Feast Get Feast
Menu

Portions and preparation · USDA nutrition

Bitter melon calories per cup: 53–72 across all 2 named USDA examples

Across all 2 named USDA examples, a cup contains 53–72 calories. Their listed weights span 128–130 g, so each calorie value is calculated from that example's own gram weight and published calories per 100 g.

Portion calculator

Estimate your portion

Choose a source measure or enter the weight you ate.

Preparation and portion

Named measures come from this exact source record.

Estimated for 65 g

27calories

Bitter melon, cooked

Protein
0.5 g
Carbs
2.7 g
Fat
1.8 g

These values scale the selected reference food by weight. Ingredients, preparation, and portion size can change your meal’s estimate.

FoodData Central Survey Foods (FNDDS) · FDC 2709878 Full nutrition profile →

Compare all 2 food records, nutrition tables and USDA sources

The 2 exact records in this guide report 27–36 calories in the records' own listed source servings and 41–56 calories per 100 grams. Those are observations from named database records—not a universal range or an estimate of an unseen plate.

Match my meal

Start with the description closest to what you ate

For Bitter melon, begin by separating “Bitter melon, cooked” from “Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked.” Choosing a card filters this source set; it does not infer the portion or fill in ingredients the chosen description does not name.

Showing all 2 linked records.

Equal-weight view

How bitter melon records compare at 100 grams

All 2 cited records are shown at the same 100-gram weight. The source servings may differ.

  1. Bitter melon, cooked 41 kcal
    41 kcal
  2. Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked 56 kcal
    56 kcal

Shared basis: 100 g · kilocalories

What this page compares

Named source records, not one universal meal

This guide keeps 2 named USDA records in view: 2 direct matches. They span 2 source categories, including Other vegetables and combinations and Other dark green vegetables. The exact descriptions remain the unit of comparison; the familiar heading is only the doorway into the evidence.

Why these records appear together: The deterministic grouping rule “normalized first description segment” placed these 2 records together under the exact grouping key “bitter melon.” That rule determines membership before any nutrition result is read.

For Bitter melon, this page can compare 2 named records from FDC 2709878 through FDC 2709641. It cannot observe which preparation was eaten, recover unnamed additions, or supply the eaten grams.

Read the shared calculation, provenance, and uncertainty method →

Editor’s decision brief

The three facts to carry into the table

Carry the denominator, exact identity, and strongest observed contrast into every number below.

Portion

64–65 g before composition

The largest source amount is 1.0× the smallest. Read per-serving calorie differences with that mass gap in view.

Composition

15 kcal separates the fixed-weight endpoints

The lower endpoint is “cooked”; the higher is “horseradish; jute; or radish leaves.” This isolates density, not ingredient causation.

Discriminator

2.7 g protein gap per 100 g

Of protein, fiber, and sodium, the strongest normalized contrast is between “cooked” (0.8 g) and “horseradish; jute; or radish leaves” (3.5 g).

Observed source examples

Both records, with their own serving weights intact

The cards are ordered by calories in each record's listed serving. Serving weights differ, so use per-100-gram values to compare composition. These selected records do not define a calorie range for every bitter melon.

Important: “Lower” begins with Bitter melon, cooked; “higher” ends with Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked, using each record’s own source amount. Those labels order this selected set only—they are not endpoints for every bitter melon meal.

Full comparison

Compare every selected FNDDS record

For Bitter melon, serving columns preserve each record’s own listed amount, while calories per 100 g hold weight constant. A dash means the cited record does not supply that field; it does not mean the nutrient is absent.

On smaller screens, focus the table and scroll horizontally to read every column.

USDA records selected for the Bitter melon nutrition guide
Exact source record Match Source amount Calories kcal / 100 g Protein Fiber Sodium USDA
Bitter melon, cooked Direct name match 65 gUSDA reference amount 27 kcal 41 0.5 g 1.2 g 83 mg FDC 2709878 ↗
Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked Direct name match 64 gUSDA reference amount 36 kcal 56 2.2 g 1.2 g 86 mg FDC 2709641 ↗

Portion analysis

Serving total and calorie density answer different questions

The listed source amounts run from 64 to 65 grams—a 1-gram gap before composition enters the comparison. Their own source servings run from 27 calories for “cooked” to 36 for “horseradish; jute; or radish leaves.” At a fixed 100 grams, “cooked” is 41 calories and “horseradish; jute; or radish leaves” is 56—a fixed-weight separation of 15 calories. For Bitter melon, the serving view answers “how much is in the database portion?”; the 100-gram view answers “how concentrated is the matched record?” Neither reveals how many grams were actually eaten.

The scaling rule: multiply a per-100-gram value by eaten grams ÷ 100. The arithmetic is exact; the result is only as defensible as the record match and portion estimate.

