Watching your calorie intake can help you lose, maintain, or gain weight. After all, calories are the fuel your body uses for energy, so they can be pretty important!
Sheep milk contains the most calories of any other type of milk, followed by buffalo milk and chocolate milk.
In this article, we’ll review seven of the highest-calorie types of milk and explain what makes them each so high in calories compared to many other types of milk.
What makes milk high-calorie?
So what makes some milk high in calories and others low in calories?
Calories come from three macronutrients – carbohydrates (carbs), fat, and protein. Of all of these nutrients, fat provides the most calories at 9 calories per gram (compared to 4 calories per gram for both carbs and protein).
Generally speaking, higher-fat milk is higher in calories compared to low-fat milk. Other things that can boost the calorie content of milk are added sugars, which raise the total carb content.
That doesn’t mean you won’t find high-calorie milk that is low-fat. For instance, flavored, high-sugar low-fat milk can be quite hefty in the calorie department thanks to all the added sugar.
7 of the highest-calorie milks
Without further ado, let’s look at all of the highest-calorie types of milk containing at least 140 calories per cup.
Barley milk – 140 calories per cup
What makes barley milk higher in calories is its high carbohydrate content. Barley milk contains 26 grams of carbs per cup, which is much higher than many other low-sugar milks (barley milk contains six grams of total sugar, three of which are added sugar).
Barley is a grain, and grains are high in starch, which makes the carb content high despite it not being overly sweetened or high in fat.
Goat milk – 140 calories per cup
Goat milk is slightly higher in calories than reduced-fat cow’s milk because of its fat content (seven grams of fat per cup, comparable to whole cow’s milk). Otherwise, it’s similar to cow’s milk in terms of its carb and protein content.
Goat milk isn’t any lower in lactose than cow’s milk, but it’s a good option for those with a cow’s milk allergy who want mammal-based milk with similar nutrition composition as whole milk.
Whole milk – 160 calories per cup
Whole milk contains the most fat out of all cow’s milk, which makes it higher in calories. One cup of cow’s milk contains 8 grams of fat, while reduced-fat and low-fat versions contain 5 and 2.5 grams, respectively.
Strawberry milk (whole) – 210 calories per cup
Flavored strawberry milk is high in calories due to both its fat and carb/sugar content. Like regular whole milk, strawberry milk contains 8 grams of fat per cup but is higher in carbs (25 grams per cup) due to the 14 grams of added sugar from the strawberry flavoring.
Chocolate milk (2% fat) – 220 calories per cup
Containing even more added sugar than strawberry milk, low-fat chocolate milk packs a lot of calories because of its 16 grams of added sugar per cup – the most sugar of any type of milk.
Buffalo milk – 237 calories per cup
Made from water buffalo, buffalo milk is high in fat, yet lower in cholesterol than cow’s milk. People who don’t tolerate cow’s milk might do better with buffalo milk because it only contains the A2 protein, which is thought to be more easily digested than the A1 protein found in most types of cow’s milk.
Sheep milk – 264 calories per cup
Sheep milk is the highest-fat milk (17 grams per cup, 11 of those being saturated fat), which also makes it the milk with the most calories. Because it’s so high in fat, sheep milk isn’t suitable for drinking plain. Instead, it’s used to make cheese and yogurt.
Nutritional comparison of high-calorie milks
| Per cup (237 ml/8 oz.) | Calories | Total fat (saturated) | Total carbs | Total sugars (incl. added) | Protein |
| Barley milk | 140 | 3 g (0 g) | 26 g | 6 g (3 g) | 4 g |
| Goat milk | 140 | 7 g (4 g) | 11 g | 0 g | 8 g |
| Whole milk | 160 | 8 g (4.5 g) | 11 g | 10 g (0 g) | 8 g |
| Strawberry milk (whole) | 210 | 8 g (5 g) | 27 g | 25 g (14 g) | 8 g |
| Chocolate milk (2% fat) | 220 | 5 g (3.5 g) | 33 g | 31 g (16 g) | 11 g |
| Buffalo milk | 237 | 17 g (? g) | 12 g | ? | 9 g |
| Sheep milk | 264 | 17 g (11 g) | 13 g | ? | 15 g |
FAQs:
Unsweetened almond milk has fewer calories than any type of cow’s milk (45 calories per cup compared to 90 calories per cup for skim milk). Sweetened almond milk will be higher in calories than unsweetened, so may come close to the amount of calories in cow’s milk.
Whole milk has the most calories compared to other types of cow’s milk, but it isn’t the highest-calorie milk overall. Sheep milk is even higher in calories compared to whole milk (264 calories vs. 160 calories per cup, respectively).
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