How many calories are in mutton?
100 g (3.5 oz) of raw goat meat — what “mutton” means across most of India — is about 110 kcal, with roughly 21 g of protein and 2–3 g of fat. Cooked plain, around 145 kcal per 100 g. If a figure you found online says 250, it was lamb.
Per portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 g (3.5 oz) raw goat meat, lean cut | ~110 kcal | 21 g | 0 g | 2–3 g |
| 100 g goat meat, cooked plain | ~145 kcal | 27 g | 0 g | 3 g |
| 100 g raw lamb, trimmed leg | ~195 kcal | 18 g | 0 g | 13 g |
| 100 g raw lamb shoulder or mince, untrimmed | 250–290 kcal | 16 g | 0 g | 22–25 g |
| Home mutton curry, 150 g goat plus 2 tbsp oil | 450–550 kcal | 31 g | 6–10 g | 30–40 g |
| Restaurant korma or rogan josh, one portion | 600–850 kcal | 30–35 g | 10–20 g | 45–60 g |
What changes the number
Goat or lamb — settle this first. Goat carries very little intramuscular fat, around 2–3%, against 13% in trimmed lamb leg and over 20% in shoulder or fatty mince. Protein is similar, so nearly all the gap is fat. Most nutrition databases file “mutton” under sheep; in British usage it means a sheep over two years old, fattier still. The word decides the number before the cooking.
The cut, and the trimming. Leg, shank and lean curry cuts sit at the bottom; ribs, chaamp, shoulder and fatty keema at the top. Trimming visible fat before cooking is not cosmetic: a tablespoon’s worth is over 100 kcal, and in a slow cook it renders into the gravy rather than staying on the bone.
The oil, which usually outweighs the meat. A home curry often starts with two or three tablespoons of oil or ghee: 240–360 kcal before any meat goes in. Restaurant versions add cream, cashew paste and a ghee tadka. The layer of oil floating on a rogan josh is not decoration; skimming it is the largest single cut available.
Where it fits in a deficit
Goat is a genuinely lean red meat. Cooked, it gives roughly 19 g of protein per 100 kcal, near chicken breast and well ahead of most lamb or beef — better than its reputation, and better than most people assume when building a diet around Indian food. Eating it off the bone is also slow, which helps.
The problem is never the meat; it is the medium. A 150 g portion is about 220 kcal plain and 500 in a standard curry, with rice or roti alongside. On a mutton day, keep the portion honest and let the total sit nearer your maintenance figure than the deficit you usually run, rather than pretending the gravy is free. Against fish or prawns it costs two to three times the calories for the same protein: fine occasionally, expensive weekly.
A kilo of mutton is not a kilo of meat
Mutton is sold bone-in almost everywhere. A kilogram of curry cut yields roughly 600–700 g of edible meat, bonier mixes less. So a 1 kg curry for four is about 160 g of meat each, not 250, and the meat calories are lower than the purchase weight suggests.
That cuts both ways: the oil was measured against the full kilogram, so per gram of actual meat the gravy is richer than it looks. In nalli and paya the bone renders fat into the dish during the long cook, which is why those taste richer than the meat alone would explain.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.