Calories in bread: Arabic, white and brown, per loaf and per slice

By the Voltra team · Updated 6 October 2026

Calories per 100 g

USDA FoodData Central. Toast here means sliced sandwich bread, before it's toasted.

A loaf and a slice

Calculated from the values per 100 g above and USDA's weights [1][2][3][4]. The sizes across are converted from inches.

Saudi Arabia's Healthy Food Palm counts 25 g of bread, which it says is a quarter of a medium Arabic loaf, or one slice of toast as one grain serving, and recommends 6 to 11 grain servings a day [10]. That puts its medium loaf at about 100 g, much bigger than USDA's large pita, and 25 g of white Arabic bread is about 69 kcal (calculated). Loaves vary a lot, so weigh yours if you can.

Saudi packaged bread: the makers' labels

We read the nutrition panels on two Saudi bakeries' websites, Al Hatab and Almarai's L'usine, and kept only the panels whose calories match their protein, carbohydrate and fat to within about 10% [5][6].

As the makers print them, checked on 6 October 2026; L'usine prints whole grams. Al Hatab's white Arabic bread works out to about 304 kcal per 100 g (calculated), more than USDA's 275. We left out L'usine's white toast, which lists 127 kcal for a 30 g slice although its protein, carbohydrate and fat add up to about 81, and five Al Hatab panels whose stated serving weight doesn't fit their figures [5][6].

Hassawi red bread, Mifa, Malla and other Saudi breads

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority analysed these traditional breads in a lab [7]:

Carbohydrate here is available carbohydrate; the five breads also have 8.2 to 9.7 g of fibre per 100 g. All five are made mainly with whole-wheat flour; the red bread adds Khalas dates, and Mifa bread white flour and oil [7].

Tamees and samouli

We found no official figure for tamees or for fresh bakery samouli. Neither is in the Saudi Food Composition Tables [7], and we found no bakery that publishes a nutrition panel for either. The nearest packaged products are the soft sandwich rolls above: 120 to 136 kcal for a 50 g roll [5][6].

A 1999 King Saud University study measured nine Saudi breads made from wheat, millet and corn, and found 190 to 273 kcal per 100 g [8]. Its summary doesn't say which bread had which figure, so it can't give you a number for tamees. Weigh your piece and scan it in Voltra, or describe it with its weight (below).

White or brown (burr) bread?

Per 100 g, brown bread has about the same calories as white: 252 against 266 for sandwich bread, and 262 against 275 for Arabic bread [1][2][3][4]. What it has more of is fibre: 6.0 g against 2.7 g for sandwich bread, and 6.1 g against 2.2 g for Arabic bread.

It doesn't raise blood sugar much less, either: the 2008 international tables give whole-wheat bread an average glycaemic index of 74, against 75 for white wheat bread [9].

How to log it in Voltra

1. Packaged bread: on the Eat tab, tap Barcode and scan the pack. If it isn't in Open Food Facts, use Search or Describe instead.
2. Arabic bread: tap Search and type "Arabic bread". One loaf is set at 60 g; change the grams if yours is bigger.
3. Tamees, samouli, or bread with a meal: tap Scan a meal and photograph it, or tap Describe and type it with its weight, for example "tamees, 150 g". Check the grams, then tap Log.

Frequently asked

Sources

1. USDA FoodData Central. Bread, pita, white, enriched (FDC 174915). Weights: small pita (4 inches across) 28 g, large pita (6.5 inches) 60 g.
2. USDA FoodData Central. Bread, pita, whole-wheat (FDC 174916). Weights: small pita (4 inches across) 28 g, large pita (6.5 inches) 64 g.
3. USDA FoodData Central. Bread, white, commercially prepared (includes soft bread crumbs) (FDC 174924). Weights: slice 29 g, thin slice 20 g.
4. USDA FoodData Central. Bread, whole-wheat, commercially prepared (FDC 172688). Weight: slice 32 g.
5. Al Hatab Foods. Bread: product pages with nutrition facts. Used: White Arabic Bread, Medium Whole Wheat Arabic Bread, White Soft Sandwich Rolls, Whole Wheat Sandwich Rolls With Bran, White Sliced Bread, Whole Wheat Sliced Bread, Whole Wheat Toast No Added Sugar, Milk Sliced Bread. Left out, because the serving weight on the panel doesn't fit its figures: Small White Arabic Bread, Mini White Arabic Bread, Mini Whole Wheat Arabic Bread, High Fiber Arabic Bread, Multigrain Sliced Bread.
6. Almarai. L'usine bread and sandwich rolls: product pages with nutrition information. Used: Sliced Brown Bread, Sliced Bread Bran, Sliced Bread Multigrain, Sliced Bread Milk, Sandwich Rolls, Brown Sandwich Rolls. Left out: Sliced White Bread, whose 127 kcal per 30 g doesn't match its protein, carbohydrate and fat.
7. National Nutrition Committee, Saudi Food and Drug Authority (2025). Saudi Food Composition Tables, 1st edition. Red bread (Hassawi bread) pp. 116–117; Mifa bread pp. 152–153; Malla bread (Jamri) pp. 190–191; Muqana bread pp. 200–201; Masali bread pp. 234–235.
8. al-Kanhal MA, al-Mohizea IS, al-Othaimeen AI, Khan MA (1999). Nutritive value of various breads in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 50(5):345–349. We read the abstract; it gives ranges for all nine breads, not each bread's figures.
9. Atkinson FS, Foster-Powell K, Brand-Miller JC (2008). International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: 2008. Diabetes Care 31(12):2281–2283. Table 1.
10. Saudi Ministry of Health, General Directorate of Nutrition (2012). جدول الحصص الغذائية (النخلة الغذائية الصحية). In Arabic. The Healthy Food Palm servings table.

Sources checked on 6 October 2026. Values are rounded to one decimal place.

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