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I got ~1 Kg of bananas and I want to calculate the calories in it. Provided that the peel is discarded, which is the remaining mass of bananas from the original Kg?

Since I have no weight measuring equipment at hand I looked up for the info, but couldn't find anything.

Calculus Knight
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    Bananas vary a lot... whether you have large or small bananas will affect the peel to fruit ratio. – Catija Mar 03 '15 at 20:41
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    That's why I said 'average'. In a sample of average bananas, which is the average ratio. And I don't have weight measuring equipment, as @Catija pointed out – Calculus Knight Mar 04 '15 at 12:57
  • If I can't get any answers I would do the test myself whenever I get access to the tools and post it here, but I found it strange I couldn't find any answer. – Calculus Knight Mar 04 '15 at 21:54
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    I suspect that the percentage varies by not only size, but the age of the banana. (younger bananas have a thicker peel, and it gets thinner w/ age) – Joe Aug 01 '15 at 00:16
  • You are asking about "a sample of average bananas" - how is this defined? Average of what? If you mean "the typical size bananas I buy at my store", this is not necessarily the same as the typical size somebody else buys, nor the arithmetical mean of sizes of all banana crops in the world, nor the arithmetical mean of sizes of all bananas imported into your country (we don't even know which one you are in), nor the middle size of all banana size categories. You can't apply the central limit theorem without knowing what you're applying it to. – rumtscho Feb 18 '16 at 10:11
  • I'm well aware of this. However, I wasn't looking for great accuracy calculations. If the bananas they get in Mexico were three-stories tall I'd have heard by now. I'm willing to get coarse data if the alternative is no data at all. – Calculus Knight Feb 18 '16 at 10:16
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    The peels are not universally considered inedible (check recipes for banana peel thoran for example). – rackandboneman Apr 20 '16 at 15:50
  • That's a good point, but I tend to avoid the peel of fruits to avoid any pesticides. Maybe it's a good idea if they're organic bananas. – Calculus Knight May 02 '16 at 08:13

5 Answers5

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I had an application not long ago for which I needed the answer to the question as written.

America's Test Kitchen (sorry, paywalled) has a recipe for banana bread that I love. I save over-ripe banana chunks in the freezer until I feel like making banana bread. The recipe calls for "6 large very ripe bananas (about 2 1/4 pounds), peeled". My bananas were already peeled and chunked. I wanted to follow the recipe very precisely because the recipe and particular methods were new to me.

So how much peeled banana equals 2.25 pounds of unpeeled banana?

My doctor has been nagging me to eat breakfast, so most days I manage to eat a banana early in my day. For one week I weighed the banana unpeeled and peeled. Then I struck an average.

My average banana weighed 183 grams unpeeled, 116 grams peeled. 185/116=1.58.

So, 2.25 pounds (1021 grams) of unpeeled banana = 1.43 pounds (647 grams) of peeled banana.

My average banana (very average in the store, Dole brand) was 62.4% edible.

Jolenealaska
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Per the National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 28, the "refuse" content of a banana is 36%, attributed to the peeling.

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2159?format=Full

Shane
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Just tested one (I'm sure it would be close enough to average for my purposes) to see if it was more equitable to purchase a bulk box of frozen organic banana chunks.

Peel = 93g, fruit = 125g = 57% edible.

Nebu
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  1. I don't know any caloric measurements for bananas that include the peel. They assume you're discarding it.

  2. Since you don't have a scale, you can also get the approximate calories by looking at the length of a banana. 

+-------------+---------------------------+---------------+-----------+
| Banana Size |          Length           |    Weight     | Calories  |
+-------------+---------------------------+---------------+-----------+
| Extra Small | Under 6 inches (15 cm)    | 2.9 oz (81g)  |        72 |
| Small       | 6 – 7 inches (15 – 18 cm) | 3.6 oz (101g) |        90 |
| Medium      | 7 – 8 inches (18 – 20 cm) | 4.2 oz (118g) |       105 |
| Large       | 8 – 9 inches (20 – 23 cm) | 4.8 oz (136g) |       121 |
| Extra Large | Over 9 inches (23 cm)     | 5.4 oz (152g) |       135 |
+-------------+---------------------------+---------------+-----------+
  • Source: HealthFitnessExperts.com
  • Bananas vary: sizes and corresponding weights are approximate.
  • Calories based on the weight shown in grams.

  1. There are many different varieties of bananas, they vary in length, and even change weight as they ripen. So using an "average weight" to count your calories isn't very accurate. As you can see from the approximate calories above, this can be a significant caloric difference, and if used in a recipe could greatly affect the outcome.
Glorfindel
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Jemmeh
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Past 4 days of making smoothies. These are all "overripe" bananas. Not brown, not super spotty but certainly more brown spots and no green. It seems they would be tooripe for MOST people to want to eat out of hand.

Full weight >>> edible weight (in grams) 689>>527= 76.487% 569>>422= 74.165% 606>>442= 72.937% 399.5>>301.5= 75.469%

From the other answer here it would seem the more ripe they are, the less the peels takes away from total weight.

RyHy
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  • Welcome to SA! You're responding to a question which is 7 years old and already has an accepted answer. If you're supplying new information, please explain clearly how your answer contradicts or modifies the accepted answer. – FuzzyChef Jan 20 '23 at 19:57