Sour cream calories come to 24 for 1 tablespoon (12 g) and 198 per 100 g of regular cultured sour cream. Fat supplies 86 percent of those calories, so the total depends almost entirely on how heavy your spoon is. A neat dollop barely registers. A full cup is 455.
24kcal
1 tablespoon · 12 g, cultured, regular
5%protein
0.3 gProtein
1 gCarbs
2.3 gFat
How to burn off 24 kcal
—Walking, brisk
—Jogging
—Cycling, moderate
—Swimming
Skip the math. BodyPal counts these calories from your steps and workouts automatically.
Nutrition facts
Cultured, regular · per 12 g
Calories
24 kcal
Protein
0.3 g
Carbohydrate
0.6 g
Fat
2.3 g
Saturated fat
1.2 g
Cholesterol
7 mg
Sodium
4 mg
Potassium
15 mg
Iron
0 mg
Source: USDA FoodData Central
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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 →
Sour cream: calories, protein and sodium by serving
Percent of daily value uses the FDA reference of 2,000 kcal a day.
Serving
kcal
Protein
Carbs
Fat
Sodium
% DV kcal
1 tablespoon (12 g)
24
0.3 g
0.6 g
2.3 g
4 mg
1%
1 cup (230 g)
455
5.6 g
10.6 g
44.5 g
71 mg
23%
Light, 1 tbsp (12 g)
16
0.4 g
0.9 g
1.3 g
10 mg
1%
100 g
198
2.4 g
4.6 g
19.4 g
31 mg
10%
3 × 1 tablespoon (12 g)
71
0.9 g
11 mg
5 × 1 tablespoon (12 g)
119
1.5 g
19 mg
A dollop is 24 calories, a cup is 455
One tablespoon (12 g) of regular sour cream has 24 calories, 0.3 g of protein and 2.3 g of fat. That is 1 percent of the daily value for calories, small enough that a single spoonful on chili or a baked potato hardly moves your day.
The trouble is that few people stop at one. Two tablespoons (24 g) come to 48 calories, three (36 g) to 71, and five (60 g) to 119. A generous scoop on a burrito bowl or a stack of nachos easily lands somewhere in that three-to-five range, and nobody measures it.
A full cup (230 g) holds 455 calories and 44.5 g of fat, which is 23 percent of the daily calorie value. You rarely eat a cup straight, but a dip built on one cup and shared around the table still sends a real share of that into each plate. If you track, level the spoon or weigh a serving once to calibrate your eye, then trust the habit.
Fat is 86 percent of every calorie
Per 100 g, sour cream carries 19.4 g of fat, 4.6 g of carbs and 2.4 g of protein. Fat supplies 86 percent of the calories, carbs 9 percent and protein 5 percent. In practice it is a fat ingredient that happens to taste tangy, much closer to cream than to yogurt.
Protein is a minor player. Even a full cup gives only 5.6 g, 11 percent of the daily value, and a tablespoon gives 0.3 g. If you want a creamy topping that also pulls its weight on protein, sour cream does not do that job.
Carbs stay low as well. The 4.6 g per 100 g include 3.4 g of sugars, and fiber is 0 g. That makes sour cream easy to fit into a low-carb way of eating, as long as you count the fat, because the fat is where nearly all of the calories live.
Saturated fat is the row to watch
Of the 19.4 g of fat in 100 g of sour cream, 10.1 g is saturated. Against a daily value of 20 g, that is about half the day's saturated fat in a single 100 g portion. A spoonful is a small slice of that; a heavy-handed dip session is not.
The other rows are calmer. Cholesterol is 59 mg per 100 g against a daily value of 300 mg, and sodium is low at 31 mg per 100 g. A tablespoon has just 4 mg of sodium, 0 percent of the daily value, so the salt on your plate comes from the chips, tacos or potato skins, not from the cream itself.
If you watch saturated fat, portion size is the only real lever with regular sour cream. Keep it to a tablespoon or two, or switch to a lighter version for everyday use and save the full-fat tub for dishes where the richness matters.
Light sour cream trims about a third
Light sour cream has 16 calories per tablespoon (12 g) against 24 for regular, about a third fewer. Fat drops from 2.3 g to 1.3 g per tablespoon, while protein edges up from 0.3 g to 0.4 g and carbs rise from 0.6 g to 0.9 g.
The tradeoff is small. A light tablespoon carries 10 mg of sodium against 4 mg for regular, yet both still sit at 0 percent of the daily value. Texture and tang differ more than the numbers do, so taste decides whether the swap sticks.
Brands such as Daisy Brand Light Sour Cream and Organic Valley Lowfat Sour Cream sit in the lighter category, while Daisy Sour Cream is the regular full-fat style. Read the label of the tub you actually buy, since fat levels vary between products. If you would rather not measure at all, BodyPal can log a dollop from a photo.
How does sour cream compare?
Here is how sour cream stacks up against coffee cream, whipped cream and heavy cream, per 100 g and per usual serving.
Verdict: Sour cream at 198 calories per 100 g is essentially tied with coffee cream at 195, while whipped cream reaches 257 and heavy cream runs about 1.7 times higher at 340. For a lighter creamy topping pick sour cream, and save heavy cream for recipes that truly need its 36.1 g of fat per 100 g.
Most popular sour cream brands in the United States
3Organic Valley Lowfat Sour Cream2 Tbsp · 30 g100 kcal
Light and lowfat tubs are the same cultured cream with less fat, so they read 100 to 133 calories per 100 g against 198 for regular. Source: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Sour cream FAQs
How many calories are in a tablespoon of sour cream?
A tablespoon (12 g) of regular sour cream is 24 calories. A full cup (230 g) is 455 calories.
Is sour cream good for weight loss?
A tablespoon adds 24 calories and 2.3 g of fat. Light sour cream is 16 calories and 1.3 g of fat per tablespoon, and fat free is 9 calories.
Sour cream vs half-and-half: which has more calories?
They are almost identical: 198 calories per 100 g for sour cream against 195 for coffee cream (half-and-half).
How much fat and protein are in sour cream?
Per 100 g regular sour cream has 19.4 g fat, of which 10.1 g saturated, and 2.4 g protein. A tablespoon has 2.3 g fat and 0.3 g protein.
How many calories are in a cup of sour cream?
A cup (230 g) of regular sour cream has 455 calories. It also carries 44.5 g of fat and 5.6 g of protein, and covers 23 percent of the daily calorie value.
How many calories are in light sour cream?
Light sour cream has 16 calories per tablespoon (12 g), compared with 24 for regular. Fat falls from 2.3 g to 1.3 g per tablespoon, which accounts for most of the difference.
How many calories are in 2 tablespoons of sour cream?
Two tablespoons (24 g) of regular sour cream have 48 calories. Three tablespoons (36 g) come to 71, and five tablespoons (60 g) reach 119 calories.
Is sour cream high in sodium?
No. Regular sour cream has 31 mg of sodium per 100 g and just 4 mg per tablespoon, which is 0 percent of the 2300 mg daily value.
How much saturated fat is in sour cream?
Regular sour cream has 10.1 g of saturated fat per 100 g, about half the 20 g daily value. Total fat is 19.4 g per 100 g.
