How many calories are in green beans?
Boiled green beans are about 35 kcal per 100 g, so a cup — roughly 125 g — is about 44 kcal. They are an immature pod eaten whole, which puts them near the bottom of the density ladder. The word “beans” does a lot of work in English, and that is where the confusion about this number comes from.
Per portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw, 100 g | ~31 kcal | 1.8 g | 7 g | 0.1 g |
| Boiled and drained, 100 g | ~35 kcal | 1.9 g | 8 g | 0.3 g |
| 1 cup boiled (~125 g) | ~44 kcal | 2.4 g | 10 g | 0.4 g |
| Tinned, drained, 100 g | 20-25 kcal | 1.2 g | 4 g | 0.1 g |
| French beans sabzi, 1 katori (~150 g) | 90-110 kcal | 3 g | 13 g | 5 g |
| Green bean casserole, 100 g | 130-160 kcal | 3 g | 10 g | 10 g |
What changes the number
Not the variety. Runner beans are slightly lower at about 22 kcal per 100 g, and haricots verts and yardlong beans are within a few kilocalories. Boiling nudges the per-100 g figure up a little because water is driven off, not because anything was added.
What changes it is the pan:
- 1 tsp oil in a sabzi: about 40 kcal, and two is the usual hand
- 1 tbsp garlic butter over a 150 g serving: about 100 kcal, which triples it
- 15 g flaked almonds, as in beans amandine: about 90 kcal
- Green bean casserole: cream soup and fried onions take 100 g from 35 kcal to 130-160
Two hundred grams is 70 kcal steamed and over 250 once the butter and almonds are on. The cooking medium matters several times more than the vegetable.
Where it fits in a deficit
Green beans are one of the better bulk vegetables: they hold their texture and take chewing. A 250 g serving is about 90 kcal with 7 g of fibre — a third of a plate for almost nothing, which is the mechanism behind high-volume eating.
The limits are the usual ones. At 1.9 g of protein per 100 g they are not a protein source despite the name, and fullness built on water and fibre fades within an hour or two. In a calorie deficit their job is displacement: taking the plate space something at 200 kcal per 100 g would have had.
Green beans are not pulses
This is the distinction worth getting right, because recipes and menus use one word for both.
| Boiled, 100 g | Calories | Protein |
|---|---|---|
| Green beans | ~35 kcal | 1.9 g |
| Edamame, shelled | ~120 kcal | 11 g |
| Broad beans | ~110 kcal | 8 g |
| Rajma, kidney beans | ~125 kcal | 9 g |
| Chickpeas | ~165 kcal | 9 g |
A green bean is a pod picked before the seed inside develops: mostly water and fibre. A pulse is that seed left to mature and dry, which is where the starch and protein go: three to five times the calories and four to five times the protein, weight for weight.
Neither is better; they do different jobs. A katori of rajma is 180-220 kcal and holds for hours, so it belongs in the protein-and-starch part of a meal. A katori of French beans is 90-110 kcal and belongs in the bulk part, beside cabbage. Swapping one for the other because both are “beans” moves a meal by a few hundred calories.
Peas sit between the two, which is the clue: a fresh pea is that seed picked young, at about 85 kcal per 100 g. Dried, it becomes a split pea at 340.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.