Dates calories: dried tamr and fresh rutab, per 100 g

Dates sit on the table in many Gulf homes all year: beside the coffee, in a box kept for guests, and first at iftar in Ramadan. The Food Composition Tables for the Kingdom of Bahrain print them as two rows in section 1, the part that lists single foods, raw or processed, as they are eaten, apart from the home-cooked dishes of section 2. One row is dried dates, tamr, the kind sold in boxes and by weight through the year; the other is fresh dates, rutab, the soft, ripe dates of the summer season.

Section 1 is also where the tables borrowed. Their introduction says some of its values come from the composition tables of the countries Bahrain imports food from, without saying which rows. So the source of the date figures is not printed, and neither is the variety, where the fruit was grown or when it was analysed. Read both rows as general figures for dried and fresh dates, not as a measurement of the box in your cupboard.

The gap between the two rows is mostly water. The tables print a water figure for each row (it is not one of the columns above), and fresh dates hold far more of it, which leaves less room in every 100 g for everything else. Energy, carbohydrate, fat and fibre in the fresh row each come to roughly half of the dried row's figure, and protein to less than half.

Carbohydrate is most of a dried date by weight: 73 g per 100 g, more than the water in it. In the fresh row water comes first and carbohydrate second, at 37.6 g. Protein and fat are small in both rows, 2.2 g and 0.6 g per 100 g in dried dates, so for counting purposes dates are a carbohydrate food.

Many searches ask about one date, two, or five. The Bahrain tables publish no weight for a date, and dates vary in size by variety, from box to box and even inside one box, so this page gives no per-date figure. The figures are per 100 g of edible portion, which for a date means the flesh without the stone.

1. Take a handful of the dates you actually eat, ten or so, and remove the stones, or weigh them whole and take the weight of the stones off afterwards.
2. Weigh the flesh and divide by the number of dates. That is your own weight per date for that box or variety.
3. Open the food calorie calculator, search for dates and pick the dried (tamr) or fresh (rutab) row, then enter the weight of one date or of however many you plan to eat.
4. Keep the number, and weigh again when the dates change: the next box, or another variety, may run larger or smaller.

The calculator also lists two dried-date rows from the Indian food composition tables, dark brown and pale brown. They are separate records from another country's table: pick the one that matches your dates and use it alone, without mixing it with a Bahraini row in the same count.

To see how much of your day the dates take up, start with the calorie calculator for an energy target, then the macro calculator to see how much of that target is carbohydrate.

Sukkari, khalas, medjool and barhi come up often in searches in both languages. The Bahrain tables do not separate dates by variety, colour or stage of ripeness, so none of them has a row, and this page does not say which is higher or lower; they are listed with the reason on the food calories page. Also left out:

• Date syrup (dibs), date paste, and dates stuffed with nuts or coated in chocolate. Each is a food of its own; adding a nut or chocolate figure to a date figure would be a recipe estimate, not a measurement.
• Sweets served with date syrup. Luqaimat have their own page.
• This season's harvest. The tables were published in 2011 and do not print when the dates were analysed.

In Ramadan, many people break the fast with dates and water before the main meal; weigh your usual iftar handful once and the count holds for the month. The Ramadan meal plan spreads a day's calories, protein and fluid between iftar and suhoor, and the guide to training in Ramadan covers when to fit sessions around the fast.

Outside Ramadan, some people eat a few dates before or after a session. If you count carbohydrate around training, count the dates too, and remember they add little protein; the protein calculator gives a daily range for your weight and goal.

The figures here describe a food; they are not dietary advice for you. If you manage a medical condition or follow a diet set by a clinician, ask your doctor or a registered dietitian how dates fit into it.