How many calories are in vegetable oil?
One tablespoon of vegetable oil is 126 calories, and per 100 g the bottle runs 900 calories — the highest figure of anything in a normal kitchen, because oil is pure fat with nothing else in it. A teaspoon over a pan of vegetables is 42. A cup, poured for frying, is 2,016.
You'd need to walk about 25 minutes to burn the 126 calories in one tablespoon (14 g).
How long does it take to burn off vegetable oil?
One tablespoon (14 g) is 126 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 126 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 25 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 16 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 18 min |
| Jogging | 15 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 28 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 (14 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Vegetable oil quick facts
- US servings, from a teaspoon to a cup
- Canola, palm, shortening and spreads
- Saturated fat is the only row that moves
- Why your bottle says 120 and USDA says 126
- How does vegetable oil compare?
- Most popular vegetable oil brands
- Vegetable oil FAQs
Vegetable oil quick facts
The record behind every number here is FNDDS 2710180, "Vegetable oil, NFS" — the generic bottle of US cooking oil, the soybean or soy-and-canola blend that sits next to the stove. That is the thing people actually hold when they search for this number, so it is the main row. Palm kernel oil, shortening and the tub spreads all carry the words "vegetable oil" somewhere on the package, and they get their own section further down, because they behave nothing like the bottle.
One tablespoon is the serving USDA lists, at 14 g. Everything in the right-hand column below is that spoon.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 1 tablespoon (14 g) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 900 | 126 | — |
| Total fat | 100 g | 14.0 g | 18% |
| Saturated fat | 13.37 g | 1.9 g | 9% |
| 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 see on a bottle are missing here: added sugars and trans fat. USDA does not publish either value for this generic oil record, so rather than guess we leave them out — though in the case of sugar the answer is not in doubt, since total sugars are 0 g.
Look at the shape of that table for a second. Five of the eight rows in that table are zero. There is no protein to soften the calories, no fiber, no water, nothing but fat and the calories that come with it. That is what makes oil the easiest thing in the kitchen to underestimate: it disappears into the food and leaves the number behind.
US servings, from a teaspoon to a cup
| Serving | Weight | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 4.7 g | 42 kcal |
| 1 tablespoon | 14 g | 126 kcal |
| 1 oz | 28.35 g | 255 kcal |
| 1/4 cup | 56 g | 504 kcal |
| 1 cup | 224 g | 2016 kcal |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 900 kcal |
The tablespoon and the cup are USDA household measures. The teaspoon, the ounce and the quarter cup are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure, not USDA servings — 4.7 g, 28.35 g and 56 g scaled off 900 calories per 100 g.
The gap between the top and the bottom of that table is the whole story. A teaspoon brushed over a sheet pan is 42 calories, an amount nobody needs to think about. A cup poured into a pot for frying is 2,016 calories and 224 g of fat, which is 287% of the Daily Value for fat in one pour. Most of that stays in the pot, of course — but "most" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and nobody measures what came back out.
The practical middle ground is the quarter cup, 504 calories, which is roughly what a roasting recipe asks for when it says "toss with oil." Swapping that for two tablespoons takes it to 252 and usually coats the tray just as well.
Canola, palm, shortening and spreads
| Version | Per 100 g | Typical serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vegetable oil, NFS (this page) | 900 kcal | 1 tbsp (14 g) | 126 kcal |
| Canola oil | 884 kcal | 1 tbsp (13.6 g) | 120 kcal |
| Palm oil | 884 kcal | 1 tbsp (13.6 g) | 120 kcal |
| Palm kernel oil | 862 kcal | 1 tbsp (13.6 g) | 117 kcal |
| Vegetable shortening with lard | 900 kcal | 1 tbsp (12.8 g) | 115 kcal |
| Vegetable oil spread, 60% fat, tub | 533 kcal | 1 tbsp (14 g) | 75 kcal |
| French fries fried in vegetable oil | 312 kcal | 1 oz (28.35 g) | 88 kcal |
Every liquid oil in that list lands between 862 and 900 calories per 100 g. There is no light oil. The spread of 38 calories across the top four rows is smaller than the spread you get from eyeballing a spoon instead of measuring it.
The spread is a different product. A 60% fat tub spread is 533 calories per 100 g because 40% of it is water, and a tablespoon is 75 calories instead of 126. It also carries sodium, which the bottle does not: the tub record lists 615 mg per 100 g against 0 mg for oil. If a recipe tolerates the water, the spread is the lighter choice; if it needs to fry, it is not.
Shortening with lard is 900 per 100 g, exactly the same as the bottle. It only looks lighter per spoon — 115 calories — because a tablespoon of a solid fat weighs 12.8 g rather than 14 g. Per gram it is identical.
The fries row is there to show what actually happens to oil at dinner. Potatoes french fried in vegetable oil come out at 312 calories per 100 g with 14.73 g of fat, most of which was in the pan a few minutes earlier. An ounce of fries, a small handful, is 88 calories.
Store brands sit inside the same narrow band. Wesson and Hill Country Fare declare a 15 ml tablespoon, which puts them at 800 calories per 100 g; Crisco, Market Pantry, Price First and Hannaford declare 14 g and land at 857. All six print 120 calories per tablespoon on the front of the label.
