What the two analyses measured
The Food Composition Tables for the Kingdom of Bahrain contain two separate studies of shawarma. One looked at local and western fast food, the other at ready-to-eat food. Both bought chicken and beef shawarma sandwiches in Bahrain and sent them to the laboratory whole, as sold. Each figure is the analysis of three pooled samples, so it describes a typical sandwich of that time rather than one shop's recipe.
The tables list the main ingredients as chicken or beef, sesame paste and vegetables, in a sandwich. They do not say which bread was used, how much sauce went in, or whether pickles or fries were inside, and those are exactly the things that change most from one shawarma counter to the next.
The two studies agree closely. For chicken, the fast-food sandwich measured 251 kcal and the ready-to-eat one 245 kcal per 100 g. For beef, the figures were 238 and 227. They are shown side by side rather than averaged, because each is a real measurement of a real sandwich, and an average would describe neither.
The fast-food rows are printed a second time in section 1 of the Bahrain tables, with a slightly different carbohydrate figure. It is the same analysis, so it appears once here, in the version whose energy agrees with its own protein, carbohydrate and fat.
Chicken or beef: what changes per 100 g
In both studies the chicken sandwich carried a little more energy than the beef one, mostly because it also carried a little more fat: 11.2 g against 9.4 g per 100 g in the fast-food study. Protein was close either way, between 15.1 g and 16.9 g per 100 g across the four rows.
After water, carbohydrate is the largest part of every row, which is the bread doing its job. That matters if you count carbohydrate around training: a shawarma sandwich is a bread meal with meat in it, not a meat meal with a little bread.
The beef rows also show roughly twice the fibre of the chicken rows, in both studies. The tables do not say why. More salad in the beef sandwiches is one possible explanation, but it is not recorded, so read it as a difference between those samples rather than a rule about beef.
Working out your own sandwich
A per-100 g figure only becomes a number for your lunch once you know the weight. No source used here publishes a standard sandwich weight, and shawarma sizes in the UAE run from a small roll to a long saj wrap or a rocket-style sandwich cut into pieces, so this page does not invent one.
- Weigh it. A kitchen scale with the wrapper removed is the whole method. If you buy the same sandwich often, weigh it once and reuse the number.
- Open the food calorie calculator, search for shawarma and pick the chicken or beef row from the study you want to use.
- Enter the grams. The calculator scales the same per-100 g record shown at the top of this page, so its answer matches this page.
- Add what the analysed sandwich may not have had. Extra garlic sauce, mayonnaise or fries inside the bread are separate foods; anything the calculator does not list is left out rather than guessed.
To see how a sandwich fits into a whole day, the calorie calculator estimates a daily target and the macro calculator splits that target into protein, carbohydrate and fat.
What these figures do not cover
- A shawarma plate. Rice, fries, salad and sauces on a plate make a different meal from the sandwiches that were analysed.
- Shawarma without bread. The meat was not analysed on its own, and taking a bread figure away from a sandwich figure would be a calculation, not a measurement. Arabic bread has its own rows if you want to count the bread separately.
- Lamb or mixed-meat shawarma. Only chicken and beef sandwiches were analysed.
- The sandwich from your usual shop today. The Bahrain tables were published in 2011, and recipes and sizes change.
Foods that have no usable published analysis yet are listed on the food calories page with the reason, instead of being given an estimate.
Shawarma in a training week
A sandwich brings a fair amount of protein alongside its bread, so it can sit in a training day like any other mixed meal; whether it fits depends on everything else you eat. The protein calculator gives a daily protein range for your weight and goal, and the guide to post-workout meals covers what tends to work after a session.
These figures are general information about a food, not dietetic advice. If you have a medical condition or follow a prescribed diet, plan your meals with a doctor or a registered dietitian.
Questions, answered.
How many calories are in a chicken shawarma?
Per 100 g, a chicken shawarma sandwich bought in Bahrain measured 251 kcal in the fast-food study and 245 kcal in the ready-to-eat study. A whole sandwich is that figure multiplied by its weight in grams and divided by 100, which the food calorie calculator does for you.
How much protein is in shawarma?
Between 15.1 g and 16.9 g per 100 g across the four analysed sandwiches, chicken and beef. The beef sandwich in the fast-food study had the most.
Is beef shawarma lower in calories than chicken?
In both Bahraini studies it was, by a small margin: 238 against 251 kcal per 100 g in one, and 227 against 245 in the other. Another shop's recipe could reverse that, so weigh what you actually eat.
Why are there two figures for the same sandwich?
Two separate studies in the Bahrain tables analysed shawarma, each from its own pooled samples. Their results are close but not identical, so both are shown. Neither is the right one, and averaging them would produce a number nobody measured.
How many calories are in shawarma without bread?
No analysis of the meat alone is published in these tables, so this page does not give one. You can count bread separately with the Arabic bread rows, but subtracting bread from a sandwich figure would only be an estimate.