How many calories are in sesame seed oil?
One tablespoon of sesame seed oil weighs 13.6 g and carries 120 calories. Per 100 g the bottle runs 884 calories. It is fat and nothing else: 13.6 g of fat in that spoon, no carbs, no protein, no sodium. Drop to a teaspoon and the count falls to 40.
You'd need to walk about 24 minutes to burn the 120 calories in a 1-tablespoon (13.6 g) serving.
How long does it take to burn off sesame oil?
A 1-tablespoon (13.6 g) serving is 120 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 120 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 24 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 15 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 17 min |
| Jogging | 14 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 27 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 (13.6 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Sesame oil quick facts
- US servings from a teaspoon to a cup
- Toasted and black sesame oil
- Why your bottle says 130 and USDA says 120
- Saturated fat is the row that separates oils
- How does sesame oil compare?
- Most popular sesame seed oil brands
- Sesame oil FAQs
Sesame oil quick facts
The row behind every number here is SR Legacy 171016, "Oil, sesame, salad or cooking". It is the most complete USDA entry for the bottle you actually cook with, and it is the one that carries the 13.6 g tablespoon. The FNDDS entry, 2710190, reports the same 884 calories and the same 100 g of fat; it only files the tablespoon at a rounder 14 g, which is a difference in the measuring spoon, not in the oil.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 tbsp (13.6 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 884 | 120 | — |
| Total fat | 100 g | 13.6 g | 17% |
| Saturated fat | 14.2 g | 1.9 g | 10% |
| Carbohydrate | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Total sugars | 0 g | 0 g | — |
| Protein | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Sodium | 0 mg | 0 mg | 0% |
% 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 label are missing above: added sugars and trans fat. USDA does not publish either value for pure vegetable oils in this record, so rather than guess them we leave them out. Cholesterol and potassium are both listed at 0 mg, which is what a plant oil should read.
The arithmetic is unusually clean for a food page. At 100 g of fat per 100 g of product, sesame oil is about 8.8 calories per gram, and every one of those calories sits in the fat column. Nothing you do in the pan changes that.
US servings from a teaspoon to a cup
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 tsp | 4.5 g | 40 kcal |
| 1 tbsp, USDA measure | 13.6 g | 120 kcal |
| 1 tbsp, label measure | 14 g | 124 kcal |
| 1 oz | 28.35 g | 251 kcal |
| 1 cup | 218 g | 1927 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 884 kcal |
The teaspoon, the tablespoon and the cup are USDA household measures on the 171016 record. The 14 g tablespoon and the 1 oz pour are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings — worth knowing if you are matching a bottle whose label prints a 14 g spoon.
The trap on this page is the cup. One cup of sesame oil is 218 g and 1,927 calories, and it brings 218 g of fat with it, which is 279% of the Daily Value for total fat in a single measuring cup. Recipes that call for oil by the cup — a marinade batch, a chili oil, a deep-fry pot — are not asking you to eat all of it, but if you log the pour instead of the plate, the number will be wrong by a thousand calories or more.
For the way sesame oil is actually used, the teaspoon is the honest unit. Toasted bottles in particular are a finishing oil: a teaspoon over noodles or into a dressing is 40 calories, and that is the line most stir-fry recipes draw.
Toasted and black sesame oil
USDA carries one generic sesame oil record, not separate entries for plain, toasted and black. What varies on the shelf is how each brand rounds its label, and that spread is worth seeing side by side.
| Version | Per 100 g | Label serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sesame oil, FNDDS serving grid | 884 kcal | 1 tbsp (14 g) | 124 kcal |
| Toasted sesame oil, 365 Everyday Value | 929 kcal | 1 Tbsp (14 g) | 130 kcal |
| Toasted sesame oil, Culinary Circle | 800 kcal | 1 Tbsp (15 ml) | 120 kcal |
| Black sesame oil, Lee Kum Kee | 867 kcal | 1 Tbsp (15 ml) | 130 kcal |
| Organic toasted sesame oil, Natural Earth | 929 kcal | 1 Tbsp (14 g) | 130 kcal |
| Sesame seed oil, 365 Whole Foods Market | 867 kcal | 1 Tbsp (15 ml) | 130 kcal |
Read the table as label practice rather than chemistry. Two toasted oils sit at opposite ends of it — 929 and 800 calories per 100 g — and they are the same category of product. Roasting the seeds before pressing changes color and aroma, not the energy in the fat.
The big bottled names in US stores land inside that same band. Lee Kum Kee Pure Sesame Oil and International Collection Toasted both print 867 per 100 g, Ottogi 857, Kikkoman 100% Pure 800, and Imperial Dragon and Kadoya 929. Per tablespoon they all print either 120 or 130 calories, which is the whole visible range across six of the most-stocked bottles in the country.
Why your bottle says 130 and USDA says 120
This is the mismatch people write in about. Your bottle says 130 calories a tablespoon; this page says 120. Neither is wrong.
The label serving is 14 g or 15 ml, both a little heavier than the 13.6 g USDA weighs, and label rules let the calorie figure be rounded to the nearest 10 above 50 calories. Stack those two allowances and a 120-calorie spoon prints as 130. The USDA record is the un-rounded measurement; the label is the legal one.
Practically: if you cook from the bottle, log what the bottle says and you will be off by ten calories a spoon. If you are weighing on a scale, use the USDA figure, because grams are grams. The one thing not to do is average them.
