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Although vegetables are popular in weight-loss diets, some of them are actually calorie-dense, so to avoid picking the wrong ones it's important to know which veggies are low-calorie.
This article delves deep into the world of low-calorie vegetables and features a complete list that ensures you won't get out of ideas, whether you’re looking to prepare a green breakfast, a vitamin-filled dinner, or a healthy snack.
Vegetables that have less than 40 calories per serving are considered low-calorie, according to the U.S. Federal Department of Agriculture.[1]
But we need to know the usual servings of each vegetable to identify which vegetables are low-calorie. Luckily, FDA has us covered.[2]
Here are the usual serving sizes for different types of vegetables:
Dried vegetables or seaweed: 5 g (10 g for veggies packaged in oil)
Olives: 15 g
Vegetables used mainly for garnish or flavor, like parsley or pimento: 4 g
Fresh or canned hot peppers, green onion, pickled vegetables: 30 g
Vegetables without sauce: 85 g (95 g for vacuum packed; 130 g for canned)
Vegetables with sauce: 110 g
Pickled vegetables: 30 g
Vegetable juice: 240 ml
Sprouts: ¼ cup
Vegetables with the lowest calories
Vegetables can have from as low as 1 calorie to as high as a few hundred calories per serving, so if you’re trying to lose weight you must be careful which veggies you choose to eat.
Still wondering what vegetables are better for weight loss?
Your best choice: go for the vegetables with the lowest number of calories, the so-called zero-calorie vegetables.
Zero-calorie vegetables
Zero-calorie vegetables are vegetables that contain less than 5 calories per serving size, according to the FDA.[1]
But what vegetables have so few calories? There aren't many of them, that's for sure.
Here is a list of the 6 zero-calorie vegetables:
Pumpkin flowers: 1 calorie/4 g (2 flowers) serving
Cilantro leaves: 1 calorie/4 g (1/4 cup) serving
Canned pimentos: 1 calorie/4 g (4 slices) serving
Chives: 1 calorie/4 g (4 tsp chopped) serving
Canned mung bean sprouts: 4 calories/31 g (1/4 cup) serving
Dill pickles (cucumber): 4 calories/30 g (1 oz) serving
Tip: zero-calorie vegetables can be useful if you’re doing intermittent fasting and you hardly resist not eating during the fasting hours. So, the next time you’re hungry when you’re fasting, settle your hunger with a serving of mung bean sprouts or pickles.
Vegetables with the lowest calories per serving
Besides the 6 zero-calorie vegetables we’ve already talked about, there are more low-calorie veggies that deserve to be counted among the ones with the lowest caloric density, respectively the ones that will help you the most in your weight loss journey.
Here are the top 12 vegetables with the lowest number of calories per serving:
Pumpkin flowers: 1 calorie/4 g (2 flowers) serving
Cilantro leaves: 1 calorie/4 g (1/4 cup) serving
Canned pimentos: 1 calorie/4 g (4 slices) serving
Chives: 1 calorie/4 g (4 tsp chopped) serving
Canned mung bean sprouts: 4 calories/31 g (1/4 cup) serving
Dill pickles (cucumber): 4 calories/30 g (1 oz) serving
Kimchi: 5 calories/30 g (1 oz) serving
Garlic: 6 calories/4 g (1 small clove) serving
Jalapeno peppers: 9 calories/30 g (2 peppers) serving
Watercress: 9 calories/85 g (2 ½ cups) serving
Brussel sprouts: 9 calories/22 g (1/4 cup) serving
Green onion: 10 calories/30 g (1/3 cup chopped) serving
Considering the top above, we have the champions of the world of low-cal veggies.
The vegetables with the lowest number of calories per serving are pumpkin flowers, cilantro leaves, canned pimentos, and chives, all featuring only one calorie per serving.
Vegetables with the lowest calories per 100 g
If you don’t want to stick to the usual serving sizes when dieting for weight loss, then knowing what veggies have the lowest number of calories per 100 grams is a great way to find the ones that will help you stay on a caloric deficit.
