5 foods under 200 calories per 100 g
This is the band meals are made of. Below it, 100 g is a garnish — a quarter-plate of cucumber, a spoon of yoghurt. Above it, 100 g is more than anyone serves. Here, for the first time, a per-100 g figure maps onto something you would recognise as a portion.
| Food | kcal per 100 g | Protein |
|---|---|---|
| Lentils, cooked | ~116 | 9.0 g |
| White rice, cooked | ~130 | 2.7 g |
| Whole eggs | ~143 | 12.6 g |
| Pasta, cooked | ~158 | 5.8 g |
| Chicken breast, skinless, cooked | ~165 | 31 g |
Alongside them: canned tuna in water (116), cooked quinoa (120), rajma and black beans (127–132), firm tofu (144), pork tenderloin (143), turkey breast (157), chickpeas (164) and cooked sockeye salmon (156).
Every figure above is cooked weight. That is not a detail — rice is 365 kcal per 100 g dry and 130 cooked, and the under-400 band is entirely about that gap.
What a plate costs
The useful thing about this band is that you can price a dinner in your head:
| Weight | Calories | |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast, cooked | 150 g | ~248 |
| White rice, cooked | 200 g | ~260 |
| Vegetables from the under-30 band | 200 g | ~50 |
| Oil for the pan | 1 tsp | ~40 |
| Total | 550 g | ~600 kcal |
A full dinner plate, 35 g of protein, 600 kcal. Swap the rice for lentils and it drops to 570 with 12 g more protein. Use two eggs instead of the chicken and it is 490.
That is the band’s real function: it is where you assemble, not where you economise. The savings were available further down the ladder; what this rung gives you is a meal that holds.
The cooking adds a third
In the bands below, the fat you cook in dwarfs the food. Here it does not dwarf it, but it is still the biggest single variable you control.
| Same food, 100 g | Calories |
|---|---|
| Boiled egg | ~155 |
| Fried egg, 1 tsp oil | ~196 |
| Scrambled with butter and milk | ~200–220 |
| Chicken breast, grilled | ~165 |
| Chicken thigh, roasted with skin | ~229 |
| Chicken, breaded and fried | ~250–300 |
The bird barely matters. The skin and the coating do — a thigh with skin is 40 per cent more than a breast without, and breading it adds as much again.
Rice and pasta are the opposite case: they are almost impossible to make worse by cooking, because they cook in water. What happens to them happens afterwards, in the sauce. A pasta portion of 200 g cooked is 316 kcal; the carbonara it arrives in is 400 more.
Where the band gets expensive
Two traps, both about portion rather than food.
Rice and pasta scale invisibly. A 200 g cooked portion is 260 kcal; a restaurant plate of 400 g is 520, and it does not look twice as big. Starch is the easiest thing in a kitchen to over-serve, because it goes in by the ladle.
Protein is cheap, so it gets dressed. Chicken breast at 165 kcal is the best value on the list, which is exactly why it tends to arrive marinated, glazed or with mayonnaise, and that is where a 250 kcal fillet becomes 450.
Who should ignore all of this
If you are training heavily, underweight, or struggling to hit a calorie target rather than stay under one, the whole argument inverts. This band and the ones above it are an advantage then, not a cost — getting 3,000 kcal a day out of the under-50 band is a full-time job.
Density is a tool with a direction. The size of your deficit decides which way to point it.
The rest of the ladder
Under 5 · under 10 · under 20 · under 30 · under 50 · under 100 · under 200 · under 300 · under 400 · under 500
Figures are typical values from USDA FoodData Central and product labels, and vary by variety, cut and preparation. General information, not medical advice.