Highest Calorie Foods for Bulking (No Oils)
Some appetites cannot chew their way to a surplus, and this table is their shortcut: butter and whipped butter open at 718–717 kcal per 100g, pecans follow at 715–691, and the rest of the top twenty is a dense parade of walnuts, unsweetened baking chocolate, hazelnuts, sunflower kernels and nut butters. Calories per bite is the entire game when volume is the enemy.
How this ranking works
Sorted by calories per 100g, descending, from the Alkemos database rows. Oils and pure fats are excluded — spooning oil is a supplement trick, not a food — along with the family rules on spices and concentrates. What survives is food you can actually serve: butters, nuts, seeds, chocolate and dense baked goods.
The table: top 20
| # | Food | Calories (kcal / 100g) | Calories (kcal/100g) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Butter, whipped, with salt | 718 | 718 |
| 2 | Butter, salted | 717 | 717 |
| 3 | Butter, without salt | 717 | 717 |
| 4 | Nuts, pecans, oil roasted, with salt added | 715 | 715 |
| 5 | Nuts, pecans, oil roasted, without salt added | 715 | 715 |
| 6 | Nuts, pecans | 691 | 691 |
| 7 | Nuts, walnuts, english | 654 | 654 |
| 8 | Walnuts | 654 | 654 |
| 9 | Baking chocolate, unsweetened, squares | 642 | 642 |
| 10 | Nuts, hazelnuts or filberts | 628 | 628 |
| 11 | Seeds, sunflower seed kernels, toasted, without salt | 619 | 619 |
| 12 | Seeds, sunflower seed butter, without salt | 617 | 617 |
| 13 | Nuts, mixed nuts, oil roasted, without peanuts, with salt added | 615 | 615 |
| 14 | Nuts, mixed nuts, oil roasted, without peanuts, without salt added | 615 | 615 |
| 15 | Nuts, almond butter, plain, with salt added | 614 | 614 |
| 16 | Nuts, almond butter, plain, without salt added | 614 | 614 |
| 17 | Nuts, cashew butter, plain, with salt added | 609 | 609 |
| 18 | Nuts, almonds, oil roasted, lightly salted | 607 | 607 |
| 19 | Nuts, almonds, oil roasted, with salt added | 607 | 607 |
| 20 | Nuts, almonds, oil roasted, with salt added, smoke flavor | 607 | 607 |
Source: the Alkemos food database — the same rows each food’s page shows (per-100g values; every name links to that food’s full page).
Reading the table
The surplus arithmetic
A 300-calorie surplus that would take 900g of chicken is about 43g of pecans — less than a handful and a half. Two nut portions, a nut-butter sandwich and a bar of baking chocolate can quietly close a lean gainer's daily gap without a second dinner.
Density is not nutrition
The top of this table is energy, not a micronutrient plan: chocolate and nut butters carry sugar and saturated fat alongside their calories. A smart bulk leans on the nut and seed rows for their mineral story and keeps the sweeter rows as accessories — the bulking collection on this site stages the full plate.
Pair with the protein tables
Calories build the surplus; protein builds the tissue. The highest-protein and protein-per-calorie rankings on this site are the natural companions of this table — a bulk that only reads this page grows in the wrong direction.
Common questions
Why exclude oils if the goal is calories?
Because this page ranks foods, and a tablespoon of oil — while a legitimate surplus tool — is a supplement pattern, not a meal. Every oil is 884+ kcal per 100g and would simply be a list of bottles. The nut-butter rows give you a spreadable, servable version of nearly the same density.
How much of the top of this table is too much?
There is no universal line, but a practical guardrail: when nut portions, chocolate and butters start displacing protein foods and vegetables from your day, the surplus has stopped serving the bulk. Keep the dense rows as gap-closers after the protein anchor is placed.
Are dried fruits good for bulking?
Excellent on paper — dates carry around 282 kcal per 100g — but this table's scope excludes dried forms because their 100g serving misleads comparisons with fresh food. The dates page in the library carries their full macros; for the bulk itself, the nut rows above are the denser and more fat-complete route.
Turn these tables into a plan: the Calorie Calculator splits your daily budget into grams — free, no account needed.
New to this topic? Start from the curated Foods for Bulking collection — the hand-picked staples — then come back for the full ranking.