Here are the top 10 vegetables with the lowest number of calories per 100 g (3.5 oz):
Watercress: 11 calories
Canned mung bean sprouts: 12 calories
Napa cabbage (cooked): 12 calories
Chinese cabbage (boiled): 12 calories
New Zealand Spinach (boiled): 12 calories
Bamboo shoots (boiled): 12 calories
Red leaf lettuce: 13 calories
Butterhead lettuce: 13 calories
Dill pickles (cucumber): 14 calories
White icicle radishes: 14 calories
As you can see above, the vegetable with the lowest number of calories per 100 g is watercress.
Low-calorie vegetables for weight loss
As there are many types of vegetables that are low in calories, we split them into groups and ranked them, so you can easily find your preferred weight loss veggies.
All the nutritional facts were grabbed from the FDA's official food database.[70]
Vegetables mainly used for flavor: 1-13 calories
Vegetables primarily used for giving food a better flavor are generally consumed in very small servings, so that is why most of them are low-calorie.
Whether you prefer classic pickled cucumbers or you love a serving of kimchi, you are on your way to losing weight since pickles are some of the vegetables with the lowest calories.
You’ll be happy to find out that the classic peppers and tomatoes can help you lose weight because many of these vegetables’ varieties have less than 30 calories.
Whether you love a juicy cucumber salad or some oven-baked pumpkin, you don’t have to abstain from these because cucurbit vegetables are low in calories.
As a quick summary, here is a printable chart showing all the low-calorie vegetables:
Low-calorie vegetables sorted by nutrients
Low-carb low-calorie vegetables
As the dietary authorities are yet to define low-carb foods, we considered low-calorie vegetables that get less than 30% of their calories from carbs as being low-carb.
However, since most low-calorie vegetables, and vegetables in general, have carbs as their main macronutrient, very few of them can pass as low-carb.
The only low-calorie vegetables that are low in carbs are olives, black or green.
High-protein low-calorie vegetables
A high-protein diet is a regime where more than 15-16% of the total calories come from protein, according to a nutritional study published by Cambridge.[68]
Therefore:
High-protein low-calorie vegetables are veggies that are low in calories and have more than 15-16% of their calories coming from protein.
Which vegetables meet the threshold?
Here are the low-calorie vegetables that are high in protein:
Vegetables mainly used for flavor, besides ginger
Kimchi
Canned mung bean sprouts
Snap peas
Chili peppers (green and red)
Yellow tomatoes
Sun-dried tomatoes
Green peppers
Cruciferous vegetables
Cooked bamboo shoots
Spinach
Green onions
Asparagus
Leafy vegetables
Cooked nopales
Cucurbits, like cucumber and zucchini
Mushrooms, besides the shiitake ones
Celery
Seaweed
Swiss chard
Beets
Although the above low-calorie vegetables are high in protein, most of them contain a lot of water, so it can be hard to eat enough of these to meet your necessary protein intake, especially if you’re looking to build muscle.
However, these high-protein veggies can still get you a welcomed bonus of proteins.
High-fiber low-calorie vegetables
Considering that:
A high-fiber food is a food that contains 20% or more of the daily value (DV) for dietary fiber, according to the FDA;
The daily value for dietary fiber is 28 g per day (based on a 2000-calorie diet).[69]
We know this:
Low-calorie vegetables that are high in fiber have at least 5.6 g of dietary fiber per common serving.
Looking through all the low-calorie vegetables, none of them are high-fiber because all of them have less than 5.6 g of fiber per serving.
The low-calorie vegetables with the most fibers are jicama (4.25 g/serving), followed by kale (3.4 g/serving) and chicory greens (3.4 g/serving).
Low-fat low-calorie vegetables
If you’re looking for low-calorie vegetables that are also low in fat, you have plenty of choices because most vegetables have no fat.
The only low-calorie veggies that have considerable amounts of fat are olives.
High-volume low-calorie vegetables
Low-calorie vegetables that fill you up the most are the ones that have a lot of water in their composition, a quality that makes them high in volume.
