Got some time on your hands? We hope so, because if you’re trying to eat 100 calories of most vegetables, you’re going to need to chomp down on a whole lot of food.
Just look at the bowl of spinach below to see what we mean — it takes an impressive 14 cups to even get close to 100 calories.
For some snacks and most desserts, it’s pretty easy to overdo it and eat way more than 100 calories in a sitting.
And even though nuts have a ton of benefits, those add up to 100 calories pretty quickly, too.
But with vegetables, you can eat a LOT of them without worrying about how many calories they contain.
That’s what makes them such a great food for weight loss: You can eat a lot of them, they fill you up, but they don’t weigh you down with calories.
With all of that in mind, we created this handy visual guide that shows what 100 calories of different types of raw vegetables looks like.
This will help you understand how many veggies you can eat for a shockingly few amount of calories!
100 Calories of Spinach
14 cups spinach (about 15 oz.) = 97 calories
100 Calories of Bell Peppers
3 medium bell peppers = 93 kcal
100 Calories of Mushrooms
25 medium mushrooms = 99 calories
100 Calories of Brussels Sprouts
13 Brussels sprouts = 106 calories
100 Calories of Kale
13 cups (about 9.6 oz.) = 96 calories
100 Calories of Beets
100 Calories of Corn
⅔ cup corn = 107 calories
As a starchy food, you don’t get quite as much volume of corn for 100 calories as you do with most veggies.
100 Calories of Asparagus
32 medium spears asparagus = 102 calories
100 Calories of Eggplant
5 cups chopped eggplant = 102 calories
100 Calories of Celery
18 medium celery stalks = 101 calories
100 Calories of Cauliflower
3¾ cup chopped (about ½ large) = 100 calories
100 Calories of Artichoke
1½ medium artichokes = 90 calories
100 Calories of Broccoli
5 cups broccoli florets = 99 calories
100 Calories of Potato
¾ small potato = 98 calories
As a starchy food, you don’t get quite as much potato for 100 calories as with most veggies.
100 Calories of Cucumber
100 Calories of Lettuce
100 Calories of Green Bean
100 Calories of Carrot
4 medium carrots = 100 calories
100 Calories Zucchini
3 medium zucchini = 100 calories
100 Calories of Zucchini
0.85 cup peas = 100 calories
As a starchy food, you don’t get quite as much volume of peas for 100 calories as you do with most veggies.
Veggies and Weight Loss
When you’re trying to lose weight, volume is the name of the game, and vegetables are the MVP.
You can eat a large volume of veggies that will satisfy you, even though they don’t pack in a ton of calories.
That’s because veggies are filled with water and fiber — both of which help you feel full — and stay full for a while.
Consider how much fuller you might feel after eating 100 calories of lettuce (that’s one heck of a lot of salad) compared to how you might feel after nibbling a 100-calorie morsel of cookie.
Or, think about snacking on three whole bell peppers versus 10 cashews…both of which give you about 95 calories.
Plus, if you’re busy chomping down on 18 celery stalks, you’ll have less time to eat said cookie, which can also help with weight loss.
The Best Ways to Eat Veggies
Unless your name is Popeye, you probably don’t want to chow down on 14 cups of raw spinach.
Instead, try cooking the vegetables that have an enormous volume for 100 calories to make it more manageable.
This releases some of the water in vegetables, making them, in effect, shrink.
That means the daunting 14 cups of spinach will reduce to about two cups of cooked spinach.
The 25 raw button mushrooms it takes to get to 100 calories, when chopped and sautéed, will reduce to less than one cup of mushrooms.
Yes, this removes some of the water we mentioned before, but you’ll still benefit from the fiber and other nutrients. Plus, it means you’ll be more likely to eat it.
And don’t forget the seasonings. Use herbs and spices to add delectable flavor to vegetables.
Try fresh or dried parsley, thyme, rosemary, or tarragon, or a sprinkle of curry, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, and even cinnamon and nutmeg.
Not only will you want to eat your veggies, a study shows that you might actually end up eating more of them.
