How Many Pounds in a Tablespoon?

Divide the tablespoons by the number of tablespoons in one pound of the ingredient. The divisor in the formula above is for water. For butter, sugar, flour and the rest, the converter swaps in the right number.

A pound of granulated sugar fills about 36.3 tablespoons. So 20 tbsp of sugar weighs 20 ÷ 36.3 = 0.55 lb, or about 8.8 ounces.

A single spoonful is a tiny slice of a pound, so this conversion is most useful for totals. To go the other way, see pounds to tablespoons.

The spoon size changes the weight, and the table below lists the three common sizes. The UK spoon is close to the US one, but the Australian tablespoon holds noticeably more.

That gap adds up across a recipe. If an Australian recipe calls for 10 tbsp of butter, that is about 0.42 lb, not the 0.31 lb you would get with US spoons.

A tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of flour look the same in the spoon, but they do not weigh the same. Sugar comes to about 0.44 ounce per tablespoon, flour only about 0.28 ounce.

Flour is full of tiny air gaps, while sugar crystals sit closer together. The table below shows the same spoon in pounds for six common foods.

Recipes often give butter by the tablespoon, but a shopping list works better in pounds. Add up the tablespoons across everything you plan to make, then convert the total once.

Say three recipes call for 6 tbsp, 8 tbsp and 10 tbsp of butter, 24 tbsp in all. A pound holds 32 tablespoons, so you need 24 ÷ 32 = 0.75 lb, which is 3 sticks.