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Portions and preparation · USDA nutrition

Lo mein calories per cup: 242–276 across all 4 named USDA examples

Across all 4 named USDA examples, a cup contains 242–276 calories. Each included example lists 200 g for that measure. The same household label can carry a different gram weight elsewhere in USDA data.

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Preparation and portion

Named measures come from this exact source record.

Estimated for 1 cup · 200 g

258calories

Lo mein, with beef

Protein
19.5 g
Carbs
32.4 g
Fat
5.5 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 2708802 Full nutrition profile →

Compare all 4 food records, nutrition tables and USDA sources

The 4 exact records in this guide report 242–276 calories in the records' own listed source servings and 121–138 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 Lo mein, begin by separating “Lo mein, with beef” from “Lo mein, with shrimp.” 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 4 linked records.

Equal-weight view

How lo mein records compare at 100 grams

All 4 cited records are shown at the same 100-gram weight. The source servings may differ.

  1. Lo mein, with shrimp 121 kcal
    121 kcal
  2. Lo mein, with beef 129 kcal
    129 kcal
  3. Lo mein, with chicken 130 kcal
    130 kcal
  4. Lo mein, with pork 138 kcal
    138 kcal

Shared basis: 100 g · kilocalories

What this page compares

Named source records, not one universal meal

This guide keeps 4 named USDA records in view: 4 direct matches. All sit within “Fried rice and lo/chow mein.” 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 4 records together under the exact grouping key “lo mein.” That rule determines membership before any nutrition result is read.

For Lo mein, this page can compare 4 named records from FDC 2708802 through FDC 2708800. 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

A shared 200 g comparison anchor

Equal source weights make the selected Lo mein serving totals easier to compare, but the eaten portion still has to be measured or estimated.

Composition

17 kcal separates the fixed-weight endpoints

The lower endpoint is “with shrimp”; the higher is “with pork.” This isolates density, not ingredient causation.

Discriminator

56 mg sodium gap per 100 g

Of protein, fiber, and sodium, the strongest normalized contrast is between “with pork” (357 mg) and “with chicken” (413 mg).

Observed source examples

Three landmarks inside this source set—not universal endpoints

These 4 records each use a 200 g serving. Their serving calories compare equal weights within this set. They do not define a calorie range for every lo mein; match the preparation and adjust to your portion.

Important: “Lower” begins with Lo mein, with shrimp; “higher” ends with Lo mein, with pork, using each record’s own source amount. Those labels order this selected set only—they are not endpoints for every lo mein meal.

Full comparison

Compare every selected FNDDS record

For Lo mein, 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.

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USDA records selected for the Lo mein nutrition guide
Exact source record Match Source amount Calories kcal / 100 g Protein Fiber Sodium USDA
Lo mein, with beef Direct name match 200 gUSDA reference amount 258 kcal 129 19.5 g 2 g 716 mg FDC 2708802 ↗
Lo mein, with chicken Direct name match 200 gUSDA reference amount 260 kcal 130 18.3 g 2 g 826 mg FDC 2708803 ↗
Lo mein, with pork Direct name match 200 gUSDA reference amount 276 kcal 138 19 g 2 g 714 mg FDC 2708801 ↗
Lo mein, with shrimp Direct name match 200 gUSDA reference amount 242 kcal 121 17.1 g 2 g 726 mg FDC 2708800 ↗

Portion analysis

Serving total and calorie density answer different questions

Every selected record uses a 200-gram source amount, so serving-weight differences do not explain the calorie spread inside this set. Their own source servings run from 242 calories for “with shrimp” to 276 for “with pork.” At a fixed 100 grams, “with shrimp” is 121 calories and “with pork” is 138—a fixed-weight separation of 17 calories. For Lo mein, 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 “with beef”, “with chicken”, “with pork”, and “with shrimp”. Across the source formulations, the shared backbone includes restaurant, chinese, vegetable lo mein, without meat; differentiating rows include beef, round, top round roast, boneless, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0" fat, all grades, cooked, roasted, chicken, ns as to part, rotisserie, skin not eaten, crustaceans, shrimp, mixed species, cooked, moist heat (may contain additives to retain moisture), and pork, fresh, loin, whole, separable lean only, cooked, roasted. On this Lo mein 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 “Lo mein” cannot resolve the differences between Lo mein, with beef and Lo mein, with shrimp. The four checks below identify the record wording, source weight, and formulation evidence that can.

  1. 01

    A shared source weight

    Every selected record uses 200 grams. Inside this set, serving-calorie differences therefore reflect the published composition rather than a change in source weight.

  2. 02

    The words that split the family

    Representative record-level distinctions include “with beef”, “with chicken”, “with pork”, and “with shrimp”. Those phrases are evidence for choosing a record, not decorative subtitle text.

  3. 03

    Formulation evidence, with limits

    Shared source rows include restaurant, chinese, vegetable lo mein, without meat; rows that vary across the set include beef, round, top round roast, boneless, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0" fat, all grades, cooked, roasted, chicken, ns as to part, rotisserie, skin not eaten, and crustaceans, shrimp, mixed species, cooked, moist heat (may contain additives to retain moisture). Presence is inspectable evidence, not proof of nutrient causation.

  4. 04

    The unresolved plate

    Even “Lo mein, with beef” leaves the eaten grams and unnamed oils, sauces, toppings, substitutions, or leftovers unresolved. Preserve those Lo mein 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 lo mein is the right meal family. Then resolve the phrases that actually separate this set—“with beef”, “with chicken”, “with pork”, and “with shrimp”—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 Lo mein 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 4 exact records behind Lo mein 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

Lo mein, with shrimp is higher in calcium per 100 g

Lo mein, with shrimp reports 36 mg versus 20 mg for Lo mein, with beef: a 16 mg difference when both are normalized to 100 g.

Inspect the underlying evidence

These listed servings have equal weights

4 listed servings each weigh 200 g

The 4 records with a listed serving weight on this page each use 200 g. Their serving totals therefore compare equal weights, even if the household labels differ. Match the preparation and adjust the weight to the amount you eat.

Record identity is part of the estimate

Distinguish “Lo mein, with beef” from “Lo mein, with shrimp”

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

2 exact records carried forward Pad Thai

Lo mein, with shrimp and Lo mein, with chicken are explicitly linked in this guide, which separates direct name matches from contextual variants.

Follow this evidence path A formulation detail that separates records Beef, round, top round roast, boneless, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0" fat, all grades, cooked, roasted

USDA input 23348 appears in 1 of 4 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 335–335 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 formulation detail that separates records Chicken, NS as to part, rotisserie, skin not eaten

USDA input 24102070 appears in 1 of 4 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 337.5–337.5 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 4 context records in this source topic Fried rice and lo/chow mein

Lo mein, with beef and Lo mein, with chicken belong 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 Put the observed spread in corpus context Calcium: density and serving context

In this page’s records, calcium runs from 20 mg in Lo mein, with beef to 36 mg in Lo mein, with shrimp, all per 100 g.

Follow this evidence path Inspect an exact record Lo mein, with beef

Open the full nutrient table, household measures, formulation inputs, and FoodData Central 2708802 citation for this exact record—not a name-level average.

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

In this page’s records, iron runs from 0.9 mg in Lo mein, with shrimp to 1.4 mg in Lo mein, with beef, all per 100 g.

Follow this evidence path