Saturated fat is the row that separates oils
Since the calories are identical across cooking oils, saturated fat is the row that actually distinguishes one bottle from another. The FDA Daily Value for saturated fat is 20 g a day, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend keeping saturated fat under 10% of daily calories.
A tablespoon of sesame oil carries 1.9 g of saturated fat, 10% of that Daily Value. Scaled from the USDA 100 g figures — our arithmetic, not USDA servings — a tablespoon of canola runs about 1.0 g, walnut 1.2 g, and palm 6.7 g, or roughly 34% of a day's allowance from one spoon. Sesame sits comfortably in the middle of the pack.
The cup pour is where the row gets loud: 218 g of sesame oil holds 31.0 g of saturated fat, 155% of the Daily Value. MyPlate's guidance on oils treats oils as a small daily allowance measured in teaspoons, which matches how sesame oil behaves in a real kitchen better than any per-100-g number does.
How does sesame oil compare?
| Oil | Per 100 g | Saturated fat per 100 g | 1 oz (28.35 g) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sesame | 884 kcal | 14.2 g | 251 kcal |
| Canola | 884 kcal | 7.365 g | 251 kcal |
| Walnut | 884 kcal | 9.1 g | 251 kcal |
| Palm | 884 kcal | 49.3 g | 251 kcal |
All four ounce pours are our arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figures. Olive oil is the fifth row readers expect, but there is no olive oil record in the set we costed for this page, so we leave it out rather than quote a number we have not checked.
Our take: stop shopping for oil by calorie. All four of these rows are 884 per 100 g and 251 per ounce, because pure oil is pure fat and fat is fixed at about nine calories a gram. The only column that moves is saturated fat, where canola is a little over half of sesame and palm is about three and a half times it. Choose sesame for what it is good at — a small, loud finishing pour — and choose a neutral oil for the volume cooking, not because one is lighter, but because you will use less of the one you are tasting.
Most popular sesame seed oil 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) |
|---|---|
| Lee Kum Kee Pure Sesame Oil | 867 cal |
| Ottogi Sesame Oil | 857 cal |
| Imperial Dragon Sesame Seed Oil | 929 cal |
| International Collection Toasted Sesame Oil | 867 cal |
| Kikkoman 100% Pure Sesame Oil | 800 cal |
| Kadoya Pure Sesame Oil | 929 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Sesame oil FAQs
How many calories are in a tablespoon of sesame oil?
One tablespoon is 120 calories at the USDA measure of 13.6 g. That is 13.6 g of fat, 17% of the Daily Value, with zero carbs and zero protein. Bottles that print a 14 g or 15 ml tablespoon show 120 to 130 calories instead, which is the same oil measured on a slightly rounder spoon.
How many calories are in a teaspoon of sesame oil?
One teaspoon is 40 calories, from 4.5 g of oil that is 4.5 g of fat, about 6% of the Daily Value for total fat. The teaspoon is the realistic unit for toasted sesame oil, whose flavor is strong enough that most stir-fry and dressing recipes ask for a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon.
Is toasted sesame oil higher in calories than regular sesame oil?
Not by anything you can measure: USDA prices both at 884 calories per 100 g. It carries a single sesame oil record and publishes no separate toasted entry, so the spread you see is label rounding, with a 365 Everyday Value toasted bottle at 929 per 100 g and a Culinary Circle toasted bottle at 800.
How much fat is in sesame oil?
100 g of fat per 100 g of oil — it is fat and nothing else. A tablespoon carries 13.6 g, which is 17% of the Daily Value, and 1.9 g of that is saturated, 10% of the saturated fat Daily Value. A full cup, at 218 g, would be 218 g of fat.
Does sesame oil have carbs or protein?
Zero of both: USDA lists 0 g carbohydrate, 0 g total sugars, 0 g fiber and 0 g protein for sesame oil, which is why 100 g works out to 884 calories, about 8.8 per gram, all of it from fat. If you track macros, every calorie in the bottle goes into the fat column.
How many calories are in 100 g of sesame oil?
884 calories, which is also about 7.4 tablespoons by our arithmetic from the USDA 13.6 g spoon — far more oil than a household pours in a week. Treat 100 g as a reference point, not a serving, and note that canola, walnut and palm all land on the same 884.
Is sesame oil good for weight loss?
At 120 calories a tablespoon it is a seasoning, not a diet. A teaspoon delivers 40 calories and most of the toasted flavor for a third of that, so measuring the pour instead of free-pouring from the bottle is the one change that keeps a stir-fry's calorie count honest.
Does sesame oil contain cholesterol or sodium?
Neither: USDA lists 0 mg cholesterol and 0 mg sodium for sesame oil, since cholesterol comes from animal foods and sodium from added salt, and a pressed plant oil carries neither. Nothing on the shelf changes those two rows unless the bottle is a dressing, marinade or blend rather than pure oil.
Similar foods
- Olive Oil — 126 cal per tbsp
- Butter — 102 cal per tbsp
- Yum yum sauce — 170 cal for 2 tbsp
- Oat flour — 105 cal for 1/4 cup
- Cheese — 113 cal per slice
- Thousand Island Dressing — 216 cal per dipping-size container
Count it without the math
Point the camera at the pan and BodyPal counts the oil in it for you.
