Ladoo calories: 1 piece and 100 g

By Shivam Verma Updated October 21, 2026 12 sources linked below

One besan ladoo of 30 g has about 149 calories, or 497 per 100 g: roasted besan, ghee and sugar packed tight into a single piece. It holds 9.8 g of added sugar, about 2.3 teaspoons, and 3.1 g of protein. Two ladoos come to 298 calories, and a motichoor ladoo of 35 g is 133.

Five round yellow ladoos topped with saffron and pistachio in a clay bowl — Ladoos. Photo: Jahra Tasfia Reza on Pexels.

149calories

Protein

3.1 g

Carbs

17.5 g

Fat

7.7 g

Founding 500

Your ladoo is not exactly 30 g.

Katori is an iPhone app that counts your actual plate from one photo. Built for Indian food first.

Email address

No spam. One email at launch, then only if it matters. Privacy.

First 500 sign-ups get the badge, paid or free. 10% off Pro annual, expires 30 days after launch, replaces the trial.

About ladoo

Also called laddu, laddoo and ladu.

A ladoo is a round sweet pressed into a ball by hand. Besan ladoo, our headline, starts with besan roasted slowly in ghee until it smells nutty and turns a shade darker; the sugar goes in once the mix has cooled a little, and the warm mix is rolled into balls. It is roasted, not fried. Our home batch is 100 g of besan, 50 g of ghee, 75 g of sugar and a few almonds, which makes 230 g, about 7 ladoos. Of its calories, 38 percent come from the ghee, 34 percent from the besan, 25 percent from the sugar and 3 percent from the almonds. Pressed into a tray instead of rolled, the same mix becomes besan barfi. Motichoor and boondi ladoos are made another way: a besan batter is dropped through a slotted spoon into hot oil, fried into tiny drops, soaked in syrup and pressed into balls. Motichoor uses the finest drops. Rava (semolina) and coconut ladoos exist too, and this page does not cover them yet; the other sweets we have built sit in the Sweets family on the calories hub.

Home vs sweet shop

Ghee and sugar move a besan ladoo; the method moves a motichoor. A sweet shop besan ladoo with more ghee and sugar is 156 calories for the same 30 g. A motichoor or boondi ladoo is a bigger piece, 35 g, at 133, because the fried drops carry syrup and the water in it.

Version	Weight	Calories	Added sugar	Protein
Besan, homeHeadlineBesan roasted in ghee, then sugar and a few almonds.	30 g	149	9.8 g (2.3 tsp)	3.1 g
Sweet shop besan ladoo, richerMore ghee and more sugar for the same weight of besan.	30 g	156	10.2 g (2.4 tsp)	2.7 g
Motichoor or boondi (fried besan drops soaked in syrup)A 35 g ladoo of fried drops bound with syrup. Boondi uses larger drops from the same recipe.	35 g	133	11.0 g (2.6 tsp)	2.3 g

How much sugar is in one ladoo

One besan ladoo holds 9.8 g of added sugar, about 2.3 teaspoons, and two hold 19.6 g, 78 percent of the World Health Organization's ideal daily figure of about 25 g. A motichoor ladoo holds 11 g, all of it from the syrup. The besan's own sugars are not counted as added.

Guideline	What it says	One ladoo, added sugar
World Health Organization	Free sugars under 10% of daily energy, ideally under 5%, which is about 25 g a day.	9.8 g, 39% of 25 g
NHS (UK)	No more than 30 g of free sugars a day for adults.	9.8 g, 33% of 30 g
American Heart Association	About 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day for women and 9 for men.	2.3 tsp, against 6 (women) or 9 (men)
Heart & Stroke (Canada)	No more than 10% of daily calories from added sugars, ideally under 5%. On a 2,000 calorie day, 10% is about 48 g.	9.8 g, 20% of 48 g
Australian Dietary Guidelines	Limit foods and drinks containing added sugars. No daily number is set.	9.8 g

Is ladoo healthy?

Besan is chickpea flour, and it gives a ladoo more protein than most sweets: 3.1 g a piece, more than a gulab jamun (2.4 g), a jalebi (0.8 g) or a kaju katli (1 g), though less than a rasmalai at 6 g. It is still a small amount next to the 149 calories it comes with.

Besan ladoo is roasted, not fried, and that does not make it light. Its density comes from ghee and roasted flour with almost no water, about 4.6 g per 100 g, which puts it at 497 calories per 100 g: denser than kaju katli at 492, jalebi at 330, gulab jamun at 285 or rasmalai at 182.

So the count is what matters. One ladoo is 149 calories, two are 298 and three are 448, with 7.7 g of fat in each piece, 84 percent of it from the ghee. Two besan ladoos come to more than three gulab jamuns, which are 281 calories.

A sweet shop ladoo moves the same way. Its batch uses 70 g of ghee and 90 g of sugar for the same 100 g of besan, against our 50 g and 75 g, so a piece comes to 156 calories, 8.9 g of fat and 10.2 g of added sugar.

