How many calories are in an MRE?
One REDCON1 MRE bar weighs 67 g and carries 260 calories. Per 100 g the bar runs 388 calories, which is dense for something you eat in four bites. Twenty grams of that is protein. The MRE meal replacement powder is a different food entirely: four scoops come to 525.
You'd need to walk about 52 minutes to burn the 260 calories in one bar (67 g).
How long does it take to burn off MRE?
One bar (67 g) is 260 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 260 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 52 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 32 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 37 min |
| Jogging | 31 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 58 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 (67 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- MRE bar quick facts
- US servings, from one ounce to two bars
- Bar flavors, meal replacement powder and MRE Lite
- Saturated fat is the row to watch, not calories
- How does an MRE bar compare?
- Most popular mre brands
- MRE FAQs
MRE bar quick facts
Two different foods answer to "MRE" in an American kitchen. One is the military Meal, Ready-to-Eat ration. The other is the REDCON1 MRE line of whole-food bars and powders sold in supplement aisles. USDA FoodData Central publishes records only for the second one, so that is the food costed here; there is no USDA entry for a military ration, and this page will not invent a calorie count for one.
The numbers below come from Branded record 2651878, "Blueberry Cobbler Real Whole Food MRE Bar", the flavor with the label serving of one bar at 67 g and a complete nutrient panel tied to its GTIN. It is the bar most people are actually holding when they look this up.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 bar (67 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 388 | 260 | — |
| Total fat | 13.43 g | 9.0 g | 12% |
| Saturated fat | 7.46 g | 5.0 g | 25% |
| Carbohydrate | 43.28 g | 29.0 g | 11% |
| Dietary fiber | 4.5 g | 3.0 g | 11% |
| Total sugars | 8.96 g | 6.0 g | — |
| Added sugars | 7.5 g | 5.0 g | 10% |
| Protein | 29.85 g | 20.0 g | 40% |
| Sodium | 448 mg | 300 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 →
There is no trans fat row here because the label behind this record does not declare one. Cholesterol is 40 mg per bar, 13% of the Daily Value, and potassium is a modest 90 mg, about 2%. The 300 mg of sodium is roughly an eighth of a teaspoon of table salt — small on its own, worth remembering if you eat two.
One quirk of the USDA data is worth flagging. A second record for the same product line, the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip bar, carries identical calories and macros but declares 582 mg of sodium per 100 g instead of 448 mg. Labels get revised between production runs. If your wrapper says something different from the table above, trust your wrapper.
US servings, from one ounce to two bars
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28 g | 110 kcal |
| Half a bar | 34 g | 130 kcal |
| One bar, label serving | 67 g | 260 kcal |
| Two bars | 134 g | 520 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 388 kcal |
Only one line in that table is a USDA serving: the 67 g bar, which is what the label declares. The ounce, the half bar and the two-bar row are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings, which matters if you snap a bar in half and log the rest tomorrow.
The half-bar habit is common and it is the one that trips people. Half is 130 calories, which sounds like a granola bar, but the other half is still 130 calories sitting in your bag. Log both halves the day you eat them.
An ounce is a useful sanity check too. At 110 calories per ounce, this bar is denser by weight than the survival trail mix in the comparison below, which runs 353 calories per 100 g. It is engineered that way. A 67 g package is not a small food.
Bar flavors, meal replacement powder and MRE Lite
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRE Bar, Blueberry Cobbler | 388 kcal | 1 bar, 67 g | 260 kcal |
| MRE Bar, Caramel Trail Mix | 406 kcal | 1 bar, 64 g | 260 kcal |
| MRE Meal Replacement Powder, Dutch Apple Pie | 404 kcal | 4 scoops, 130 g | 525 kcal |
| MRE Powder, Strawberry Shortcake | 408 kcal | 4 scoops, 130 g | 530 kcal |
| MRE Whole Food Protein 47 g Powder | 408 kcal | 4 scoops, 130 g | 530 kcal |
| MRE Lite Powder | 467 kcal | 1 scoop, 30 g | 140 kcal |
Flavor barely moves the bar. German Chocolate Cake, Peanut Butter Jelly and Crunchy Peanut Butter Cup all sit on the same 388 calories per 100 g and the same 260 per bar as Blueberry Cobbler. Caramel Trail Mix is the outlier, and only because it is a slightly smaller bar at higher density: 406 calories per 100 g in a 64 g wrapper, which lands on the same 260.
Where the flavors do differ is underneath the calorie line. Caramel Trail Mix declares 4.69 g of sugars per 100 g against 8.96 g for Blueberry Cobbler, and 164 mg of sodium against 448 mg. It also carries more saturated fat, 10.94 g per 100 g against 7.46 g. Same calories, different label.
The meal replacement powder is where people get the arithmetic wrong. Per 100 g it looks almost identical to the bar, 404 against 388. But the powder's serving is four scoops at 130 g, nearly double the bar's 67 g, so one shake is 525 calories against the bar's 260. More than half of that shake is carbohydrate — 75 g of it — with 47 g of protein and only about 4 g of fat.
MRE Lite runs the trick in reverse. At 467 calories per 100 g it is the most concentrated product in the line, but the scoop is 30 g, so one serving is 140 calories with 24 g of protein. Per gram it is the heaviest; per serving it is the lightest in the line.
