High-Protein, Low-Calorie Foods, Ranked by Protein per 100 Calories

How to read the number

Every gram of protein carries about 4 calories, so 100 calories of pure protein is 25 grams. Multiply a food's score by 4 and you get the share of its calories that comes from protein: chicken breast at 19 is about 76% protein, whole eggs at 9 are about 36%. The rest of the calories come from fat and carbohydrate.

A worked label check. A single-serve yogurt cup lists 15 g protein and 90 calories. Fifteen × 5 is 75, short of 90, so it is not in the top tier. Fifteen × 10 is 150, well over 90, so it clears 10. The exact score is 15 ÷ 90 × 100 = 16.7: a lean food. A "protein" granola bar listing 10 g protein and 190 calories fails the × 10 test (100 is less than 190). Its score is about 5: a snack with some protein in it.

The score does not change when food cooks. Raw chicken breast is about 22.5 g protein and 120 calories per 100 g; cooked, it is 31 g and 165. Water leaves, both numbers rise together, and the score stays near 19. Weigh raw or cooked, whichever you like, but use the label or database entry that matches.

Meat and poultry, ranked

The cut matters more than the animal. The same 120 g (4 oz) of ground beef carries the same 31 g of protein at 95% lean or 85% lean, but the 85% costs about 100 calories more. Chicken thigh is a fine food, just one tier down from breast; skin-on thigh drops further. Deli turkey is near the top, but brands vary a lot in sodium, so it works better as a lunch filler than as your main protein three times a day.

Fish and seafood, ranked

White fish and shrimp are the leanest whole foods you can buy: close to 90% of their calories are protein. Canned tuna in water matches them and needs no cooking, which makes it the most practical top-tier food for a desk lunch.

Salmon and sardines score lower because of their fat, and that fat is the reason to eat them. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest at least 8 ounces (about 225 g) of seafood a week, with fatty fish part of it. On a cut, keep salmon once or twice a week and use white fish or tuna for the other fish meals.

Dairy and eggs, ranked

In dairy, the fat level decides the tier. Greek yogurt goes from 17 to 14 to 9 as you move from nonfat to 2% to whole milk, with protein almost unchanged. If you like the thicker texture of 2%, mixing it half and half with nonfat lands around 15 and still tastes like real yogurt. For ways to eat cottage cheese that are not a sad bowl of curds, see the cottage cheese protein recipes.

Whole eggs are worth keeping. The fix is to stretch them with whites: 2 large eggs plus 150 ml (about 5 fl oz) of liquid whites gives about 29 g of protein for 222 calories, a score near 13, against 25 g and 288 calories for 4 whole eggs.

Plant proteins, ranked

Only three plant foods reach the top tiers: seitan, TVP and protein powder. Store-bought seitan varies a lot with what it is cooked in, so read the label; homemade from vital wheat gluten stays near 20. Tofu scores lower, and firmness moves it: firm and extra-firm sit around 11 to 13, soft silken nearer 9. Buy extra-firm when tofu is your anchor.

Beans and lentils sit at 5 to 8 because most of their calories are carbohydrate and fiber. That makes them a good carb that also carries protein, not your main protein. A vegetarian cut works best with one high-tier anchor per meal (seitan, TVP, egg whites, nonfat Greek yogurt or 1% cottage cheese if you eat dairy and eggs) and legumes on the side. Peanut butter is on the list only so you stop counting it as protein: 2 tablespoons is 188 calories for 8 g.

How to use the list when cutting

When calories come down, protein should not. Higher intakes help hold on to muscle during a deficit, which is why the protein target page moves the number from 1.6 to 1.8–2.2 g per kg of bodyweight (about 0.7 to 0.8–1.0 g per lb) while cutting; the reasoning and the sources are there. This list decides how many calories that number costs you.

A worked example. You weigh 80 kg (176 lb), aim for 145 g of protein a day (1.8 g per kg, the low end of the cutting range) and eat about 2,000 calories on your cut. If your protein foods average a score of 18, those 145 g cost about 800 calories, which leaves about 1,200 for carbohydrate, fat, fruit and vegetables. If they average 9 (whole eggs, cheese, fatty meat), the same 145 g costs about 1,610 calories and leaves about 390 for everything else. Same protein, a very different day.

The anchors alone show it. Two ways to build four meals:

The lean column gives 24 g more protein for about 425 fewer calories. You do not need every meal from the left column. Swapping two of the four anchors gets most of the gain, and it leaves room for the salmon and the eggs you actually like. The full-day menus, with carbs and vegetables added, are in the 100 g protein meal plan.

