Buying guide
How many calories and how much sugar is actually in honey?
How many calories are in a tablespoon of honey?
One tablespoon of honey (about 21g) is 64 calories, with 17.3g of carbohydrate and 17.2g of sugar, per USDA FoodData Central. Scaled to 100g, honey runs about 304 calories. It carries no fibre, essentially no protein, and no fat — the calories are almost entirely sugar.
Honey gets described as "natural" often enough that the actual sugar content is easy to lose track of. The numbers below are from USDA's public nutrition database, the same reference nutrition labels are built from, not from any honey brand's own marketing — including ours.
Honey nutrition per serving
USDA FoodData Central — honey, per common serving sizes
1 tsp (~7g)
- Calories
- ~21 kcal
- Carbohydrate
- ~5.8g
- Sugar
- ~5.7g
- Protein / fat / fibre
- 0g / 0g / 0g
1 tbsp (~21g)
- Calories
- 64 kcal
- Carbohydrate
- 17.3g
- Sugar
- 17.2g
- Protein / fat / fibre
- 0.1g / 0g / 0g
100g
- Calories
- ~304 kcal
- Carbohydrate
- ~82g
- Sugar
- ~82g
- Protein / fat / fibre
- ~0.3g / 0g / 0g
| Serving | Calories | Carbohydrate | Sugar | Protein / fat / fibre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tsp (~7g) | ~21 kcal | ~5.8g | ~5.7g | 0g / 0g / 0g |
| 1 tbsp (~21g) | 64 kcal | 17.3g | 17.2g | 0.1g / 0g / 0g |
| 100g | ~304 kcal | ~82g | ~82g | ~0.3g / 0g / 0g |
Is honey mostly sugar?
Yes, by weight. Of a tablespoon's 17.3g of carbohydrate, 17.2g is sugar — essentially all of the carbohydrate in honey is sugar, mainly a mix of fructose and glucose with small amounts of other sugars. Honey carries no dietary fibre and effectively no protein or fat, so unlike a food with a mixed nutrient profile, its calories are almost entirely from sugar.
How does a tablespoon of honey compare to a tablespoon of white sugar?
A tablespoon of granulated white sugar (about 12.5g) is roughly 48 calories and about 12.6g of sugar — lower than honey's 64 calories and 17.2g. That is not because honey is somehow "worse": a tablespoon is a volume measure, and honey is denser and pours heavier than dry sugar crystals, so a spoon of it is simply more grams of substance. Weighed gram for gram rather than spoon for spoon, the two are far closer — see honey vs sugar: what actually separates them for that fuller comparison.
How does this fit into a daily sugar allowance?
Public-health guidance sets a ceiling on total added and free sugar per day from every source combined, not a honey-specific limit. One tablespoon of honey's 17.2g of sugar is a meaningful share of that whole-day number on its own — see how much honey is a safe daily amount for the WHO figure this fits inside, and how it compares to other sources of added sugar in a typical day.
How does a spoon of honey compare to other everyday sweeteners?
Most sweeteners land in a similar range once measured by the same USDA-style reference data — a tablespoon of maple syrup runs close to honey's 64 calories, and a tablespoon of gula melaka (palm sugar) sits in the same rough band once accounted for by weight rather than volume. None of them is dramatically lower in calories or sugar than the others; the differences that matter for most kitchens are flavour, texture and how a specific recipe behaves, which is why honey vs gula melaka is answered separately from this page rather than folded into it.
See the numbers, then check the ingredient list
These figures are USDA reference data for honey as a substance. SUBUR is a ten-ingredient comb blend — see what's actually in the jar before working out how it fits your own diet.
See the full ingredient listFrequently asked questions
How many calories are in a tablespoon of honey?
64 calories, per USDA FoodData Central, for a standard tablespoon of about 21g. That serving carries 17.3g of carbohydrate and 17.2g of sugar.
How many calories are in 100g of honey?
Approximately 304 calories, scaling the same USDA per-gram ratio used for the tablespoon figure. Honey has no significant protein or fat content at any serving size.
Is honey high in sugar?
Yes. Of a tablespoon's 17.3g of carbohydrate, 17.2g is sugar — essentially all of honey's carbohydrate content is sugar, with no dietary fibre to offset it.
Does honey have more calories than sugar?
Per tablespoon, yes — honey (64 kcal) has more than white sugar (about 48 kcal), because honey is denser and a tablespoon of it weighs more than a tablespoon of dry sugar crystals. Gram for gram the two are much closer. See <a href="/en/blog/honey-vs-sugar-which-is-healthier/">honey vs sugar: what actually separates them</a>.
Do these numbers apply to SUBUR specifically?
These figures are USDA reference data for honey as a substance generally. SUBUR is a comb-and-nut blend with ten named ingredients, and its own full nutrition panel is not published here — this page reports what honey itself contains, not a brand-specific figure.
Does honey have any fibre or protein?
Essentially none. USDA data lists honey at roughly 0.3g protein per 100g and no measurable dietary fibre or fat — its nutritional content is almost entirely carbohydrate in the form of sugar.