If you manage blood sugar, ask your doctor or a registered dietitian how a sweet like ladoo fits into your plan.

Besan, motichoor or boondi, and the USDA ladoo

Motichoor is fried and soaked in syrup, yet it is lighter per 100 g than besan ladoo: 379 calories against 497. The syrup brings water, about 25.9 g per 100 g against 4.6 g in besan ladoo, and the batch carries less fat per gram, 18.3 g per 100 g against 25.6 g. Per piece the gap narrows, because a motichoor ladoo is heavier: 35 g and 133 calories, against 30 g and 149 for besan.

Boondi ladoo is the same recipe with larger drops, so it shares the motichoor row rather than taking a second row with the same numbers.

USDA's survey database models ladoo as FNDDS record 2710351, "Ladoo, round ball". It lists 411 calories per 100 g and a 60 g piece, and it is built from boiled whole chickpeas, butter and sugar, with its moisture cut by 50 percent in cooking.^[7]

Ours is higher per 100 g, 497 against 411, because roasted besan holds no cooking water and ghee is a bigger share: about 4.6 g of water per 100 g in ours against 22.8 g in the USDA model. That is a difference between two recipes, not an error in either.

The piece size matters more. A 60 g USDA piece is 2 times our 30 g ladoo, so logging "1 ladoo" from that entry records 247 calories. That fits a ladoo of that size. If yours is closer to 30 g, the entry counts twice the ladoo you ate; at the USDA recipe's own density, a 30 g piece would be 123 calories. Weigh one of your ladoos once, and you will know which of the two pieces matches yours.

Two servings, compared

Sweet	Two servings	Calories	Added sugar	Protein
Gulab jamun	66 g	188	18.0 g (4.3 tsp)	4.9 g
Rasmalai	160 g	292	22.0 g (5.2 tsp)	12.0 g
Kaju katli	20 g	98	8.2 g (1.9 tsp)	2.1 g
Jalebi	60 g	198	19.2 g (4.6 tsp)	1.6 g
Ladoo	60 g	298	19.6 g (4.7 tsp)	6.2 g
Barfi	60 g	275	14.8 g (3.5 tsp)	9.1 g
Gajar halwa	300 g	694	46.2 g (11.0 tsp)	15.3 g

Common questions

How many calories are in one ladoo?

About 149 calories for a besan ladoo of 30 g, from our home batch. A sweet shop besan ladoo, richer in ghee and sugar, is 156, and a motichoor ladoo of 35 g is 133.

How many calories are in 2 laddu?

About 298 calories for two besan ladoos, with 19.6 g of added sugar (4.7 teaspoons) and 6.2 g of protein. Two motichoor ladoos come to 265.

How many calories are in a motichoor ladoo?

About 133 calories for a 35 g motichoor ladoo, with 11 g of added sugar, about 2.6 teaspoons, and 2.3 g of protein. The drops take up about 5 g of oil in the fryer.

How many calories are in besan ladoo per 100 g?

About 497 calories, with 10.3 g of protein, 25.6 g of fat and 32.6 g of added sugar. Roasted besan and ghee leave little water in the mix, which is why the figure is so high.

Is laddu a junk food?

Here are the numbers, so you can judge for yourself. A besan ladoo of 30 g is 149 calories, with 3.1 g of protein, 1.5 g of fibre, 7.7 g of fat and 9.8 g of added sugar. It is roasted rather than fried, and the ghee and sugar carry 63 percent of its calories.

Which has more calories, besan or motichoor ladoo?

Besan, both ways: 149 calories against 133 per piece, even though the motichoor ladoo is heavier at 35 g, and 497 against 379 per 100 g.

How many ladoos can I eat in a day?

There is no fixed number, because it depends on everything else you eat that day. Sugar is the clearest limit. The NHS suggests no more than 30 g of free sugars a day for adults, and each besan ladoo holds 9.8 g, so 3 ladoos come to 29.3 g before anything else sweet.

Is boondi ladoo the same as motichoor ladoo?

Almost. Both are fried besan drops soaked in syrup and pressed into balls; motichoor uses the finest drops and boondi larger ones. The recipe is the same, so we give them one set of numbers: 133 calories for a 35 g ladoo.

How we calculated this

Every number on this page is for 1 besan ladoo (30 g), worked out from the recipe below. A version with its own weight in the table above is worked out at that weight.

Besan100 g
Ghee50 g
Sugar75 g
Almonds5 g

The whole home batch, roasted and mixed, which makes 230 g. One ladoo is 30 g of it.

Ingredient values from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy). The USDA survey record for ladoo is a cross-check only and is never the source of a figure here.

How we calculate

Confidence: medium

Sources

Add ladoo to the calculator

These figures are estimates from stated recipes, for general information. They are not medical or dietary advice. If you manage a health condition, check with a registered dietitian or your doctor.