Calories in Instant Noodles and a Cup of Soup

By NYUS Inc. · Published 27 October 2026

A packet of instant noodles at midnight, a cup of tomato soup with lunch: both can be logged by the packet or the cup. This guide gives four generic reference rows from USDA FoodData Central, with the household portion USDA prints on each record. One row is the dry noodle product, and three are soups as prepared with water, so the figures mean different things and are kept apart below. They are not a brand and not the pack in your hand, and Indian food tables (IFCT 2017) have no noodle or soup row at all.

The short answer

By the USDA records below, the 81 g that USDA lists as a dry instant noodle package without its flavor packet is about 356 kcal. A cup of tomato soup made from a dry mix and water (265 g) is about 101 kcal, a cup of low-sodium tomato soup made with water (248 g) about 74 kcal, and a cup of chicken noodle soup made from a dry mix and water (245 g) about 56 kcal. Our reading: a packet of dry noodles and a cup of soup are different kinds of food in the records. The noodle figure is for dry weight before any water is added, while the soup figures are for a cup that is already mostly water, so per 100 g they cannot be compared: the noodles are 440 kcal per 100 g dry, the soups 23 to 38 kcal per 100 g prepared.

Dry instant noodles: calories per portion

This row is the dry product, before cooking and before any water, oil, egg or vegetables are added. USDA prints two household portions on the record page: "1 package without flavor packet (81 g)" and "1 packet (5.8 g)". The record page does not say what the 5.8 g packet is, and it does not say whether the 440 kcal per 100 g includes the flavor packet. The record lists a 5.8 g packet without defining it, so we give the noodle block only. The 81 g figure is USDA's weight and the calories are our arithmetic.

The sums: 440 × 81 / 100 = 356.4, so 356 kcal, with protein 10.2 × 81 / 100 = 8.262 g, fat 17.6 × 81 / 100 = 14.256 g and carbohydrate 60.3 × 81 / 100 = 48.843 g. These are for the dry noodles and the powder, not for a cooked bowl: how much water you add changes the volume, not the calories, and the oil, egg, vegetables or leftover curry you add are extra.

Soup as prepared: calories per cup

These three rows are the soup as drunk, already made with water: USDA's record names say "prepared with water" or "with water". The weight of the cup is the one USDA prints on each record page, the per cup figures are our arithmetic, and the mix itself, before water, is not given a calorie figure in these records.

The sums: tomato mix 38 × 265 / 100 = 100.7, so 101 kcal; low sodium tomato 30 × 248 / 100 = 74.4, so 74 kcal; chicken noodle 23 × 245 / 100 = 56.35, so 56 kcal. The protein, fat and carbohydrate columns are the same arithmetic on the per 100 g figures, rounded to 0.1 g with half rounding up. USDA also lists 1 fl oz (31 g) for the low sodium tomato record, which is 30 × 31 / 100 = 9.3, so 9 kcal.

What stands out in the numbers

• Per portion, the packet is the larger number: about 356 kcal for 81 g of dry noodles against 56 to 101 kcal for a cup of soup, by our arithmetic.
• Per 100 g, the two kinds are not comparable. 440 kcal is per 100 g of dry product; 23 to 38 kcal is per 100 g of prepared soup, which is about 90 to 94 g water in the records (89.9 g in the tomato mix, 91.4 g in the low sodium tomato, 94.2 g in the chicken noodle soup).
• Fat is a large part of the dry noodles. The record prints 17.6 g of fat per 100 g, about 14.3 g in 81 g, against 1.6 g in a cup of tomato soup made from a dry mix (0.7 g in the low-sodium tomato) and 1.3 g in a cup of chicken noodle soup, by our arithmetic.
• The tomato rows differ by about 27 kcal per cup (101 against 74), because the two records are different products with different cup weights, not because of anything we can explain from the record.

How to log it so the numbers hold

• Log the dry weight. Weigh the noodle block before cooking, or read the grams on your pack, and use the per 100 g dry figure of 440 kcal. Do not use the soup rows for a noodle bowl.
• Add what you add. Oil, egg, vegetables, paneer or leftover curry are separate foods; our spoon guide gives a level teaspoon of oil or ghee, and our egg guide gives an egg.
• A cup of soup is the cup you drink. If your cup holds 300 g, scale from the per 100 g column; if you leave half, log half.
• Do not mix states. A dry mix figure and a prepared soup figure are different weights of different foods; log each as the state it is in.

Where NYUS fits (our app)

We make NYUS, so read this as ours. NYUS is an AI fitness and nutrition coach in early access on Android, with no ads and no data selling. You log foods yourself by searching 8,900+ Indian and global foods or by barcode, and a weekly check-in adjusts your calories, macros and step goal once enough is logged. Barcode coverage of Indian packaged foods is not complete, so search by name when a scan finds nothing.

What this page leaves out

• A calorie target or any claim about what these foods do to your weight or health: we have not looked up one for any person, so we give none. If you have a medical condition, ask your doctor or dietitian.
• Any named brand, pack label or FSSAI figure: not used, so the page does not mix label numbers with the records above. The weight of the packet or cup you have may differ from USDA's.
• Cooked or boiled noodle bowls, cup noodles, restaurant soups, Indian soups such as sweet corn or manchow, and canned condensed soups (those USDA records are per undiluted can, so we left them out rather than mix them with as-prepared figures): not covered here. Plain cooked noodles and pasta are in our cooked rice, pasta and noodles guide.
• An IFCT 2017 comparison: IFCT 2017 has no noodle, soup or ramen row (we searched all 585 pages of the PDF on 27 Oct 2026 for noodle, ramen, soup, instant, macaroni, pasta and spaghetti and found no row).
• Nutrients beyond energy, protein, fat and carbohydrate: not covered here.

Sources

• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy 171177 (Soup, ramen noodle, any flavor, dry): Energy 440 kcal, protein 10.2 g, total fat 17.6 g, carbohydrate 60.3 g per 100 g; household portions printed on the record: 1 package without flavor packet 81 g, 1 packet 5.8 g (read 27 Oct 2026).
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy 174569 (Soup, tomato, dry, mix, prepared with water): Energy 38 kcal, protein 0.93 g, total fat 0.61 g, carbohydrate 7.17 g, water 89.9 g per 100 g; household portion: 1 cup 8 fl oz 265 g (read 27 Oct 2026).
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy 171591 (Soup, tomato, low sodium, with water): Energy 30 kcal, protein 0.79 g, total fat 0.28 g, carbohydrate 6.57 g, water 91.4 g per 100 g; household portions: 1 serving 1 cup 248 g, 1 fl oz 31 g (read 27 Oct 2026).
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy 172925 (Soup, chicken noodle, dry, mix, prepared with water): Energy 23 kcal, protein 0.84 g, total fat 0.55 g, carbohydrate 3.67 g, water 94.2 g per 100 g; household portion: 1 cup 245 g (read 27 Oct 2026).
• ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (IFCT 2017), PDF searched on 27 Oct 2026 for noodle and soup terms: no row found.
• nyus.in, the NYUS landing page, read on 27 Oct 2026 for the app statements in the NYUS section and the CTA.

The per portion figures, the sums, the rounding, the comparisons and every sentence starting "Our reading" are NYUS's own arithmetic or opinion, not from USDA. The portions in the tables are USDA's, printed on the record pages above. The names in the first column are USDA's record names.

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