How many calories are in litchis?
One litchi is about 7 kcal, ten are about 65 kcal, and peeled litchi flesh is around 66 kcal per 100 g. Per fruit that is almost nothing, which is the whole difficulty: litchis are eaten out of a bowl by the handful, and a handful has no natural end.
Per portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 g peeled flesh | ~66 kcal | 0.8 g | 16.5 g | 0.4 g |
| 1 litchi (~10 g flesh) | ~7 kcal | 0.1 g | 1.7 g | 0 g |
| 10 litchis (~100 g flesh) | ~65 kcal | 0.8 g | 16.5 g | 0.4 g |
| 20 litchis (~200 g flesh) | ~130 kcal | 1.6 g | 33 g | 0.8 g |
| 500 g whole, unpeeled (~330 g flesh) | ~220 kcal | 2.6 g | 54 g | 1.3 g |
| Canned in syrup, 1 cup with syrup (~250 g) | ~180–220 kcal | 1 g | 48 g | 0.3 g |
| Dried litchi, 30 g | ~80 kcal | 1 g | 20 g | 0.1 g |
What changes the number
Fresh or canned, which is the big one. Tinned litchis sit in sugar syrup. Drained, they are 75 to 90 kcal per 100 g; with the syrup poured over them, a cup is 180 to 220 kcal, so the syrup carries roughly a third of the total. Litchis canned in juice or water are much closer to fresh. The tins look similar, so check the label and drain by default.
Size and variety. Shahi, China and Bombai litchis run from about 12 g to 25 g whole, so “ten litchis” is anything from 50 to 100 kcal.
Drying and juicing. Dried litchi is around 275 kcal per 100 g, roughly four times fresh. A 250 ml litchi drink is 110 to 130 kcal, with no peeling, no chewing and very little effect on appetite — the worst value in the fruit.
Cooking is not a factor; litchis are almost always eaten raw.
Where it fits in a deficit
Litchi is about 82 per cent water and 66 kcal per 100 g, which is good value by the standards of the density ladder. Fibre is low for a fruit, around 1.3 g per 100 g, and protein is negligible, so it does not hold for long on its own.
The peeling is an accidental advantage. It slows eating to roughly one fruit every ten seconds, and twenty minutes is about how long satiety signals take to arrive. Pre-peeled litchis in a bowl lose that brake entirely.
Peeled weight and whole weight are not the same fruit
Skin and stone are 30 to 35 per cent of a litchi. That gap is large enough to matter at the quantities litchis get eaten in, and it cuts both ways.
Buy a kilo and you have roughly 660 g of flesh, or about 440 kcal — not the 660 kcal a per-100-g figure applied to the bag would suggest. But nobody buys a kilo to eat 100 g, either. Half a kilo is an ordinary evening for one person during the June season, and that is 220 kcal: more than a chikoo or a custard apple, and enough that it belongs in the day’s total rather than beside it.
The practical version is to count fruit, not grams. Ten is 65 kcal, twenty is 130, thirty is 200. Deciding the number before you start is the only thing that reliably works, and it is the whole of what a calorie deficit asks here.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.