How many calories are in a donut?
A plain ring doughnut — donut, if you prefer — is about 200 kcal and a glazed one about 250. Filled and iced — jam, custard or cream — is 300–450 kcal. Deep-fried dough is dense before anything is added to it, and almost everything that happens after frying adds more.
Per portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini doughnut (18 g) | ~80 kcal | 1 g | 9 g | 4 g |
| Plain cake ring (50 g) | ~200 kcal | 2.5 g | 23 g | 11 g |
| Sugared ring (55 g) | ~230 kcal | 2.5 g | 28 g | 12 g |
| Glazed yeast ring (60 g) | ~250 kcal | 3 g | 31 g | 13 g |
| Jam-filled (85 g) | ~300 kcal | 4 g | 38 g | 15 g |
| Chocolate-iced ring with sprinkles (70 g) | ~300 kcal | 3 g | 36 g | 16 g |
| Cream or custard filled and iced (110 g) | ~400–450 kcal | 4 g | 48 g | 22 g |
| Box of six, mixed | ~1,700–2,000 kcal | — | — | — |
What changes the number
The oil the dough takes up. A doughnut absorbs roughly 8–12% of its weight in frying oil. On a 60 g ring that is 5–7 g of fat, or 45–65 kcal, and it does not drain back out. Oil below temperature lets it soak up more, which is why a home-fried batch often comes out heavier than a commercial one. Baked doughnuts skip the step entirely and run 300–340 kcal per 100 g against 400–440 fried.
Yeast or cake. Yeast-raised rings are airy, so a large-looking one may weigh only 55–60 g. Cake-type doughnuts are denser, so a ring of the same diameter weighs 70–80 g and comes in 30–60 kcal higher.
Glaze and filling. A sugar glaze is 30–60 kcal, chocolate icing 60–90, jam 40–60, and custard or whipped cream 80–150. “Filled and iced” is the phrase that roughly doubles a plain ring.
Size. Market and bakery doughnuts weigh 110–150 g, against 50–60 g for a supermarket ring. Same word, twice the food.
Where it fits in a deficit
At about 420 kcal per 100 g with no water to speak of, 3–4 g of protein and no fibre, a doughnut is a dessert carrying the energy of a light meal, and it is dense food by any measure. It will not hold you until lunch.
The useful version of that is arithmetic rather than advice. One doughnut is 250–400 kcal; against a 500 kcal daily target from a deficit calculator, that is most of the day’s margin, and it fits perfectly well if it is the thing you planned to spend it on. Two with coffee, on a day you had not planned for either, is where a calorie deficit quietly disappears. The free box in an office kitchen is the real hazard, not the doughnut.
In biscuits, for calibration
Doughnuts and biscuits occupy the same slot — the thing next to the coffee — and get judged by the same standard, which is wrong by a factor of three or four. A glazed ring is about three and a half digestives. A jam-filled one is four. A cream-filled, iced doughnut is six or seven, which puts it past a 100 g slice of cake.
The compensation runs the other way, though, and it matters. A doughnut is one obvious unit with a clear end. Nobody eats four of them without noticing; a great many people eat six biscuits without noticing at all. Per episode, the doughnut is often the more controlled choice even though it is the bigger number — which is worth knowing if you have been swapping to biscuits on the assumption that smaller means less.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.