The simplest rule for a cutting plate: one anchor from the 15+ tiers, portioned for 30 to 40 g of protein, then vegetables, then a measured carb or fat. Thirty grams of protein for under 200 calories looks like this:

• 130 g (4.5 oz) cooked cod: 30 g, 137 calories
• 140 g (5 oz) cooked shrimp: 31 g, 140 calories
• 270 ml (about 9 fl oz) liquid egg whites: 30 g, 140 calories
• 100 g (3.5 oz) roasted turkey breast: 30 g, 147 calories
• 100 g (3.5 oz) cooked chicken breast: 31 g, 165 calories
• 300 g (about 10.5 oz) nonfat Greek yogurt: 31 g, 177 calories
• 250 g (about 1 cup) 1% cottage cheese: 31 g, 180 calories

Keep the pace sensible. A loss of roughly 0.5 to 1% of bodyweight a week is the range commonly recommended for keeping muscle while dieting; faster than that, and lifting performance and muscle tend to suffer. Keep training hard on your usual program, for example the 4-week beginner gym plan, because the lifting is the signal that tells your body to keep the muscle. If you are new and want to lose fat while gaining muscle, body recomposition covers that slower route.

Swaps that save calories without losing protein

The thigh-to-breast swap saves few calories but adds 9 g of protein, so it is worth making when protein is the number you keep missing. The salmon-to-cod swap saves the most, but keep at least one fatty-fish meal a week for the reasons above.

Mistakes that make a lean list stop working

• Cooking fat that never gets counted. A tablespoon of olive oil is about 120 calories. Pour it on 150 g (5 oz) of chicken breast and the meal goes from 248 to about 368 calories; the score drops from 19 to about 13. Fix: measure the oil, use a teaspoon (about 40 calories) or a spray, or cook in a nonstick pan, air fryer or oven.
• Sauces and dressings. Two tablespoons of ranch or mayo-based sauce adds 120 to 190 calories to a 150-calorie piece of fish. Fix: salsa, mustard, hot sauce, lemon, or a yogurt-based sauce made with nonfat Greek yogurt.
• Trusting the word "protein" on the pack. Chips, cereals, cookies and many bars use it while scoring 5 to 10. Fix: run the × 10 test. For snacks that pass it, see high-protein snacks ranked by protein per calorie.
• Mixing raw and cooked numbers. Weighing cooked chicken and logging it as raw undercounts protein and calories by about a quarter; weighing raw and logging it as cooked overcounts them by more than a third. Fix: pick one and match the database entry to it; what 100 g of protein looks like has the raw and cooked weights side by side.
• Living only in the top tier. A day of white fish and egg whites leaves fat and fiber too low and gets hard to stick to. Mainstream guidance puts fat at 20 to 35% of calories for adults. Fix: use top-tier foods to hit protein cheaply, then spend the saved calories on olive oil, nuts, whole grains, fruit and vegetables on purpose.
• Leaving it all for dinner. 145 g in one evening is a lot of chicken. Fix: put 25 to 40 g in each meal, starting with a high-protein breakfast.

Questions people ask

What food has the most protein for the fewest calories?

White fish (cod, haddock, pollock), shrimp, canned tuna in water and egg whites, all around 21 to 22 g per 100 calories. Whey isolate can reach 23. Nothing can pass 25, because protein itself is 4 calories a gram.

What is the leanest meat?

Skinless turkey breast and chicken breast, at 19 to 20 g per 100 calories, then pork tenderloin at 18. For red meat, 95% lean ground beef and trimmed eye of round or sirloin sit around 16 to 17.

What are high-protein, low-calorie foods for vegetarians?

Egg whites, nonfat Greek yogurt or skyr, 1% cottage cheese, seitan, TVP and protein powder are all 15 or higher. Tofu, tempeh and edamame sit near 10 to 11 and are still solid anchors.

Are eggs a low-calorie protein?

Whole eggs are mid-table at 9 g per 100 calories: about 6 g of protein and 72 calories each. Egg whites alone are 21. Mixing the two is the usual middle ground.

Will eating high-protein, low-calorie foods make me lose weight?

Weight change follows total calories, not any one food. These foods make it easier to eat enough protein inside a calorie target, and protein is filling, which helps many people stick to that target.

Is a high-protein diet safe?

The ISSN puts the range for people who train at 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg of bodyweight a day, and intakes in that range are considered safe for healthy adults. If you have kidney disease or another medical condition, check with your doctor before raising your protein.

Is protein powder necessary?

No. It is one of the top-scoring foods and the quickest one, but chicken, fish, yogurt and cottage cheese get you to the same number. Use it when it saves you a meal you would otherwise skip.

Where these numbers come from

Protein and calorie values are rounded from the USDA's FoodData Central database, for cooked foods unless the table says otherwise. Branded products, such as protein powder, deli turkey and tofu, are given as typical label ranges.

Protein targets and the note on higher intakes during a deficit follow the International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand Protein and exercise (Jäger and colleagues, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017) and the meta-analysis by Morton and colleagues (British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2018), which found gains in muscle from added protein leveling off around 1.6 g/kg a day. The 0.5–1% weekly loss rate comes from Helms and colleagues, Evidence-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: nutrition and supplementation (Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2014). The 20–35% fat range is the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range set by the US National Academies, and the seafood amount is from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.