How many calories are in a roti?
A plain medium roti — about 15 cm (6 in) across, made from roughly 30 g of atta — is about 105 kcal. Plain rotis across real kitchens run from about 70 to 155 kcal, and the two things moving that figure are how big yours are and whether anything was brushed on afterwards.
Per portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small, ~25 g atta (13 cm / 5 in) | ~85 | 2.9 g | 17 g | 0.4 g |
| Medium, ~30 g atta (15 cm / 6 in) | ~105 | 3.5 g | 21 g | 0.5 g |
| Large, ~45 g atta (20 cm / 8 in) | ~155 | 5.2 g | 31 g | 0.8 g |
| Medium, brushed with 1 tsp ghee | ~150 | 3.5 g | 21 g | 5.5 g |
| Two medium, plain | ~210 | 7 g | 42 g | 1 g |
| 100 g atta (dry wholewheat flour) | ~340 | 11.5 g | 69 g | 1.7 g |
A roti is flour, water and a pinch of salt, so its calories are its flour’s calories. Weigh the atta and the rest follows.
What changes the number
Fat applied after cooking. This is the big one, and it is invisible in any app’s “1 roti” entry. A teaspoon of ghee is about 45 kcal, butter about 36 for the same 5 g, oil about 45. Brushed generously, a 105 kcal roti becomes 145–155 — 30 to 45% higher — and if you eat four of them that is a 180 kcal addition nobody logged. Half a teaspoon is still 20 kcal a roti.
Size. A roti is a disc, so area grows with the square of the diameter. At the same thickness, a 20 cm roti carries nearly 80% more dough than a 15 cm one.
Fat worked into the dough. A paratha has fat folded into layers and is cooked in more of it: 180–300 kcal each, before stuffing. A naan adds refined flour, yoghurt and usually ghee, landing at 250–350. These are not large rotis — they are different breads.
Thickness. A thin phulka and a thick homestyle roti of the same diameter can differ by half again. Thickness is a second multiplier on top of width.
Where it fits in a deficit
A cooked roti is roughly 270–300 kcal per 100 g, which puts it in the medium density band — comparable to bread, denser than rice or potatoes. The useful feature is that it portions itself: unlike a spoon of rice, a roti is a countable unit, and “three rotis” is a number you can hold in your head.
At 3.5 g of protein each, a roti is not pulling its weight on that front, so the dal, curd or paneer beside it is doing the work — worth keeping in mind if you are trying to hold protein up while calories come down.
The honest practical note: count the rotis and count the ghee separately, because only one of them is in anyone’s head. In most Indian meals the oil in the sabzi outweighs the bread anyway, so start there rather than at a third roti. Fixing the staple portion first is what holds a meal plan together, whether the staple is roti or brown rice.
Flour type matters less than people think
Per 100 g dry: atta (wholewheat) about 340 kcal, maida (refined) about 350, multigrain blends 340–360, and jowar, bajra and ragi flours 330–350. The whole spread is within about 5%.
So a millet roti is not a low-calorie roti, and neither is a multigrain one. Switching flour changes fibre, mineral content and how full it leaves you — all worthwhile, none of it a calorie saving. Any flour marketed as a weight-loss flour is being sold on something other than its energy content.
Flour, in other words, is the wrong place to hunt for savings. Size is the right one — and for how diameter, thickness and a stack of four add up across a day’s logging, see calories in a chapati, the same bread counted over a whole day. Either way, the total is what decides whether you are in a deficit.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.