat is unusually saturated for a plant food, which is what makes the row so large.
How many carbs are in coconut flakes?
51.85 g per 100 g, or 44.1 g in a 1-cup (85 g) serving, which is 16% of the Daily Value. Fiber accounts for 8.4 g of that cup and sugars for 31.2 g. Two tablespoons, closer to how most people use it, carry about 5.5 g of carbohydrate.
What is the difference between flaked and shredded coconut?
Shredded is cut finer and dries harder, so it is denser: 501 calories per 100 g against 456 for flaked, both sweetened. Per ounce that is 142 calories versus 129. Flakes are wide ribbons that sit on top of a cake, while shredded packs tighter into a measuring cup.
How much fiber is in coconut flakes?
9.9 g per 100 g, so a 1-cup (85 g) serving delivers 8.4 g, or 30% of the 28 g Daily Value. One ounce gives 2.8 g, about 10%. The fiber is the honest argument for coconut flake; the saturated fat is the argument against.
Similar foods
- Chia Seeds — 138 cal per oz
- S'more — 210 cal per s'more
- Prime Rib — 340 cal for 3 oz slice
- Falafel Ball — 87 cal per ball
- Torta — 215 cal per serving
- Salami — 102 cal for 3 slices
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the bowl and BodyPal counts the coconut flakes for you, cup or spoonful.
