Nutrition facts
Lentils: protein and calories
Lentils carry the best protein and fiber pairing in this whole set, and the highest raw-to-cooked ratio of it.
What a real portion weighs
The Anses table gives values per 100 grams, and 100 grams is not a portion anybody serves. Here are the same values, applied to the portions as they turn up. Weights are in grams, the unit the table is built on. For a quick conversion: 1 oz is about 28 g, and 1 lb is about 454 g.
| Portion | Weight | Energy | Protein | Carbs | Fat | Fiber |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A cooked serving · about 61 g of dry lentils | 160 g | 200 kcal | 16.2 g | 25.9 g | 0.9 g | 13.5 g |
| 60 g of dry lentils, once cooked · the usual dose per person | 157 g | 196 kcal | 15.9 g | 25.4 g | 0.9 g | 13.3 g |
| A large cooked serving · as a main course | 220 g | 275 kcal | 22.2 g | 35.6 g | 1.3 g | 18.6 g |
| The Ciqual reference · boiled in water | 100 g | 125 kcal | 10.1 g | 16.2 g | 0.6 g | 8.5 g |
Where these weights come from. The dry-to-cooked ratio is about 2.62 for lentils, taken from the table by dividing the energy of dry lentils by that of cooked lentils. It is the highest ratio of this set: the pulse takes on more water than rice or pasta.
Composition per 100 grams
Lentil, boiled/cooked in water (average)
- Energy
- 125 kcal
- Protein
- 10.1 g
- Carbohydrate
- 16.2 g
- of which sugars
- 0.2 g
- Fat
- 0.6 g
- Fiber
- 8.5 g
- Sodium
- 6 mg
What a table of values does not say
- Fiber is the remarkable line here: no other food in this set carries as much at equal cooked weight.
- Green, blond and red lentils are separate lines of the table, with real gaps on fiber and on cooking time.
- A plant protein does not compare term for term with an animal one: the quality of an amino acid profile is read in other tables than this one.
What comes after the number
How much to eat in a day
A portion means nothing without the day that holds it. A calorie need is worked out from height, weight, age and activity level, then split into protein, carbohydrate and fat.
Calorie calculatorWhere body build sits
Body mass index, the full WHO classification, and the weight range matching a normal build for a given height.
BMI calculatorAn average weight is an estimate. A photo is not.
In Zemiam, a photo of the meal is enough to log the real portion, with the composition of this same table rather than a guessed figure.
Where the values come from
The composition comes from the Anses Ciqual table: Anses. 2025. Table de composition nutritionnelle des aliments Ciqual, published under Licence Ouverte 2.0. The per-100 g values are reproduced without being altered; the per-portion values are those same values multiplied by a weight, and that weight is not an Anses figure.
The same page in French: Protéines et calories des lentilles.