Low Calorie Foods India: What Is Under 20, 30 and 50 Calories

Low calorie Indian foods, sorted by how few calories they actually have

By InstaCuppa Team  |  Last updated: September 11, 2026  |  7 min read

To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. But that does not mean you need to eat less food. It means you need to eat smarter — choose foods that are low in calories but high in volume and nutrition.

Low calorie foods fill you up without adding much to your daily total. You can eat large amounts and still stay in a calorie deficit.

Here is a list of 20 common Indian foods that are very low in calories, with the measured value for each.

Which Indian Foods Are Under 50 Calories?

Short answer: almost every Indian vegetable is. Measured per 100 g, bottle gourd is 11 kcal, ridge gourd 13 kcal, watermelon 17 kcal, tomato 19 kcal, cucumber 20 kcal, bitter gourd 21 kcal and spinach 24 kcal. Nothing in the table below crosses 36 kcal per 100 g. All values come from the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017.

People search for a 20 calorie food, a 30 calorie food or a 50 calorie food. The table sorts them that way, so you can pick by number.

There is no such thing as a zero calorie food, which is the other thing people search for. Plain water and black coffee or green tea without sugar are the closest you get.

Why Volume Eating Works

Your stomach has stretch sensors. When it is full, it sends a signal to your brain to stop eating. This signal does not care about calories — it cares about volume.

Foods high in water and fibre take up a lot of space in the stomach. They trigger the "full" signal with far fewer calories than dense foods like biscuits, rice, or fried items.

The strategy: start every meal with high-volume, low-calorie food. A salad or soup before lunch and dinner means you eat less of the high-calorie main items.

20 Low Calorie Indian Foods and Their Calorie Counts

Vegetables (Per 100 g Raw, IFCT 2017)

• Bottle gourd (lauki): 11 calories. 95% water. Very filling.
• Cucumber: 20 calories. 93% water. Great as a snack or starter.
• Spinach (palak): 24 calories. Rich in iron and folate.
• Bitter gourd (karela): 21 calories. Low calorie and high in fibre.
• Ridge gourd (turai): 13 calories. The lowest on this list. Good with dal.
• Tomato: 19 calories. A good source of vitamin C.
• Cauliflower: 23 calories. Very filling and versatile.
• Cabbage: 24 calories. Make sabzi, salad, or soup.
• Brinjal (eggplant / baingan): 27 calories. Good roasted or in baingan bharta.
• French beans (fansi): 24 calories. High in fibre.

Fruits (Per 100 g, IFCT 2017)

• Papaya: 24 calories per 100 g. Soft, sweet and very filling.
• Watermelon: 17 calories per 100 g. 95% water. Excellent summer snack.
• Jamun: about 40 calories for 20 pieces. A short summer season fruit.
• Guava: 32 calories per 100 g, with 8.6 g of fibre. The highest-fibre fruit here.
• Amla (Indian gooseberry): 24 calories per 100 g, with 7.8 g of fibre.

Drinks and Liquids (Per 200 ml / 1 Cup)

• Warm water with lemon: 5 calories. Perfect morning drink.
• Plain buttermilk (chaas): 25 to 30 calories. Filling. Good with meals.
• Green tea (no sugar): 0 to 2 calories. Boosts metabolism slightly.
• Fresh coconut water: 45 calories per glass. Refreshing and filling.
• Vegetable soup (homemade, no cream): 40 to 80 calories per bowl. Very filling starter.

How to Use Low Calorie Foods in Your Day

Meal Starter Strategy

Eat a low-calorie, high-volume food before every main meal:

• Before lunch: 1 small bowl of salad (cucumber, tomato, onion) — 30 to 40 calories
• Before dinner: 1 bowl of vegetable soup — 50 to 80 calories

This alone cuts 100 to 200 calories from the rest of your meal. You naturally eat less rice, roti, and dal because you are partly full already.

Smart Snack Swaps

Most Indian snacks are high-calorie. Here are low-calorie swaps:

• Instead of 5 Marie biscuits (80 cal): eat 1 guava (45 cal). More filling.
• Instead of 1 cup sweet chai (80 cal): drink plain green tea (2 cal).
• Instead of 1 small bag of namkeen (200 cal): eat 1 cup plain buttermilk (30 cal).
• Instead of 1 banana + 2 biscuits (170 cal): eat 1 large bowl of watermelon (50 cal).

Fill Half the Plate with Vegetables

At every meal, fill at least half your plate with vegetables. Any sabzi — lauki, cauliflower, spinach, turai. Or a raw salad. These add volume and fibre without adding calories.

The other half of the plate: 1 bowl dal + 1 small bowl rice or 2 rotis + curd.

This simple plate division keeps most meals under 500 to 600 calories while feeling very full.