Saturated fat is the row to watch, not calories
At 260 calories, one bar is unremarkable. The row that stands out is saturated fat: 5.0 g in a single bar, which is 25% of the FDA Daily Value of 20 g. Total fat, by contrast, is only 12% of its Daily Value. That gap — a quarter of the day's saturated fat inside an eighth of the day's calories — is the number to notice, and it is not obvious from the front of the wrapper.
The Dietary Guidelines put saturated fat at under 10% of calories, roughly 22 g on a 2,000-calorie day. Two bars would use nearly half of that before dinner. If saturated fat is what you are managing, the powders are the easier pick in this line: the Dutch Apple Pie powder carries 0.77 g per 100 g, so a full four-scoop shake lands near 1 g.
The protein side is genuinely strong. Twenty grams per bar is 40% of the Daily Value, and 29.85 g per 100 g is high for anything shaped like a candy bar. MyPlate counts about 5.5 ounce-equivalents of protein foods a day for most adults, and one bar covers a meaningful slice of that. Fiber helps too, at 3.0 g per bar, 11% of the Daily Value.
How does an MRE bar compare?
| Food | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRE Bar | 388 kcal | 1 bar, 67 g | 260 kcal |
| Emergency food supply, Wise Company | 362 kcal | 1 pouch, 69 g | 250 kcal |
| Survival snack mix, Valued Naturals | 433 kcal | 1 pack, 30 g | 130 kcal |
| Survival trail mix, Superior Nut & Candy | 353 kcal | 1 pack, 34 g | 120 kcal |
Our take: the MRE bar is the biggest single serving in this group, 260 calories against 250, 130 and 120, and it is the only one that pays you back in protein — 29.85 g per 100 g, against 15.94 g for the closest competitor and under 6 g for the trail mix. The snack mix is denser by weight at 433 calories per 100 g, but it comes in a 30 g pack, so it costs half as much per sitting. For a genuine meal stand-in, the bar wins on protein and satiety. For something to nibble on a hike without denting the day, the small packs are the better trade.
Most popular mre 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) |
|---|---|
| REDCON1 MRE Bar Blueberry Cobbler | 388 cal |
| REDCON1 MRE Bar German Chocolate Cake | 388 cal |
| REDCON1 MRE Bar Peanut Butter Jelly | 388 cal |
| REDCON1 MRE Bar Crunchy Peanut Butter Cup | 388 cal |
| REDCON1 MRE Bar Caramel Trail Mix | 406 cal |
| REDCON1 MRE Meal Replacement Powder Dutch Apple Pie | 404 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
MRE FAQs
How many calories are in an MRE bar?
260 calories in one REDCON1 MRE bar, the 67 g label serving, or 388 calories per 100 g. That is a dense bar: it carries 20 g of protein, 29 g of carbohydrate and 9 g of fat, so it eats more like a small meal than a snack.
How much protein is in a REDCON1 MRE bar?
20 g of protein per 67 g bar, which is 40% of the FDA Daily Value of 50 g. Per 100 g the bar is 29.9 g protein, higher than most bars sold as meal replacements. The Caramel Trail Mix bar lands on the same 20 g in a 64 g bar.
Is an MRE bar a meal replacement?
At 260 calories and 20 g of protein it sits between a snack and a light meal. A typical lunch runs 400 to 600 calories, so one bar covers a little over half of a 500-calorie lunch. Two bars come to 520 calories, 40 g of protein and 600 mg of sodium.
How many calories in 4 scoops of MRE powder?
525 calories in 4 scoops (130 g) of MRE Meal Replacement Powder, Dutch Apple Pie, at 404 calories per 100 g. That scoop count delivers 47 g of protein, 75 g of carbohydrate and only 4 g of fat, so the powder is twice the bar's calories in one shake.
MRE bar vs MRE powder - which has more calories?
Per 100 g they are close, 388 for the bar and 404 for the powder. Per serving they are not: 260 calories for a 67 g bar against 525 for 4 scoops, 130 g. The serving size, not the density, is what moves the number here.
How much sugar is in an MRE bar?
6 g of total sugars in one 67 g bar, of which 5 g are added sugars, 10% of the 50 g Daily Value. Per 100 g that is 8.96 g. The Caramel Trail Mix version is lower, 4.69 g per 100 g, or about 3 g in its 64 g bar.
How much sodium is in an MRE bar?
300 mg per bar, 13% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value and about an eighth of a teaspoon of table salt. Per 100 g the bar is 448 mg. Watch the flavor: the Caramel Trail Mix bar is 164 mg per 100 g, roughly 105 mg in a 64 g bar.
Is MRE Lite lower in calories than MRE?
Per scoop, yes: 140 calories in one 30 g scoop of MRE Lite against 525 for 4 scoops of regular MRE powder. Per 100 g it is the opposite, 467 against 404, because Lite is a smaller, more concentrated serving with 24 g of protein per scoop.
Similar foods
- Torta — 215 cal per serving
- Salami — 102 cal for 3 slices
- Prime Rib — 340 cal for 3 oz slice
- Summer Sausage — 203 cal for 4 slices
- Coconut — 283 cal per cup, shredded
- Brie — 95 cal per oz
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the wrapper and BodyPal counts the bar for you, half or whole.
