How many calories are in bacon?
Bacon has 88 calories per 2 slices cooked (16 g) — that's 548 calories per 100 g, roughly 4% of a 2,000-calorie day. Most of those calories come from fat.
USDA FoodData Central · cured pork, cooked · FDC 167914
Calories by portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 slices cooked (16 g) | 88 | 5.7 g | 0.2 g | 6.9 g |
| 100 g | 548 | 35.7 g | 1.4 g | 43.3 g |
| 1 oz (28 g) | 155 | 10.1 g | 0.4 g | 12.3 g |
Where the calories come from
Protein 27% Carbs 1% Fat 72%
Calories computed from USDA per-100 g data (FDC 167914, SR Legacy). cured pork, cooked. The macro split uses general Atwater factors (protein and carbs ≈ 4 cal/g, fat ≈ 9 cal/g) and is approximate.
Bacon is the textbook example of a per-100g number scaring people off a perfectly small serving. On paper it reads 548 calories per 100 g — one of the higher figures in the fridge — and that’s the number that fuels “bacon is so caloric” worry. But nobody eats 100 g of bacon. That’s roughly 12 or more cooked slices. A real serving is 2 thin slices (about 16 g cooked), and that lands at just ~88 calories. The concentration is high; the portion is tiny, and calories follow the portion.
Why the big number overstates it
Per-100g values let you line foods up on a level field, but they quietly assume you’ll eat 100 g of everything — and with cooked bacon that assumption collapses, because a single thin strip is only a handful of grams. So the density looks alarming while the serving is small. Two slices cost about 88 calories; even a hearty helping of three or four thin slices tops out around 130–175. The place the math turns on you is thickness: thick-cut slices weigh roughly double, so four of them can quietly reach 300–350 calories. The slice count fools you — it’s the weight on the plate that sets the calories.
Where the calories come from
Almost all of it is fat. Run bacon through the standard Atwater factors and it’s roughly 70% fat calories — about 43 g of fat per 100 g, a big share of it saturated — with protein making up most of the remainder and essentially no carbohydrate. Fat carries 9 calories a gram against 4 for protein, which is exactly why a light, thin, crispy food still adds up fast by weight. That same fat is why two slices feel satisfying out of proportion to their size. None of this makes a couple of slices a problem; the calories that get people are usually the butter, the bigger portion, and the calorie-dense plate bacon sits on, not the bacon itself.
The practical move is to treat bacon as a small, fat-forward flavor accent — a slice or two beside eggs — and let the rest of the plate carry the meal. For the protein side of the same strip, and why that high per-100g protein figure misleads too, see protein in bacon.
Packaged bacon options, graded
Prefer something off the shelf? Here are the best-graded bacon in our catalog — each scored on our transparent Labelgrade. Check the calorie line on each label for your goal.
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Labelgrade 57/100 · 60 cal · 3 g protein
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many calories are in 2 slices of bacon?
About 88 calories for two thin cooked slices (~16 g), based on 548 calories per 100 g (USDA FDC 167914). Most of those calories are fat — roughly 7 g of it — which is what makes bacon calorie-dense by weight even though a real serving is small.
Why does bacon show 548 calories per 100 g if a serving is so small?
Because 100 g of cooked bacon is roughly 12 or more slices — a portion almost nobody eats. The per-100g figure is high because bacon is fat-forward, but it badly overstates what your actual two- or three-slice serving costs. Anchor on the real portion (~88 calories for two slices), not the 100 g column.
Where do the calories in bacon come from?
Overwhelmingly fat. By Atwater factors, cooked bacon is roughly 70% fat calories — about 43 g of fat per 100 g, much of it saturated — with protein making up most of the rest and almost no carbohydrate. Fat carries 9 calories a gram versus 4 for protein, which is why a light, thin food still racks up calories quickly.
How many calories are in 3 or 4 slices of bacon?
Thin slices run about 44 calories each, so three or four land near 130–175 calories — but thick-cut slices weigh roughly double, pushing four of them toward 300–350. Weight is what drives the number, so a hearty thick-cut helping costs far more than the slice count suggests.
Is bacon fattening?
A couple of slices (~88 calories) won't derail anything — the issue is rarely the bacon itself, it's the butter, the larger portions and the calorie-dense plate it rides on. Treat bacon as a small, fat-forward flavor accent rather than a main, and the calories stay modest.
When was this data last verified?
2026-06-18, against USDA FoodData Central FDC 167914 (Pork, cured, bacon, cooked; SR Legacy). We re-verify reference pages periodically and update when USDA revises its reference data.
Whole-food values are USDA reference data, not a Labelgrade (that score is for branded packaged products). See our methodology and the TDEE calculator to turn this into a daily target.