How many calories are in lettuce?
About 8 calories a cup for romaine, 7 for spinach or kale, 5 for arugula and 7 to 10 for iceberg, depending on how finely it’s cut. A whole head of romaine is about 106 calories, which is less than one tablespoon of olive oil (119).
People sometimes swap romaine for iceberg, or kale for spinach, to save calories. The gap between the lightest green on this page and the heaviest is about 5 calories a cup. A single teaspoon of olive oil is about 40. Whatever you pick, the leaves will be the smallest number in the bowl.
What we’d do
Pick greens for taste and for what’s in them, and use a lot of them. Two cups of leafy greens count as one cup of vegetables in the US guidelines, and a big bowl of them costs you about 20 to 30 calories. Spend your attention on the dressing and the toppings, since that’s where the calories are.
Calories per cup, raw
| Green | A cup weighs | Calories | Also |
|---|---|---|---|
| Romaine, shredded | 47 g | 8 | About 1 g of fiber and 205 mcg of vitamin A |
| Spinach | 30 g | 7 | Three times romaine’s vitamin K |
| Kale, chopped | 21 g | 7 | Light and curly, so a cup holds little of it |
| Arugula | 20 g | about 5 | The USDA lists only small portions, so this is scaled up |
| Iceberg, shredded | 72 g | 10 | About 96% water |
| Iceberg, in pieces | 55 g | 7 | The same lettuce, packed looser |
The iceberg rows show how much a “cup” depends on the cut. Shredded iceberg packs 72 g into a cup, and pieces only 55 g. Our bowl builder uses the pieces, and our greens comparison uses the shredded cup.
Why lettuce has almost no calories
Lettuce is mostly water held in place by a little fiber. A cup of shredded iceberg weighs 72 g, and 69 g of it is water. Romaine is about 95% water too. Water has no calories, so the leaf ends up at about 0.15 calories a gram.
Olive oil is the opposite. It’s all fat and no water, at almost 9 calories a gram, so gram for gram it has about 50 times the calories of romaine. A head of romaine weighs 626 g, about a pound and a third, and still comes in under one tablespoon of oil.
What to do with this
- Use plenty of leaves. Four cups of romaine are about 32 calories and fill the bowl.
- Count the spoon. A tablespoon of ranch is 64 calories, as much as eight cups of romaine.
- Play the game. Our topping game ends with the head of romaine against the tablespoon of oil, and most people get it wrong.
For which green has the most vitamins, see what is the healthiest lettuce.
8 sources
- USDA Standard Reference, lettuce, cos or romaine, rawnutritionvalue.org
- USDA Standard Reference, lettuce, raw, iceberg (includes crisphead types)nutritionvalue.org
- USDA Standard Reference, spinach, rawnutritionvalue.org
- USDA Standard Reference, kale, rawnutritionvalue.org
- USDA Standard Reference, arugula, rawnutritionvalue.org
- USDA Standard Reference, oil, salad or cooking, olivenutritionvalue.org
- Gebhardt and Thomas, Nutritive Value of Foods, Home and Garden Bulletin 72, USDA Agricultural Research Service, 2002ars.usda.gov
- Daily Servings by Calorie Level, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025 to 2030cdn.realfood.gov
