Are you meal-prepping and need to know exactly how many calories you’re putting into your diet? You’re likely researching the weights of all the portions you’re using in your meals.
Bananas come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so their weight can be tricky to gauge. There’s also the dilemma of weighing them with or without their peels.
Read on to find the answer to the question, how much does a banana weigh?
Bananas are often added to cereals cups or bowls.
Different Sizes of Bananas
The typical banana is about 8 inches long and can weigh approximately 4 oz (120g) with its peel.
However, the dimensions and weight of any given banana are dependent on several factors. These factors include its type and where it was grown, and in turn, its size.
The weight of a banana also depends on whether you’re weighing it peeled or unpeeled.
Characteristics of Different Banana Sizes
Here are the specifications of the most common sizes of bananas.
- Extra Large: 9 inches long, 5.4 oz, 135 calories, 35 g carbohydrate content.
- Large: 8 inches long, 4.8 oz, 121 calories, 31 g carbohydrate content.
- Medium: 7 inches long, 4.2 oz, 105 calories, 27 g carbohydrate content.
- Small: 6 inches long, 3.6 oz, 90 calories, 23 g carbohydrate content.
- Extra Small: less than 6 inches long, 2.9 oz, 72 calories, 19 g carbohydrate content.
Weighing Bananas in a Bunch
When weighing bananas in a bunch, you don’t need to weigh each one individually.
A bunch of bananas (typically from 4 to 7 bananas) are almost all identical in weight because they all come from the same source. So you only need to weigh one of them and more often than not, the rest will have the same weight.
However, you should note that if you weighed a banana with its peel, the weight you see on the scale is the weight of the other bananas also with their peels.
Should I Weigh Bananas Peeled or Unpeeled?
Banana peels’ weights are significant, so the weights you get when weighing bananas peeled and unpeeled are different.
If you’re on a diet and are counting your calories, it’s better to weigh your bananas without the peel.
Weighing them unpeeled will give you an inflated and inaccurate read on the calorie content because all the calories in bananas are in what’s under the peel.
This piece of information is neglected in the vast majority of recipes and meal plans, so deciding how many bananas to include in your meal can understandably be confusing.
Ripeness and Calories
Bananas are almost exclusively composed of water and carbohydrates, with over 90% of their calorie content coming from carbohydrates.
If you want to take advantage of the nutrients in bananas and not significantly increase your calorie intake, you should go for green, unripe bananas. A lot of these bananas’ carbohydrates are indigestible, therefore they pack fewer calories.