Highest-Calorie Fruits: 6 of the Richest
Short answer: Coconut leads the everyday list at about 354 kcal per 100 g, followed by dates around 277, avocado 160, ackee 151, durian 147 and plantain 122. Two different things push a fruit up the ranking: fat (coconut, avocado, ackee) or concentrated sugar (dates). Most fresh fruits sit between 30 and 90 kcal, so these are genuine outliers. The compare table below shows each fruit's real calorie figure side by side.
| 🥥 Coconut | 🌴 Date | 🥑 Avocado | 🍳 Ackee | 🫚 Durian | 🍌 Plantain | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taste | Young coconut water is lightly sweet, nutty, and saline-fresh; the jelly is delicate and custardy. Mature meat is dense, oily-rich, and sweetly nutty — the flavor deepens dramatically when toasted. | Deeply sweet — caramel, brown butter, honey, and hints of cinnamon — with flesh from fudge-soft (Medjool) to firm-chewy (Deglet Noor). Fresh yellow Barhi dates are crisp and lightly astringent, a different fruit entirely. | Rich, buttery, and grassy-nutty with almost no sweetness — closer to an ingredient than a dessert. Hass is creamy and concentrated; larger green-skinned types are lighter and more watery. | Cooked ripe ackee is mild, creamy, and nutty with a subtle savory richness — often compared to scrambled eggs. It is treated as a savory vegetable, not a sweet fruit. | Rich, sweet custard with notes of caramel, roasted garlic, almond, and cream cheese; the aroma is powerful and sulfurous. Texture ranges from silky to fudgy depending on variety and ripeness. | Green plantain is starchy and neutral (potato territory); yellow turns tangy-sweet with body; black-ripe is dessert-sweet with banana perfume and caramel edges when fried. One fruit, a whole ripening menu. |
| Type | Tropical & subtropical | Tropical & subtropical | Tropical & subtropical | Tropical & subtropical | Tropical & subtropical | Tropical & subtropical |
| Peak season | Year-round | Autumn, Year-round | Year-round, Summer | Winter, Summer | Summer, Autumn | Year-round |
| Origin | Indo-Pacific coasts (Malesia region); ocean currents and Austronesian voyagers spread it worldwide | Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf; cultivated 6,000+ years — possibly the oldest orchard crop | South-central Mexico and Central America, cultivated for ~10,000 years | West Africa; a defining crop of Jamaica and the Caribbean | Borneo and Sumatra rainforests | Southeast Asia and New Guinea (like all bananas); Africa and the Americas made it a staple |
| Calories (per 100 g) | 354 | 277 | 160 | 151 | 147 | 122 |
| Sugar (per 100 g) | 6.2 g | 66.5 g | 0.7 g | 0.4 g | 15 g | 15 g |
| Vitamin C (per 100 g) | 3.3 mg | — | 10 mg | 30 mg | 19.7 mg | 18.4 mg |
| Fiber (per 100 g) | 9 g | 6.7 g | 6.7 g | 2.7 g | 3.8 g | 2.3 g |
| Potassium (per 100 g) | 356 mg | 696 mg | 485 mg | 270 mg | 436 mg | 499 mg |
| Typical price | Budget | Mid | Mid | Mid | Premium | Budget |
Most fresh fruit lands between 30 and 90 calories per 100 g, so the fruits that break that band do it for a specific reason. These six are among the richest, and the table below lists each one’s real calorie figure per 100 g so you can compare them directly.
Coconut tops the everyday list at about 354 kcal, and the cause is fat: 33.5 g of it per 100 g. Dates come next at roughly 277 kcal by the opposite mechanism — 66 g of concentrated sugar and almost no fat at all. Those two routes to a high number explain the whole list. Avocado (160 kcal) and ackee (151 kcal) are fat-driven and barely sweet, carrying 0.7 g and 0.4 g of sugar respectively. Durian (147 kcal) is the rare fruit that does both, with 5.3 g of fat alongside 15 g of sugar. Plantain (122 kcal) is the starch case: it is a cooking fruit, closer in role to a potato than to a banana.
A few fruits rank higher still but sit outside how most people eat fruit. Sapucaia, the paradise nut, reaches about 640 kcal per 100 g, and the oil-rich palm fruits karuka, buriti and tucumã all fall between 250 and 310 — these are eaten as nuts, oils and staples rather than as fruit, which is why the recognisable six above make the more useful list.
Worth saying plainly: calorie density is not a verdict. Avocado’s calories arrive with 6.7 g of fibre and a long list of micronutrients, and coconut’s with 9 g. These are fruits to eat in portions, not fruits to avoid.
Nutrition figures are per 100 g of edible portion and vary by variety, ripeness and growing conditions. This is general information, not medical or dietary advice.
Frequently asked questions
Which fruit has the most calories?
Among fruits people eat as fruit, coconut leads at roughly 354 kcal per 100 g, driven almost entirely by its 33.5 g of fat. Dates follow at about 277 kcal, but by a completely different route — 66 g of sugar and almost no fat. Higher figures exist among oil-rich and nut-like fruits that are eaten as nuts or cooking staples rather than as fruit: sapucaia (the paradise nut) reaches about 640 kcal, and karuka, buriti and tucumã all sit between 250 and 310.
Why is avocado so high in calories when it isn't sweet?
Because calories track fat, not sweetness. Avocado carries about 14.7 g of fat per 100 g and only 0.7 g of sugar — one of the lowest sugar figures of any fruit on this site. Fat provides roughly nine calories per gram against four for sugar, so a fruit can be rich and barely sweet at the same time. Ackee works the same way, at 15 g of fat and 0.4 g of sugar.
Are high-calorie fruits bad for you?
No — calorie density is not a quality judgement. Avocado and coconut are calorie-dense because of their fats, which come with fibre and micronutrients; avocado alone carries 6.7 g of fibre per 100 g. These fruits are worth eating in portions rather than avoided. The practical point is simply that a bowl of coconut is not nutritionally interchangeable with a bowl of watermelon.
What are the lowest-calorie fruits?
At the opposite end sit ash gourd, bitter melon, watermelon, chayote and cantaloupe, all at or below about 35 kcal per 100 g — mostly water. See our companion list of the lowest-calorie fruits for the full ranking.