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  |  Published: 16 May 2026  |  Last updated: 12 October 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.

Want a 25 calories food? Pick 100 g of spinach, papaya or french beans. A 40 calories food or a 60 calories food is mostly a matter of portion. For example, 200 g of cauliflower is about 46 calories, and 100 g of jamun is about 60.

For very less calories Indian food, start with the gourds. Lauki, snake gourd and turai are all under 15 calories per 100 g. These low calorie Indian vegetables are cheap and easy to find in every season.

Why Volume Eating Works

Your stomach has stretch sensors. When it is full, it sends a signal to your brain to stop eating. The size and weight of a meal matter a lot for this signal, not just its calories.

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.

Researchers at Penn State tested this in a lab with 42 women. Their conclusion: "Eating a low-energy-dense first course enhances satiety and reduces meal energy intake" (Rolls and team, 2004).

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. A good source of folate, with 142 mcg per 100 g.
• Bitter gourd (karela): 21 calories. Low calorie, with 3.8 g of fibre.
• Ridge gourd (turai): 13 calories. The second lowest on this list, after bottle gourd. Good with dal.
• Tomato: 19 calories. A good source of vitamin C.
• Cauliflower: 23 calories. Very filling and versatile.
• Cabbage: 22 calories. Make sabzi, salad, or soup.
• Brinjal (eggplant / baingan): 25 calories. Good roasted or in baingan bharta.
• French beans (fansi): 24 calories. Gives 4.4 g of 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: 60 calories per 100 g, a little above the 50 line. Health Canada counts 20 small jamuns as 60 g, about 36 calories. 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: about 5 calories with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Perfect morning drink.
• Plain buttermilk (chaas): about 30 calories when made from 60 g of curd thinned with water. Filling. Good with meals.
• Green tea (no sugar): 0 to 2 calories. A good swap for sweet chai.
• Fresh coconut water: about 31 calories per glass. Refreshing and filling.
• Vegetable soup (homemade, no cream): roughly 40 to 80 calories per bowl, depending on the vegetables and oil. 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

In lab studies, a large low calorie salad eaten first cut lunch by 12%. Soup eaten first cut the whole meal by 20%, about 134 calories (Flood and Rolls, 2007). 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 biscuits with tea: eat 1 guava of about 140 g (45 cal). More filling.
• Instead of 1 cup sweet chai with 60 ml milk and 2 teaspoons of sugar (about 75 cal): drink plain green tea (2 cal).
• Instead of a 30 g packet of potato chips (about 160 cal): drink 1 glass of plain buttermilk (30 cal).
• Instead of a 250 ml glass of orange juice (about 118 cal): eat 1 large bowl of watermelon, about 300 g (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 split matches the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition plate. In it, vegetables, fruits, leafy greens and roots form "essentially half the plate" (Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024). It keeps meals light while you still feel full.

Common Indian Foods That Look Low Calorie But Are Not

• Fruit juice: A 250 ml glass of orange juice is about 118 calories. 1 medium orange (131 g) is about 62 calories and much more filling.
• Dahi with sugar: A 125 ml katori of plain curd is about 66 calories. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar (about 33) and it is about 99. See how much protein is in dahi for the protein side.
• Roasted chana: A better pick than chips, but about 145 to 165 calories per 50 g. Eat a small handful, not a full bowl.
• Coconut chutney: Fresh coconut is 354 calories per 100 g, so 20 g of coconut in a serving is about 71 calories before the tempering oil. Adds up fast with idli.
• Poha: Dry poha is 354 calories per 100 g. A plate made from 60 g of dry poha is about 212 calories before oil and peanuts. Not low calorie, just a lighter grain.

Low Calorie Junk Food in India: Which Junk Food Has the Least Calories?

Short answer: Low calorie junk food is a snack that feels like junk food, crunchy, salty or sweet, but stays near 30 to 100 calories a serving. Fried junk food never does. The lightest swap is air-popped popcorn. One cup weighs about 8 g and has about 32 calories, while a 30 g packet of potato chips has about 160 (Health Canada, Canadian Nutrient File).

Fried and packaged snacks are built from oil, refined flour and sugar, the most calorie-dense things in an Indian kitchen. The vegetables in the table above sit between 11 and 36 calories per 100 g. Potato chips are 532 calories per 100 g (Health Canada, food code 4407).

India's own diet guide says the same. The ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition tells Indians to "Minimize the consumption of high fat, sugar, salt (HFSS) and ultra-processed foods (UPFs)". It says high fat foods "include all deep-fried foods", and names "french-fries, samosa, kachori, puri" (Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024, Guideline 15).

Here is junk food with less calories, per normal serving. Every value is measured:

The trick is volume, not magic. Popcorn is 382 calories per 100 g, so it is not light by weight. But a cup weighs so little that a big bowl stays small in calories. Butter, caramel or cheese close the gap fast. Read more in our guide to enjoying popcorn the healthy way.

Looking for low calorie tasty food rather than junk food? Bhel made with murmura, cucumber, tomato, onion, lemon and chaat masala is a full, tasty plate. Keep the sev and sweet chutney to a spoon each. For more ideas, see our healthy snacks that beat pakora cravings.

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 to 2 calories). Green tea with breakfast replaces sweet chai. If you drink 2 cups of sweet chai every morning, switching to green tea saves about 150 calories per day. On paper that is about 4,500 calories a month. Treat that as a rough guide, not a promise.

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 of about 140 g (45 calories). Both give you volume for very few 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 and cheap. In the Penn State study, women who ate a large low calorie salad first ate 12% fewer calories at that lunch, and a small salad cut 7% (Rolls and team, 2004).

Evening Snack

1 glass fresh coconut water (about 31 calories) or sliced cucumber with lemon and salt (15 to 20 calories). If you are very hungry, add a 150 g bowl of moong sprouts chaat. That is about 45 calories before any sev or oil, 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. In a lab study, soup before the meal cut the whole meal by about 134 calories (Flood and Rolls, 2007).

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. Two cups of sweet chai (about 150), one sweet lassi (about 200) and one glass of orange juice (about 118) already make about 470. Replacing these with low calorie drinks is one of the fastest ways to cut calories.

Warm lemon water: about 5 calories per glass with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Drink first thing in the morning. It is one of the easiest near zero-calorie morning habits. 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. Do not expect green tea itself to melt weight. A Cochrane review of trials found it gave "a small, statistically non-significant weight loss" in overweight adults, too small to matter (Jurgens and team, 2012). Its real value is that it replaces sweet chai.

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 and cooling. Much better than sweet lassi. A lassi made with 200 g of curd and 2 tablespoons of sugar is about 200 calories.

Jeera water: Close to zero calories if you strain out the seeds. Even 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds (about 2 g) has only about 6 calories. Boil water with jeera (cumin seeds). Drink warm in the morning or before meals. Many families drink it for digestion and bloating. That is a tradition, not a tested result. Very easy to make with a kettle.

Coconut water (fresh): about 31 calories per 200 ml glass, since IFCT 2017 measures it at 15 calories per 100 g. Good as an afternoon snack. A 200 ml glass of orange juice has about 94 calories, so coconut water has about a third of that.

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