Grains, bread and pasta
How much protein is in popcorn?
Three cups of air-popped popcorn has about 3.1 g of protein.
That's 13 g of protein per 100 g, or 3.3 g for every 100 calories.
Protein per serving
| Serving | Weight | Protein | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 cups | 24 g | 3.1 g | 93 |
| 1 cup | 8 g | 1 g | 31 |
| 100 g | 100 g | 13 g | 387 |
How popcorn compares
Other grains, bread and pasta, ranked by how much protein you get per 100 calories.
| Food | Protein per 100 g | Protein per 100 calories |
|---|---|---|
| Whole wheat breadstore-bought | 12 g | 4.9 g |
| Whole wheat pastacooked | 6 g | 4 g |
| Bagelplain | 11 g | 4 g |
| Quinoacooked | 4.4 g | 3.7 g |
| Pastacooked | 5.8 g | 3.7 g |
| Buckwheatroasted groats, cooked | 3.4 g | 3.7 g |
| Oatsrolled, dry | 13 g | 3.5 g |
| Couscouscooked | 3.8 g | 3.4 g |
| White breadstore-bought | 8.9 g | 3.3 g |
| English muffinplain | 7.7 g | 3.3 g |
| Flour tortillastore-bought | 8.7 g | 2.7 g |
| Corn tortillastore-bought | 5.7 g | 2.6 g |
| Brown ricelong-grain, cooked | 2.7 g | 2.2 g |
| White ricelong-grain, cooked | 2.7 g | 2.1 g |
| Barleypearled, cooked | 2.3 g | 1.8 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 cups of air-popped popcorn covers about 10% of that.
Work out your own daily and per-meal target with the protein calculator.
Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central ("Snacks, popcorn, air-popped", FDC ID 167959). Actual values vary by brand, recipe and cooking method, so treat these numbers as close estimates.