How many calories are in a souvlaki pitta and a souvlaki skewer

Souvlaki fits into a weight-loss plan, as long as you know what you are ordering. Three things decide its calories: the cut of meat, how many skewers you have and what comes on the side.

One note before the numbers. We did not find an official source for how much a skewer weighs. In the app we count about 60 g of cooked meat per skewer. A handmade skewer sold raw at 100 g gives about 75 to 80 g cooked. The weight varies from shop to shop, so the values are estimates.

Souvlaki in pitta in numbers

With values from the app’s database and the Ciqual database. The pittas have 40 g of tzatziki, tomato and onion.

The cut of meat

The biggest difference comes from the meat. For a 60 g cooked skewer:

For neck we use the values in the French Ciqual database for pork ‘échine’, the closest cut we found. Pork neck has twice the calories of chicken breast for about the same protein, because it has much more fat. We don’t know which cut each shop uses. If you want fewer calories, ask, or choose chicken.

The pitta and the sides

• Souvlaki pitta: our database uses the French ‘pain pita’, with 249 kcal per 100 g. We count the pitta at 85 g, which is our own assumption, so about 212 kcal and 1.15 g of salt. When it is warmed on the grill with oil, the calories go up, and we don’t know by exactly how much.
• Tzatziki: two tablespoons (40 g) have about 56 kcal.
• Mayonnaise-type sauces: these have many more. The ‘kebab sauce’ in the Ciqual database has 433 kcal per 100 g.
• Chips: 258 kcal per 100 g from a deep fryer, 213 when they are frozen and baked in the oven. A portion of 100 to 150 g adds 260 to 390 kcal. In the USDA database, fast-food chips have about 305 kcal per 100 g. The Greek National Dietary Guidelines suggest avoiding chips.

Chips inside the pitta or on the side can take a souvlaki from 450 to more than 700 kcal.

Gyros

Greek gyros is not in the app’s database, nor in the Ciqual database or the main USDA table we use. Another USDA table has a ‘gyro sandwich’, but we did not check it. The closest we found is the French ‘sandwich grec’, a pitta with doner-style gyros, vegetables and sauce, with 232 kcal per 100 g. A 250 g pitta like this would have about 580 kcal and 3 g of salt, and a 350 g one about 810 kcal. The French gyros, however, has different meat and a different sauce from Greek pork gyros with tzatziki, and we don’t know how much a typical gyros pitta weighs. So the numbers are a very rough estimate.

Salt

A souvlaki pitta has about 1.7 to 2.5 g of salt, without the chips. That is a third to a half of the 5 g recommended for the whole day. Most of it comes from the pitta and the tzatziki, and the rest from the seasoning on the meat, which varies from shop to shop. If your doctor has told you to cut down on salt, ask for less salt on the meat and leave out the chips.

Skewers without pitta

Three pork fillet skewers on a plate, without pitta, have about 300 kcal and 47 g of protein. With a horiatiki (Greek salad) or a cabbage salad on the side, they make a meal with plenty of protein. The salad has calories too, though, from the oil and the feta. See the article on tavernas and eating out.

How to fit it into your plan

1. Choose chicken or pork fillet instead of neck, if the shop has it.
2. One pitta with two skewers is a normal meal of 450 to 500 kcal.
3. Share the chips, or save them for your free meal of the week.
4. Prefer tzatziki to mayonnaise-type sauces.
5. Add tomato, onion or a salad for volume with few calories.

Souvlaki with pitta and tzatziki is one of the MesogeaFit recipes. The app works out how much meat fits into your dinner and shows you what is left for the rest of the day.

In pregnancy, the meat must be well cooked and the tzatziki made with pasteurised yoghurt. If you have coeliac disease, note that the pitta contains wheat.