Common Indian Foods That Look Low Calorie But Are Not

• Fruit juice: A glass of orange juice = 120 calories. 1 whole orange = 60 calories and much more filling.
• Dahi with sugar: Plain curd is 60 calories per cup. Add 2 tsp sugar = 100 calories.
• Roasted chana: Healthier than chips but 170 calories per 50 g. Eat a small handful, not a full bowl.
• Coconut chutney: 90 calories per 2 tbsp serving. Adds up fast with idli.
• Poha: 270 calories per bowl — not low calorie, just a lighter grain.

Is There Any Low Calorie Junk Food in India?

Short answer: no, and the gap is not small. Fried and packaged snacks are built from oil, refined flour and sugar, which are the three most calorie-dense things in an Indian kitchen. The vegetables in the table above sit between 11 and 36 calories per 100 g. A fried snack is many times that, for the same weight.

So the honest strategy is not to find a low calorie samosa. It is to find something you enjoy eating that happens to be light. These swaps use foods already listed on this page:

• Craving crunch: cucumber sticks with lemon, chaat masala and salt. About 20 calories per 100 g.
• Craving something sweet: a bowl of watermelon at 17 calories per 100 g, or guava at 32.
• Craving something salty and warm: a bowl of clear vegetable soup, roughly 40 to 80 calories.
• Craving chai and biscuits: plain buttermilk, 25 to 30 calories a glass, or green tea at close to zero.

One more honest point. Nothing here makes a fried snack harmful in small amounts. The problem is the portion, not the food. Eat the samosa you want, once, and keep the rest of the day built from the table above.

A Sample Low Calorie Day for Indians

You do not have to count every calorie. Just follow this rough outline. It uses the low calorie foods from the list above at every step of the day.

Morning (Before Breakfast)

1 glass warm water with lemon juice — 5 calories. This is the easiest low calorie morning habit. It fills your stomach slightly, which means you eat a little less at breakfast. Do this every day before eating anything else.

Breakfast

1 bowl vegetable oats or 2 moong dal chillas. Start with a cup of green tea (0 calories). The green tea before or with breakfast helps you feel more full and replaces sweet chai. If you drink 2 cups of sweet chai every morning, switching to green tea saves about 100 calories per day. That is 3,000 calories a month — almost half a kg of fat.

Mid-Morning Snack

This is the most dangerous time of day for most people. Biscuits and chai happen here. Replace with 1 cup plain buttermilk (30 calories) or 1 guava (45 calories). Both are more filling than biscuits and less than half the calories.

Before Lunch

Eat a small salad first — sliced cucumber, tomato, and onion. About 30 to 40 calories total. This fills some stomach space before the main meal. You eat less rice and roti because you are already a bit full. This is the meal starter strategy. It is simple, cheap, and very effective. Most people who do this for 2 weeks notice they eat smaller lunches without even trying.

Evening Snack

1 glass fresh coconut water (45 calories) or sliced cucumber with lemon and salt (15 to 20 calories). If you are very hungry, add a handful of moong sprouts chaat — about 50 to 60 calories and very filling.

Before Dinner

1 bowl of vegetable soup — 40 to 80 calories. Homemade lauki soup, tomato soup, or any vegetable broth. Drink or eat this 10 to 15 minutes before your main dinner. You will eat smaller portions of rice and dal because you are already partly full. This one habit alone can cut 100 to 150 calories from dinner every day.

After Dinner

Plain warm water or herbal tea. No milk, no sugar. This keeps the kitchen closed for the night and stops late-night snacking — one of the biggest sources of extra calories in Indian households.

Best Low Calorie Drinks to Make Every Day

Drinks are the hidden source of weight gain for most Indians. Sweet chai, juices, and lassi can add 300 to 500 calories per day that you do not even notice. Replacing these with low calorie drinks is one of the fastest ways to cut calories.

Warm lemon water: 5 calories per glass. Drink first thing in the morning. This is the most popular and easiest zero-calorie morning habit in India. It costs almost nothing and takes 1 minute to make.

Green tea (no sugar): 0 to 2 calories per cup. Drink 2 to 3 cups a day. Replace afternoon chai. Replace the evening biscuit and chai habit. Green tea is also the most studied drink for weight loss — it slightly speeds up how many calories your body burns at rest.

Plain buttermilk (chaas): 25 to 30 calories per glass. The best drink to have with lunch or as a mid-afternoon snack. It is filling, cooling, and supports digestion. Much better than sweet lassi, which has 200 to 250 calories per glass.

Jeera water: About 5 to 10 calories. Boil water with jeera (cumin seeds). Drink warm in the morning or before meals. Helps with digestion and reduces bloating. Very easy to make with a kettle.

Coconut water (fresh): 45 calories per glass. Good as an afternoon snack. More filling than juice and far fewer calories. One glass of orange juice has 120 calories. One glass of coconut water has 45 — and it is more filling.

The main rule: if it comes in a bottle or a packet with added sugar — avoid it. Stick to drinks you make at home with no added sugar.

Common Questions