How many calories are in a carrot?
A medium carrot — about 60 g — is roughly 25 kcal. Raw carrot runs about 41 kcal per 100 g, a little above most leafy vegetables and well under half the density of fruit. The sugar it is forever accused of carrying comes to about a teaspoon per 100 g.
Per portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 medium carrot (60 g) | ~25 kcal | 0.6 g | 6 g | 0.1 g |
| 1 large carrot (100 g) | ~41 kcal | 0.9 g | 10 g | 0.2 g |
| 100 g boiled, sliced | ~35 kcal | 0.8 g | 8 g | 0.2 g |
| 1 cup chopped raw (130 g) | ~55 kcal | 1.2 g | 13 g | 0.3 g |
| 10 baby carrots (85 g) | ~30 kcal | 0.7 g | 7 g | 0.2 g |
| 100 g raw, roasted in 1 tsp oil | ~80 kcal | 0.9 g | 10 g | 4.5 g |
| 240 ml carrot juice | ~95 kcal | 2 g | 22 g | 0.4 g |
| 150 g gajar ka halwa | 350–500 kcal | 6 g | 45 g | 20 g |
What changes the number
Boiling and steaming barely move it. Boiled carrot reads slightly lower per 100 g, near 35 kcal, because it takes on water and leaches a little sugar into it. Roasting works the other way: water evaporates, each remaining gram is more concentrated, and 100 g of roast carrot sits nearer 55–65 kcal before anything is added to the tray.
What gets added. A tablespoon of oil over a roasting tray is about 120 kcal however thinly it spreads. A honey or butter glaze adds 50–100 kcal to a side dish. Juicing removes the fibre and delivers the sugar of three carrots in a glass that takes a minute to drink.
Gajar ka halwa is a different food. Carrots cooked down in full-fat milk with ghee, sugar and often khoya run 230–320 kcal per 100 g, so a modest 150 g bowl is 350–500 kcal. Perhaps a tenth of that is carrot. It is worth naming separately, because “carrots” and “carrot halwa” differ by more than tenfold.
Variety and size, hardly at all. Purple, yellow, Nantes and thick desi carrots sit within a few kilocalories of each other. Size matters more: a “medium” carrot in practice runs 50–80 g, making the honest range for one carrot 20–35 kcal.
Raw versus cooked does change one thing, and it is not energy. Heat breaks down cell walls and makes beta-carotene substantially more available, and because carotenoids are fat-soluble, a little oil in the pan improves absorption again. That is a nutritional argument for cooking carrots with fat, not a calorie one — the fat still counts in full.
Where it fits in a deficit
Cheap volume with real chewing. A 300 g bowl of carrot sticks takes ten minutes to work through and costs about 125 kcal, which is the arithmetic behind every list of high-volume foods and what makes a calorie deficit easier to hold. Fibre is around 2.8 g per 100 g — more than watery vegetables manage, so the fullness lasts longer than it does with tomato or cucumber.
Protein is the gap: under 1 g per 100 g. Carrots belong next to something protein-dense rather than in place of it. And raw carrot is a grazing food, which cuts both ways — a bag of baby carrots open on a desk is 150 kcal of absent-minded eating, not nothing.
The “carrots are high in sugar” claim
Carrots carry about 4.7 g of sugar per 100 g, roughly a teaspoon, and a medium carrot holds under 3 g. An apple of the same weight has more than twice that, a banana about two and a half times. On the numbers, carrot is one of the lowest-sugar sweet-tasting foods there is.
The claim usually arrives attached to glycaemic index, where cooked carrot does score high. That figure is measured on a 50 g carbohydrate portion — about 500 g of carrots, three large ones eaten at once. Glycaemic load, which accounts for the portion anyone actually eats, is very low. Spinach is lower still, and the practical difference between them is nil.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.