How many calories are in olive oil?
A level tablespoon of olive oil (about 13.5 g) is roughly 120 kcal, a teaspoon is about 40 kcal, and 100 g is around 880 kcal. Every cooking oil is close to 9 kcal per gram — sunflower, mustard, rapeseed, groundnut, olive — so which oil you choose changes the composition of the fat and almost nothing about the energy. What changes the energy is how much leaves the bottle.
Per portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon (4.5 g) | ~40 kcal | 0 g | 0 g | 4.5 g |
| 1 level tablespoon (13.5 g) | ~120 kcal | 0 g | 0 g | 13.5 g |
| Drizzle to finish a dish (5 g) | ~45 kcal | 0 g | 0 g | 5 g |
| One-second spray (about 1 g) | ~9 kcal | 0 g | 0 g | 1 g |
| Dressing for a salad for two (25 g) | ~220 kcal | 0 g | 0 g | 25 g |
| Free-hand pour into a frying pan (20–45 g) | 180–400 kcal | 0 g | 0 g | 20–45 g |
| 100 ml (about 92 g) | ~810 kcal | 0 g | 0 g | 92 g |
| 100 g | ~880 kcal | 0 g | 0 g | 100 g |
What changes the number
The pour. A measured tablespoon is 13.5 g. The same person pouring from the bottle into a hot pan usually puts in two to three times that, because what is being judged is coverage of the pan, not quantity. Two free pours a day instead of two measured spoons is 250 to 500 kcal, and it is the number most often missing from home cooking.
Grade: nothing at all. Extra virgin, virgin, refined, pomace and cold-pressed are all about 880 kcal per 100 g; what differs is flavour, acidity, polyphenols and smoke point.
What the food does with it. Oil in the pan is not always oil on the plate, but with small quantities most of it ends up in the food. Aubergine, potatoes, bread and anything battered take up a great deal; deep-fried food absorbs something like 5–15% of its weight in oil, so the cooking medium often carries more calories than the ingredient.
Where the dressing ends up. Oil poured over leaves mostly clings to them; whisked into a vinaigrette and tossed, a share stays in the bowl. Dressing served on the side reliably means less is eaten.
Millilitres against grams. 100 ml of oil weighs about 92 g, because oil is lighter than water — the one place in the kitchen where the two units are not interchangeable.
Where it fits in a deficit
Oil sits at the very top of the density ladder, with no protein, fibre or water, so it does nothing for fullness per calorie. What it does is make vegetables worth eating, which is not a small contribution to anyone’s meal planning.
The useful habit is to make it a number rather than a pour: a spoon, a spray, or a measured amount in a jar for the week. Cutting a cooking pour from 35 g to 13 g twice a day is roughly 400 kcal, larger than most people’s whole calorie deficit, with nothing removed from the plate. It is worth setting against your own target. Honey has the same weakness for the same reason: anything poured free-hand is unmeasured by design.
Does “light” olive oil have fewer calories?
No. “Light” and “extra light” describe colour and flavour after refining, not energy. Those bottles are the same 880 kcal per 100 g as the greenest extra virgin on the shelf, and olive oil sold as a spray is lower per serving only because the serving is a gram.
The case for olive oil was never about calories, and the two arguments get mixed up in the aisle. It is a composition argument: mostly monounsaturated fat, polyphenols in the unrefined grades, and a dietary pattern with as much supporting evidence as any. That is a good reason to choose it over another fat, and no reason to count it differently. Coconut oil and ghee are 9 kcal per gram too, as is the cheapest sunflower oil on the shelf.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.