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Ground beef calories by lean percentage

Raw 80/20 ground beef is 254 calories per 100 g. Raw 93/7 is 152 — a 40% saving. Cook both and the gap narrows sharply, because a good deal of the fat you paid for ends up in the pan rather than on the plate.

Cooking raises the protein figure and drops the fat

80/20 goes from 17.2 g of protein per 100 g raw to 24.0 g cooked, while fat falls from 20.0 g to 15.9 g. Both moves are the same event: water and rendered fat leave, so what remains is denser in protein and, unusually, lighter in fat than the raw ratio implies. Ground beef is the one common food where cooking genuinely removes calories from the food rather than just concentrating them.

How much depends entirely on whether you drain the pan. USDA’s cooked records are for patties, where the fat runs off. If you brown mince for a sauce and tip the whole pan in, the fat is still in your dinner and the raw figures are closer to the truth.

What the lean percentage actually buys

Per 100 g raw, 93/7 gives you 3.7 g more protein for 102 fewer calories. If you are tracking protein against a calorie ceiling, that is one of the largest swaps available in a supermarket, and it costs the flavor fat provides. Which matters more depends on whether the meat is the meal or an ingredient in one.

The 4 oz question

4 oz is 113 g. Raw 80/20 at that weight is 287 calories; raw 93/7 is 172. A quarter-pound patty is sold by raw weight and eaten at roughly 75% of it, which is why the cooked patty on your plate is nearer 85 g.

Source: USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy release 2018-04. Figures are per 100 g as published; serving weights are USDA’s own. Records used: Beef, ground, 80% lean meat / 20% fat, raw (FDC 174036), Beef, ground, 80% lean meat / 20% fat, patty, cooked, pan-broiled (FDC 171798), Beef, ground, 93% lean meat / 7% fat, raw (FDC 173110), Beef, ground, 93% lean meat / 7% fat, patty, cooked, broiled (FDC 174752).

Common questions

Raw 80/20 is 254 calories and raw 93/7 is 152. Cooked as a drained patty, 80/20 is 246 and 93/7 is 193.

Yes, and it is one of the few cases where cooking genuinely removes energy from the food. USDA’s cooked patty records show fat falling from 20.0 g to 15.9 g per 100 g for 80/20.

Per 100 g raw it gives 3.7 g more protein for 102 fewer calories than 80/20. If you are working to a calorie ceiling that is a large swap; if the fat is carrying the flavor of the dish, less so.

Raw if you are keeping the pan juices, cooked if you drained them. The difference is the rendered fat, and only you know where it went.

Compare it with

All twenty-four are on the food macros index.