Beans on toast calories: two slices and half a tin
Two slices of buttered toast with half a tin of beans comes to about 495 kcal. The butter is 150 of that, more than the beans themselves. It is a genuinely good cheap meal, with more protein and fibre in it than its reputation suggests.
The plate, as served
Two slices of white toast with butter, and half a standard tin of baked beans.
Where the calories come from
| Nutrient | Grams | Calories | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protein | 16g | 64 | 13% |
| Carbs | 62g | 248 | 51% |
| Fat | 19g | 171 | 35% |
| Fibre | 9g | counted within carbs | |
The ring is sized by calories, not grams: protein and carbs are 4 kcal a gram, fat is 9. Drawn by grams, fat would look like a sliver of what it actually contributes.
What is on the plate
| White bread x2One medium slice, about 36 g | 190 kcal |
| Baked beansHalf a standard tin, about 200 g | 155 kcal |
| Butter x2A thin spread, about 10 g | 150 kcal |
The same dish, several ways
This is where the calories actually move. Not the ingredient, the cooking.
- With cheese on top615+120
A handful of cheddar, and the meal stops being a light one.
- Two slices of white toast with butter, and half a standard tin of baked beans.As served495
- On wholemeal485-10
Barely changes the calories and roughly doubles the fibre.
- Without butter345-150
The beans are wet. The butter is habit rather than necessity.
Where each number comes from
Composition tables list ingredients, not dinners. There is no row anywhere for this plate, so it is built from its parts, and the preparation assumed for each part is written next to it, because that assumption is usually worth more calories than the ingredient.
| Component | Portion and preparation | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| White bread x2 | One medium slice, about 36 gPlain, untoasted. Toasting changes almost nothing; what you put on it does. | 190 |
| Baked beans | Half a standard tin, about 200 gStandard tinned beans in tomato sauce. | 155 |
| Butter x2 | A thin spread, about 10 gOn toast, or melted over vegetables. | 150 |
| Total | 495 | |
Sources: USDA FoodData Central. Every figure is an estimate with a range around it, and is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal rather than pretending to a precision that does not exist.
Why you will see 300 to 700 kcal quoted for this
Whether the toast was buttered, and how much, explains most of it. A whole tin instead of half explains the rest.
Which is why this page shows the sum instead of asserting a total. Build the plate you actually eat and the number is yours rather than an average of strangers.
Build your own plateCommon questions
- How many calories are in beans on toast?
- Two buttered slices and half a tin comes to about 495 kcal. Without butter it is 345.
- Is beans on toast healthy?
- It is one of the better cheap meals going: about 16 g of protein and 9 g of fibre in the version above, for under 500 kcal.
- How many calories in a tin of baked beans?
- A standard tin is about 310 kcal, so half a tin, the usual serving, is about 155.
- Does butter really make that much difference?
- Yes. Ten grams a slice is 75 kcal, so buttering two slices adds 150, more than the beans on top of them.
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