Saturated fat is the only row that moves
With carbohydrate, fiber, sugar, protein and sodium all at zero, saturated fat is the single row where one oil differs from another. The generic bottle is 13.37 g per 100 g, which makes a tablespoon 1.9 g — 9% of the FDA Daily Value of 20 g. A quarter cup for roasting is 7.5 g, or 37%.
Now take the record that shares the name most confusingly: vegetable oil, palm kernel is 81.5 g of saturated fat per 100 g. The same 13.6 g tablespoon carries 11.1 g, 55% of the Daily Value, against 1.9 g for the bottle on your counter. Six times the saturated fat, an almost identical calorie count, and a name a shopper would reasonably read as the same thing.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend keeping saturated fat below 10% of daily calories. If you are watching that row, the type of oil matters far more than the number of calories does — the calories are effectively fixed at about 9 per gram no matter which bottle you buy.
Why your bottle says 120 and USDA says 126
This is the most common reason someone's log and their label disagree, and it is not a mistake in either place.
A US label declares a tablespoon in one of two ways. If it calls the serving 14 g, the math behind 120 calories works out to 857 per 100 g. If it calls the serving 15 ml, the same 120 calories works out to about 800 per 100 g. USDA's generic record uses 900 per 100 g with a 14 g spoon, which gives 126.
So the range across a shelf of identical-looking bottles is 800 to 857 calories per 100 g, with USDA's generic record sitting at 900, and none of the labels are wrong. They are describing the same oil against different declared weights, and rounding to the nearest 10 on top of that. Six calories a spoon is not worth losing sleep over; six calories a spoon across a quarter cup of roasting oil is 24, and across a cup of frying oil it is 96.
If you want one rule: log the bottle's own label when you have it in front of you, and use 126 when you don't.
How does vegetable oil compare?
| Oil | Per 100 g | US serving | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vegetable oil, NFS | 900 kcal | 1 tbsp, 14 g | 126 kcal |
| Canola oil | 884 kcal | 1 tbsp, 13.6 g | 120 kcal |
| Palm oil | 884 kcal | 1 tbsp, 13.6 g | 120 kcal |
| Flaxseed oil, with added sliced flaxseed | 878 kcal | 1 tbsp, 13.6 g | 119 kcal |
Our take: stop shopping for a lower-calorie oil, because it does not exist. Across these four the whole range is 878 to 900 calories per 100 g, a 2.5% spread, and the per-tablespoon differences of 119 to 126 are mostly the declared weight of the spoon rather than the oil in it. Choose an oil for its saturated fat and its smoke point, then control the calories with the measuring spoon instead of the bottle. Switching from a free pour to a measured tablespoon saves more than switching brands ever will.
Most popular vegetable 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) |
|---|---|
| Wesson Vegetable Oil | 800 cal |
| Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil | 857 cal |
| Market Pantry Vegetable Oil | 857 cal |
| Hill Country Fare Vegetable Oil | 800 cal |
| Price First Vegetable Oil | 857 cal |
| Hannaford Vegetable Oil | 857 cal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.
Vegetable oil FAQs
How many calories are in 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil?
126 calories in one tablespoon (14 g), from 14 g of fat and nothing else. That is 18% of the Daily Value for total fat in a single spoon. Per 100 g the USDA generic oil is 900 calories, the highest figure of any food in a normal kitchen.
How many calories are in 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil?
42 calories in one teaspoon, which weighs 4.7 g. That figure is our own arithmetic from the USDA 900-per-100-g number rather than a listed USDA serving. Three teaspoons make a tablespoon, so a light drizzle over a pan of vegetables lands somewhere between 42 and 126 calories.
How many calories are in a cup of vegetable oil?
2,016 calories in one cup (224 g), the single biggest number most kitchens ever pour. That is 224 g of fat, 287% of the Daily Value, and about 30 g of saturated fat, 150% of the Daily Value. Deep frying leaves most of it in the pot rather than in the food.
Is vegetable oil the same as canola oil, calorie for calorie?
884 calories per 100 g for canola against 900 for generic vegetable oil, a difference you would need a scale to notice. Per tablespoon it is 120 versus 126, and most of that gap is spoon weight rather than oil: USDA lists canola's spoon at 13.6 g and the vegetable oil spoon at 14 g.
How much saturated fat is in vegetable oil?
1.9 g per tablespoon, or 13.37 g per 100 g, which is 9% of the FDA Daily Value of 20 g. A quarter cup used for roasting is 7.5 g, or 37%. Palm kernel oil, sold under a similar name, carries 81.5 g per 100 g instead.
Does vegetable oil have any carbs or protein?
Zero: carbohydrate, sugars, fiber and protein are all 0 g in the USDA record for vegetable oil, and sodium is 0 mg. The only rows carrying a number are calories, at 900 per 100 g, total fat, at 100 g per 100 g, and saturated fat, at 13.37 g. Oil is fat and nothing else.
Why does my bottle say 120 calories but USDA says 126?
120 versus 126 is the serving weight, not the oil. Labels that call a tablespoon 15 ml work out to about 800 calories per 100 g, while labels using 14 g land at 857. USDA's generic record is 900 per 100 g, so its 14 g tablespoon comes to 126.
How many calories does frying add to vegetables?
312 calories per 100 g is USDA's figure for potatoes french fried in vegetable oil, carrying 14.73 g of fat that was in the pan minutes earlier. One ounce of those fries is 88 calories. A tablespoon brushed on before roasting adds 126 calories, whatever is underneath it.
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 with the meal, spoon by spoon.
