Potato and weight loss: the cooking matters more than the potato

105 kcal in 1 medium potato, about 150 g.
2.3 g protein per serving, from IFCT 2017.
Weigh-it carb on a plate built to lose fat and keep muscle.

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Potato fits a weight-loss plan when it is boiled, roasted or in a sabzi, and counted as your carbohydrate. One medium potato (150 g) gives 105 kcal and 22.3 g of carbohydrate with 2.6 g of fibre. It is the frying, not the potato, that turns it into a problem.

Medical review by a registered doctor on our panel is pending. Every number is from IFCT 2017, the Indian Food Composition Tables published by ICMR's National Institute of Nutrition.

Published 18 October 2026 · Last updated 18 October 2026

Potato nutrition, per serving and per 100 g

Potato: IFCT 2017 figures
Nutrient	Per serving	Per 100 g
Energy	105 kcal	70 kcal
Protein	2.3 g	1.5 g
Carbohydrate (available)	22.3 g	14.9 g
Dietary fibre	2.6 g	1.7 g
Fat	0.3 g	0.2 g

Serving: 1 medium potato, about 150 g. IFCT 2017 food code F006, "Potato, brown skin, big (Solanum tuberosum)", the mean of 6 regions sampled. IFCT does not report glycaemic index, so this page prints none.

The verdict on potato

Weigh-it carb

Fits in a weighed portion, counted as the meal's carbohydrate.

2.2 g of protein for every 100 kcal.
One serving gives 2.3 g of the roughly 58 g of protein a day ICMR-NIN's RDA sets for a 70 kg adult.
2.6 g of fibre in a serving.

How potato fits a plan that loses fat and keeps muscle

IFCT 2017 lists a big brown-skin potato at 70 kcal per 100 g raw, because it is mostly water. Gram for gram that is a fraction of rice or atta, so a boiled potato is a filling, moderate-calorie starch.

Treat potato as the grain of that meal rather than a vegetable on top of a full plate of rice. Aloo in a mixed sabzi with beans and peas, beside dal and one roti, is a balanced plate. Glycaemic index is often asked; IFCT does not report it, so plan by the carbohydrate per potato.

Potato in an Indian kitchen

Boil or steam potatoes in their skins, which keeps more of their fibre and stops them soaking up water. Jeera aloo made with a teaspoon of oil, or aloo mixed into a sabzi of beans, peas or cauliflower, keeps the portion in check. Potatoes cooked and cooled before reheating form some resistant starch. Deep-fried forms, chips, fries, aloo tikki and samosa, hold several times the calories of a boiled potato. If you eat aloo at a meal, leave out the second roti.

Pair it, or swap it

Boiled potato in a chana chaat, or aloo-gobhi with dal and a roti, keeps the plate balanced. Cooling boiled potatoes before using them in a salad changes some of the starch into a slower kind.

Worth knowing

Chips, fries, aloo tikki and samosa absorb oil, often doubling or tripling the calories. Mashed potato with butter and cream is a different dish.

Potato against similar foods

Per 100 g, IFCT 2017
Food	Energy	Protein	Fibre
Potato	70 kcal	1.5 g	1.7 g
Sweet potato	109 kcal	1.3 g	4 g
Potato, small	61 kcal	1.4 g	1.7 g
White rice, raw	356 kcal	7.9 g	2.8 g

Potato: questions people ask

What is the glycaemic index of potato?

IFCT 2017 does not report glycaemic index, so we do not print one. A medium potato holds 22.3 g of carbohydrate.

Can I eat potato while losing weight?

Yes, boiled or in a sabzi, counted as the meal's carbohydrate. A medium potato gives about 105 kcal per IFCT 2017.

Is potato worse than rice?

Per 100 g raw, potato has far fewer calories than rice because it is mostly water. Cooked portions are what to compare, and frying is what to avoid.

Sources

[1] Longvah T, Ananthan R, Bhaskarachary K, Venkaiah K. Indian Food Composition Tables 2017
National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR), Hyderabad, 2017. Table 1, Proximate Principles and Dietary Fibre: energy, protein, fat, available carbohydrate and dietary fibre per 100 g edible portion, the mean of the regions sampled. Every figure on this page comes from it.
Read the source
[2] ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. Dietary Guidelines for Indians
ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad, 2024. Recommends combining cereals with pulses in a 3:1 ratio for protein quality, meeting vegetarian protein needs from pulses, beans and milk, keeping added sugar under 5% of energy and salt to 5 g a day, and slow, steady weight reduction.
Read the source
[3] ICMR-NIN Expert Group on Nutrient Requirements for Indians. Recommended Dietary Allowances and Estimated Average Requirements
ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad (brief note), 2020. Sets the protein RDA for healthy Indian adults at 0.83 g per kg of body weight a day, and 1 g per kg for people on a cereal-based diet with lower-quality protein.
Read the source
[4] Wycherley TP, et al. Effects of energy-restricted high-protein, low-fat compared with standard-protein, low-fat diets: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2012. In energy-restricted trials, higher-protein diets produced slightly greater fat loss and better preservation of fat-free mass than standard-protein diets.
Read the source
[5] Shukla AP, et al. Food Order Has a Significant Impact on Postprandial Glucose and Insulin Levels
Diabetes Care, 2015. Eating vegetables and protein before carbohydrate in the same meal produced lower post-meal glucose and insulin than the reverse order, in a small crossover study.
Read the source

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