The loss of conformational entropy is a major contribution in the thermodynamics of protein folding. However, accurate determination of the quantity has proven challenging. We calculate this loss using molecular dynamic simulations of both the native protein and a realistic denatured state ensemble. For ubiquitin, the total change in entropy is TΔS Total = 1.4 kcal·mol −1 per residue at 300 K with only 20% from the loss of side-chain entropy. Our analysis exhibits mixed agreement with prior studies because of the use of more accurate ensembles and contributions from correlated motions. Buried side chains lose only a factor of 1.4 in the number of conformations available per rotamer upon folding (Ω U /Ω N ). The entropy loss for helical and sheet residues differs due to the smaller motions of helical residues (TΔS helix−sheet = 0.5 kcal·mol NMR order parameters | molecular dynamics | helix propensity | sheet propensity | denatured state A n accurate determination of the loss of conformational entropy is critical for dissecting the energetics of reactions involving protein motions, including folding, conformational change, and binding (1-6). Given the difficulty of directly measuring the conformational entropy, most early estimates relied on computational approaches (2, 7-10), although, more recently, NMR methods have been used to measure site-resolved entropies (11). The computational methods often calculated the entropy of either the native state ensemble (NSE) or the denatured state ensemble (DSE) and invoked assumptions about the entropy of the other ensemble [e.g., assuming the NSE is a single state or that the DSE is a composite of all side-chain (SC) rotameric states in the Protein Data Bank (PDB)]. Most previous approaches focused on helices and omitted contributions from vibrations and correlated motions (12, 13), thereby partly accounting for the spectrum of calculated values.We address these issues by calculating the chain's conformational entropy from the distributions of the backbone (BB) (ϕ,ψ) and SC rotametric angles, [χ n ], obtained from all-atom simulations of the NSE and DSE for mammalian ubiquitin (Ub). This study extends our previous calculation of the loss of BB entropy that used an experimentally validated DSE (14). The calculated angular distributions reflect both the Ramachandran (Rama) basin populations and the torsional vibrations. Correlated motions are accounted for through the use of joint probability distributions [e.g., P(ϕ,ψ,χ 1 ,χ 2 )].The computed loss of BB entropy is 80% of the total entropy loss at 300 K. The BB entropy is independent of burial and residue type (excluding Pro, Gly, and pre-Pro residues) but depends on the secondary structure. Helical residues lose more BB entropy than sheet residues, TΔS helix−sheet = 0.5 kcal·mol −1 at 300 K, a difference not fully reflected by either amide N-H or carbonyl C=O bond NMR order parameters. The SC entropy loss, TΔS SC ∼ 0.2 kcal·mol −1 ·rotamer −1 , is largely independent of 2°structure and weakly correlated with burial. Combinin...