Here is a list of the high-volume low-calorie vegetables:
Vegetables mainly used for flavor, besides garlic, ginger, and the dried varieties
Pickles
Beans and peas
Peppers and tomatoes, besides the dried varieties
Cruciferous vegetables
Cooked bamboo shoots
Spinach
Onions and asparagus
Leafy vegetables
Cooked nopales
Cucurbits
Mushrooms, besides shiitake mushrooms
Celery, fennels, and carrots
Seaweed
Olives
Swiss chard
Beets
So, as you can see, all low-calorie vegetables, besides garlic, ginger, and the dried varieties, have at least 75% water in their composition while most of them have over 90% water.
Check out our list of high-volume low-calorie foods for more meal ideas that will fill you up, help you eat less, and ultimately make you lose weight.
How to eat low-calorie vegetables (and recipes)
You can serve low-calorie vegetables in many ways, from dipping them into sauces and eating them as snacks to making soups and preparing casseroles.
However, don’t forget that instead of stir-frying them, you should eat vegetables raw or steamed to keep their nutrients and low-calorie profile.
Below you can find ideas and recipes on how to consume your favorite low-calorie vegetables.
Low-calorie veggie dips
Vegetable dip platter photo credits: Abdulla Al Muhairi from Flickr (license)
One of the tastiest ways to eat low-calorie vegetables is to dip them in delicious sauces.
The expert dietitians from the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association have some creamy ideas for low-calorie veggie dips that can help you cope with a weight-loss diet.
Here are some of the low-calorie veggie dip recipes:
Soups made with low-calorie vegetables are especially good for weight loss because they are filling. After all, one of the core ingredients in a soup is water.
Therefore, you'll likely have a low appetite after consuming soups. This makes you eat less calories.
As for actual soup recipes that include low-calorie vegetables, you can start by following recipes coming from dietary experts linked to the National Library of Medicine, the WCRF, and the American Heart Association.
Here are some low-calorie vegetables you can eat as snacks:
Pickles
Peppers
Cruciferous veggies, like radishes, cabbages, and kale
Lettuces and chicory greens
Cucurbits, like cucumbers and zucchinis
Celery
Carrots
Beets
To obtain tastier snacks, combine the vegetables above with some low-calorie fruits, dairy, or starches, or use them as garnish along with some lean types of meats, like fish.
Find much more ideas that will help you create lean and delicious veggie snacks in our list of low-calorie foods.
Low-calorie vegetable salads
Maybe the most straightforward way of consuming low-calorie vegetables is to put them together and make salads.
One great vegetable salad recipe comes from the American Heart Association: chopped colorful veggie salad. One serving of this salad has 156 calories.
Low-calorie vegetable casseroles
Yet another tasty way you can use low-calorie vegetables in the kitchen is to make a casserole out of them.
Here is a delicious casserole recipe approved by the U.S. Department of Health that has low-calorie veggies at its core: Caribbean casserole. This tropical-inspired casserole has 185 calories per serving.
Frequently asked questions
Are vegetables high in calories?
Generally, vegetables are low-calorie, but that doesn’t mean that none of them are high in calories.
Not all of them, because some vegetables are high-calorie, which means they can actually make you gain weight easier.
On the other side, if you focus on eating low-calorie vegetables, you’ll find it simpler to lose weight since most of these vegetables are filling and don’t increase your daily calorie intake too much.
What vegetables burn the most belly fat?
Vegetables don’t burn belly fat, but they can help you stay on a calorie deficit. An exercise routine combined with a healthy diet that lets you stay on a calorie deficit will help you get rid of that stubborn abdominal fat.
Conclusion
When you know what vegetables are low-calorie and how to eat them so you don’t get bored, you’re very likely to see the scale’s numbers going down, and finally get closer to your weight loss goals.
Therefore, the next time you plan your grocery list, come back to this article and pick your favorite low-calorie vegetables, and maybe get inspired by some of the included recipes too.
Sources
Unfold Today has rigorous sourcing principles adhering to the top journalistic standards, so our writers always look for official, experienced, and first-hand sources. Read more about how we keep our content trustworthy and updated by reading our editorial process.
Claudiu Pop is a nutritionist, medical writer, journalist, and the founder of Unfold Today. He specialized in fitness and nutrition, especially in weight gain, by helping people increase their body mass since 2019 with over 20 articles published in the field.
Our content is not meant to replace professional medical advice.
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