The first thing a client asks me when they start logging food is “how many calories in one roti?” The answer is more useful than most articles make it — it depends mainly on weight, not whether you call it roti, chapati or phulka.
Here are real numbers from the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (NIN Hyderabad), cross-checked against the USDA FoodData Central database for the wheat flours used in Indian rotis. I've included the gram-weight of each piece because that's the variable people miss when they compare numbers across sites.
The short answer
| Bread (1 piece) | Weight | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain roti / chapati (atta, no ghee) | 40 g | 110–120 | 3.5 g | 22 g | 0.5 g |
| Roti + 1 tsp ghee brushed on top | 45 g | 155–165 | 3.5 g | 22 g | 5.5 g |
| Phulka (drier, smaller) | 30 g | 85–95 | 2.7 g | 17 g | 0.3 g |
| Plain paratha (1 tsp oil in dough + 1 tsp on tawa) | 70 g | 220–250 | 5 g | 32 g | 9 g |
| Aloo paratha (1 tbsp oil, potato stuffing) | 110 g | 280–330 | 6 g | 40 g | 11 g |
| Plain naan (maida, oven-baked) | 80 g | 240–270 | 7 g | 45 g | 4 g |
| Butter naan (restaurant-size, ghee-brushed) | 90 g | 310–340 | 7 g | 46 g | 10 g |
| Jowar / bajra roti | 40 g | 100–110 | 3 g | 21 g | 0.6 g |
| Ragi roti | 40 g | 105–115 | 2.8 g | 23 g | 0.5 g |
Why per-piece numbers vary so much online
Most articles quote “1 roti = 70 kcal” or “1 roti = 150 kcal” and both are technically correct for some roti somewhere. The variables that matter:
- Weight in grams. A small home-rolled phulka is 25–30 g. A medium roti is 40 g. A restaurant tandoori roti is 60–70 g. Calorie scales linearly with weight, so a 70 g roti has ~180 kcal — almost double a 40 g one.
- Flour type. Atta (whole-wheat) and maida (refined) have nearly identical calories per 100 g but very different fibre and glycemic load. Bajra and jowar flours are slightly lower in calories and higher in fibre.
- Added fat. A roti cooked dry is ~110 kcal at 40 g. The same roti brushed with 1 tsp ghee climbs to ~155 kcal. Most home cooks add fat by reflex and forget to count it.
- Stuffing. Plain paratha vs aloo paratha vs paneer paratha vary by 80–150 kcal each. The stuffing usually carries more calories than the bread itself.
How to estimate your roti weight without a scale
Weigh your rolled-out dough ball ONCE on any kitchen scale, then memorise the size. A 40 g dough ball rolls into a roti roughly the size of a CD (12 cm diameter). 30 g rolls to about 10 cm — closer to a phulka. 60 g rolls to about 16 cm — what you get at a tandoori restaurant.
Once you know your roti size, you can use the table above without ever weighing again.
The practical take for a fat-loss plan
On a 1,800 kcal/day cut for an Indian adult, you can comfortably fit:
- 4 rotis a day at 40 g each = 460 kcal across two main meals, leaving 1,340 kcal for dal, sabzi, paneer, curd, fruits, and a snack.
- Or 6 phulkas at 30 g each = 540 kcal spread across three meals if you eat smaller, more frequent plates.
The pattern that breaks most people's deficits isn't the roti — it's the ghee on the roti, the oil in the sabzi, and the chai-biscuit between meals. Roti is cheap calories per gram and high-fibre when it's whole-wheat. Count it, but don't fear it.
A quick word on naan
Naan is the calorie-dense outlier. It's maida (refined flour, no fibre), it uses curd or milk in the dough (adds fat), and the butter-naan version is brushed with ghee or butter on top. A single restaurant butter naan is 310–340 kcal — that's three home rotis in one piece. If you eat naan regularly at meals out, you're probably 200–400 kcal over what you think.
Numbers for plates you actually eat
| Plate | Calories |
|---|---|
| 2 plain rotis + 1 katori dal (150 g) + 1 katori sabzi (150 g) | ~470 |
| 2 ghee rotis + 1 katori paneer sabzi + 1 katori dal | ~650 |
| 1 aloo paratha + curd (150 g) + pickle | ~430 |
| 1 butter naan + paneer butter masala (200 g) | ~750 |
| 3 phulkas + 1 katori rajma + 1 katori curd | ~520 |
Bottom line
A plain home roti is around 110 kcal at 40 g. Add 45 kcal for every teaspoon of ghee. A paratha doubles the number, an aloo paratha triples it, and a restaurant butter naan is 3x a home roti. Stop guessing — weigh your dough ball once, then trust the math.
If you want your daily calorie + protein target customised to your weight, lifestyle and goal, our quick few-minute assessment gives you a coach-reviewed plan in 24–48 hours. Or use the TDEE calculator to run your calorie number yourself.