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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.

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  • 3
    Bananas vary a lot... whether you have large or small bananas will affect the peel to fruit ratio.
    – Catija
    Mar 3, 2015 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 4, 2015 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 4, 2015 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 1, 2015 at 0:16
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    The peels are not universally considered inedible (check recipes for banana peel thoran for example).
    – rackandboneman
    Apr 20, 2016 at 15:50

5 Answers 5

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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.

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  • Sorry, I've been out of the loop for some time. But this answers the question entirely! Many thanks. I will update with my own measurements if I find the tools.
    – Calculus Knight
    Jul 25, 2015 at 11:43
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    @Shane 's answer confirmed your calculations. Nailed it. ;)
    – Calculus Knight
    Jun 23, 2016 at 14:41
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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

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    That's a very concise answer, and in line with @Jolenealaska♦ 's answer, that stated 62.4% of edible banana, so 37.6 of refuse content. A relative error lower than 5%!
    – Calculus Knight
    Jun 23, 2016 at 14:40
  • not bad indeed.
    – Shane
    Jun 23, 2016 at 18:22
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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.

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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.
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  • That might do, even if doesn't answer the original question. Thanks.
    – Calculus Knight
    Mar 5, 2015 at 21:24
  • I thought you were just trying to figure it out so you could get the caloric measurement. Was that not the point? There's so many different kinds of bananas an average would be pretty useless in that case.
    – Jemmeh
    Mar 6, 2015 at 4:17
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    Yes. That was the purpose of the question. Thanks again!
    – Calculus Knight
    Mar 7, 2015 at 4:02
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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.

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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 at 19:57

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