Preparation analysis

The long description carries the evidence

The published descriptions distinguish forms such as “cooked” and “horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked”. Across the source formulations, the shared backbone includes oil or table fat, nfs and salt, table; differentiating rows include balsam-pear (bitter gourd), leafy tips, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt and balsam-pear (bitter gourd), pods, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt. On this Bitter melon page, those rows make the records inspectable, but they are not a controlled experiment: they cannot tell us that one named input, by itself, caused a nutrient difference.

Database precision is not meal certainty. Retain the exact description beside the number so later corrections remain possible.

What changes the comparison

Four drivers worth checking before choosing a record

The family label “Bitter melon” cannot resolve the differences between Bitter melon, cooked and Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked. The four checks below identify the record wording, source weight, and formulation evidence that can.

  1. 01

    Source weight before serving calories

    The source amounts span 64–65 grams. Compare per 100 grams before reading a serving-calorie gap as a composition gap.

  2. 02

    The words that split the family

    Representative record-level distinctions include “cooked” and “horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked”. Those phrases are evidence for choosing a record, not decorative subtitle text.

  3. 03

    Formulation evidence, with limits

    Shared source rows include oil or table fat, nfs and salt, table; rows that vary across the set include balsam-pear (bitter gourd), leafy tips, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt and balsam-pear (bitter gourd), pods, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt. Presence is inspectable evidence, not proof of nutrient causation.

  4. 04

    The unresolved plate

    Even “Bitter melon, cooked” leaves the eaten grams and unnamed oils, sauces, toppings, substitutions, or leftovers unresolved. Preserve those Bitter melon unknowns for correction instead of converting them into false precision.

Record matching

Match identity first; scale quantity second

Read the source name as a sequence of decisions. First confirm that bitter melon is the right meal family. Then resolve the phrases that actually separate this set—“cooked” and “horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked”—before comparing gram weight. If a package, menu, or known recipe provides a closer first-party description, prefer it and keep this USDA record as a transparent fallback.

A practical matching checklist

  1. Read the complete Bitter melon source description, including preparation and additions.
  2. Compare the listed source weight with the amount actually eaten.
  3. Prefer a current package or restaurant source when a specific branded item is known.
  4. Record toppings, sauces, cooking fat, sides, and substitutions that the selected description does not name.

Decision support from the exact records on this page

Turn source data into a better next decision

These conclusions and reading paths are computed from 2 exact records behind Bitter melon source-record guide. Links are chosen by record identity, controlled contrast, formulation input, nutrient spread, or serving context—not by loose keyword similarity.

Equal-weight result

Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked is higher in calcium per 100 g

Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked reports 41 mg versus 9 mg for Bitter melon, cooked: a 32 mg difference when both are normalized to 100 g.

Inspect the underlying evidence

Check the weight before comparing serving totals

Source amounts span 64–65 g

Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked uses USDA source amount (64 g), while Bitter melon, cooked uses USDA source amount (65 g). Use per 100 g for equal-weight composition; use the serving column only when those named source amounts answer your question.

Record identity is part of the estimate

Distinguish “Bitter melon, cooked” from “Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked”

These are separate USDA records with separate formulations or survey descriptions. Match preparation, additions, and the named household amount before borrowing either record’s nutrients.

Inspect the underlying evidence

Contextual knowledge graph

Follow the relationship that matches your question

For Bitter melon source-record guide, each path states why the destination belongs here, so you can distinguish a true evidentiary connection from a merely similar label.

Put the observed spread in corpus context Calcium: density and serving context

In this page’s records, calcium runs from 9 mg in Bitter melon, cooked to 41 mg in Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked, all per 100 g.

Follow this evidence path Put the observed spread in corpus context Protein: density and serving context

In this page’s records, protein runs from 0.8 g in Bitter melon, cooked to 3.5 g in Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked, all per 100 g.

Follow this evidence path A shared source-formulation input Oil or table fat, NFS

USDA input 81200100 appears in 2 of 2 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 3–3 g across those source formulations. These are source-formulation input weights, not plated or serving weights. Follow the code to inspect every represented occurrence.

Follow this evidence path A shared source-formulation input Salt, table

USDA input 2047 appears in 2 of 2 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 0.3–0.3 g across those source formulations. These are source-formulation input weights, not plated or serving weights. Follow the code to inspect every represented occurrence.

Follow this evidence path 1 context record in this source topic Other dark green vegetables

Bitter melon, horseradish, jute, or radish leaves, cooked belongs to this USDA source-category collection. Its displayed ranges and complete exact-record catalog provide the peer set for a manual comparison; the destination does not preselect this page’s record.

Follow this evidence path 1 context record in this source topic Other vegetables and combinations

Bitter melon, cooked belongs to this USDA source-category collection. Its displayed ranges and complete exact-record catalog provide the peer set for a manual comparison; the destination does not preselect this page’s record.

Follow this evidence path Inspect an exact record Bitter melon, cooked

Open the full nutrient table, household measures, formulation inputs, and FoodData Central 2709878 citation for this exact record—not a name-level average.

Follow this evidence path