Fish and seafood

How much protein is in catfish?

Three ounces of cooked catfish has about 16 g of protein.

That's 18 g of protein per 100 g, or 13 g for every 100 calories.

Protein per serving

Protein and calories in common servings of catfish, from USDA data.
ServingWeightProteinCalories
3 oz85 g16 g122
1 fillet143 g26 g206
100 g100 g18 g144

How catfish compares

Other fish and seafood, ranked by how much protein you get per 100 calories.

FoodProtein per 100 gProtein per 100 calories
Shrimpcooked 24 g 24 g
Canned tunalight, in water, drained 19 g 23 g
Tuna steakyellowfin, cooked 29 g 23 g
CodAtlantic, cooked 23 g 22 g
Lobstercooked 19 g 21 g
Tilapiacooked 26 g 21 g
Halibutcooked 23 g 20 g
CrabAlaska king, cooked 19 g 20 g
Scallopssteamed 21 g 19 g
Canned salmonpink, drained 23 g 17 g
Rainbow troutfarmed, cooked 24 g 14 g
Sardinescanned in oil, drained 25 g 12 g
SalmonAtlantic, farmed, cooked 22 g 11 g
MackerelAtlantic, cooked 24 g 9.1 g

How it fits into a meal

For building muscle, Schoenfeld and Aragon's 2018 review of the research suggests about 0.4 g of protein per kilogram of body weight at each meal, spread over at least four meals a day. At 170 lb (77 kg), that's about 31 g a meal. Three ounces of cooked catfish covers about 51% of that.

Work out your own daily and per-meal target with the protein calculator.

Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central ("Fish, catfish, channel, farmed, cooked, dry heat", FDC ID 175166). Actual values vary by brand, recipe and cooking method, so treat these numbers as close estimates.