A 3-ounce serving of cooked steak contains anywhere from about 7 to 16 grams of fat, depending on the cut. Fattier cuts like ribeye sit at the high end, while leaner options like top round come in much lower. The grade of beef, how you trim it, and whether the cattle were grass-fed or grain-fed all shift the number further.
Fat Content by Cut
The cut you choose is the single biggest factor in how much fat ends up on your plate. Here’s how popular cuts compare for a 3-ounce cooked serving, based on USDA data:
- Rib steak (ribeye): 10.8 to 16g total fat
- Tenderloin (filet mignon): about 14g total fat
- Top sirloin: about 12g total fat
- Top round: 7 to 9g total fat
The range within a single cut comes down to how much external fat is left on and what USDA grade you’re buying. A trimmed, lean-only ribeye clocks in around 10.8g of fat per 3-ounce serving. Leave the fat cap on a Prime-grade ribeye and you’re closer to 16g or higher.
What Kind of Fat Is in Steak
Not all of that fat is the same. Beef intramuscular fat breaks down to roughly 50% saturated fat, 45% monounsaturated fat, and 5% polyunsaturated fat. That ratio surprises a lot of people because nearly half the fat in steak is the same monounsaturated type found in olive oil.
Even within the saturated portion, about 30% is stearic acid, a type of saturated fat that research has shown does not raise LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels the way other saturated fats do. A 3-ounce broiled ribeye, for example, contains about 4.2g of saturated fat, 4.4g of monounsaturated fat, and 0.4g of polyunsaturated fat.
How USDA Grades Affect Fat
When you see Prime, Choice, or Select on a label, you’re looking at a marbling score. Marbling is the white streaks of fat running through the muscle itself, and more marbling means a higher grade, more flavor, and more fat per serving.
Prime beef requires “slightly abundant” marbling and is the fattiest grade. Choice requires a “small” amount of marbling and represents the middle ground most grocery stores carry. Select has only “slight” marbling and is the leanest grade you’ll commonly find. The difference between a Select sirloin and a Prime sirloin can easily be 4 to 6 grams of fat per serving, even though they’re the same cut of meat.
Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed
Grass-fed steaks tend to be leaner overall, but the bigger difference is in the type of fat. A 2025 study in the Journal of Animal Science comparing commercial grass-fed and grain-fed beef found that grass-fed had nearly four times the omega-3 ratio: the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio was 2.14 in grass-fed beef compared to 8.28 in grain-fed. A lower ratio is generally considered better for reducing inflammation.
Grass-fed beef also had higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (0.49% vs. 0.31%), a fat that has drawn interest for potential metabolic benefits. On the other hand, grain-fed beef typically has more total marbling, which is why it often tastes richer and scores higher on USDA grading scales.
Cholesterol in Steak
Cholesterol content is relatively consistent across cuts, ranging from about 71 to 82 milligrams per 3-ounce cooked serving. A broiled tenderloin steak comes in around 82mg, a top sirloin around 82mg, and a top round around 73 to 78mg. Porterhouse steak with the fat trimmed off sits at about 77mg. These numbers are fairly close regardless of the cut because cholesterol is found in the muscle cells themselves, not just in the visible fat.
How Trimming and Cooking Change the Numbers
Trimming the visible fat from a steak before or after cooking makes a substantial difference. Research published in Meat Science found that removing the external fat reduces total fat content by roughly 24 to 59%, depending on the cut and how much fat was there to begin with. On a ribeye with a thick fat cap, that could mean cutting fat from 16g down to somewhere around 8 to 10g per serving.
Cooking itself also reduces fat. Broiling, grilling, or pan-searing causes fat to render out of the meat, decreasing the absolute fat content by about 18 to 44%. This is why raw nutrition labels overestimate the fat you actually eat. A steak that shows 14g of fat raw may deliver closer to 10 or 11g once it’s cooked, assuming you don’t eat the drippings.
Choosing a Steak by Fat Content
If you’re trying to keep fat low, go with top round, eye of round, or top sirloin in Select grade, trim visible fat, and cook with a dry-heat method like grilling. You’ll land around 7 to 9g of fat per 3-ounce serving. If flavor and tenderness matter more and fat isn’t a concern, a Choice or Prime ribeye with the fat left on will run 14 to 16g or more.
Keep in mind that a restaurant steak is rarely 3 ounces. A typical steakhouse portion runs 8 to 12 ounces, meaning you could be eating three to four times the fat values listed above. A 12-ounce Prime ribeye, for instance, could contain 50g of fat or more before accounting for any butter or oil added during cooking.