How many calories are in a pomegranate?
A cup of pomegranate arils — about 174 g (6 oz) — is roughly 145 kcal. That works out at 83 kcal per 100 g, which is high for a fresh fruit, and the reason is structural: you eat the seed as well as the juice around it.
Per portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tbsp arils, ~11 g | ~9 kcal | 0.2 g | 2 g | 0.1 g |
| Half a cup, ~87 g | ~72 kcal | 1.5 g | 17 g | 1 g |
| 1 cup arils, ~174 g | ~145 kcal | 3 g | 33 g | 2 g |
| 100 g (3.5 oz) arils | ~83 kcal | 1.7 g | 19 g | 1.2 g |
| Medium fruit’s arils, ~200 g | ~165 kcal | 3.4 g | 38 g | 2.4 g |
| Large fruit’s arils, ~280 g | ~230 kcal | 4.8 g | 53 g | 3.4 g |
| 250 ml (8 fl oz) juice | ~135 kcal | 0.4 g | 33 g | 0.2 g |
About 4 g per 100 g is fibre, so a cup carries roughly 7 g — high for fruit, and nearly all of it the seeds themselves.
What changes the number
Not the cooking, because there isn’t any. Arils are eaten raw: no oil, no roasting loss, no preparation variable. The figure is stable and the portion is the only question.
Yield, which is the real variable. A whole pomegranate is 40–60% arils by weight, depending on the thickness of rind and membrane. “One pomegranate” can mean 120 g of arils or 280 g — 100 to 230 kcal. State the aril weight, not the fruit.
Whether you spit the seeds. The seed carries the fat and most of the fibre; the juice sac around it carries the sugar. Spitting lowers the total a little and the fibre a lot, which is the wrong trade.
Molasses and dressings. Pomegranate molasses is a reduction — roughly 290 kcal per 100 g, so a tablespoon over a salad is about 45 kcal.
Juice. A 250 ml glass is about 135 kcal with no fibre, more than a whole medium fruit’s worth of arils drunk in under a minute.
Where it fits in a deficit
83 kcal per 100 g puts pomegranate at the dense end of the fruit bowl — nearly triple strawberries at 32, and above grapes at 69. It is still fruit and still cheap against most snacks, but a bowl of arils is not the free volume that low-density foods give you.
Honest note on the protein: 3 g a cup is the best in the fruit bowl and still too small to count. The 2 g of fat is simply why the number sits where it does.
Deseeding as accidental portion control
Getting the arils out takes ten minutes, a bowl of water, a knife and usually a stained shirt. That friction is the only thing standing between you and 230 kcal, and it works: almost nobody deseeds a second fruit in one sitting.
Ready-prepared tubs remove the brake. A 150 g tub is about 125 kcal and takes a minute with a spoon — half a large fruit’s calories without the work that used to end the portion. Not a reason to avoid them, only to know what you are buying.
The portion where pomegranate earns its place is the scatter: a tablespoon or two over yoghurt or a grain bowl, 10–20 kcal, for colour rather than volume. Eaten by the bowl it is a 200 kcal item that needs budgeting like any other. A calorie deficit does not care that it arrived as fruit, and planning a day around it is easier once you have weighed a cup and know what it looks like.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.