Skinless chicken breast and turkey breast are the lowest-calorie meats you’ll find at a typical grocery store, coming in at roughly 90 to 95 calories per 3-ounce cooked serving. If you include seafood, white fish like cod drops even lower, around 70 calories for the same portion. But the full picture depends on the cut, the animal, and how you cook it.
The Lowest-Calorie Meats, Ranked
Here’s how popular meats compare when cooked without added fat, based on a standard 3-ounce (86-gram) serving:
- Cod: 70 calories
- Chicken breast (skinless): 92 calories
- Turkey breast (skinless): 93 calories
- Salmon: 99 calories
- Pork tenderloin: 120 calories
- Beef eye of round: 138 calories
The pattern is straightforward: the less fat a cut of meat contains, the fewer calories it has. Protein itself carries about 4 calories per gram, while fat packs 9. So two cuts with similar protein but different fat levels can have dramatically different calorie counts. That’s why a fatty ribeye can easily hit 250 calories per serving while an eye of round stays under 140.
Poultry: Your Best Everyday Option
Skinless chicken breast and turkey breast are nearly identical in calories, hovering around 92 and 93 calories per 3-ounce serving when roasted. Both deliver roughly 24 grams of protein with minimal fat. The key word here is “skinless.” Leaving the skin on adds several grams of fat per serving, which can bump the calorie count up by 30 to 50 percent.
Turkey breast is slightly leaner than chicken breast in some USDA measurements, but the difference is so small it’s not worth choosing one over the other for calorie reasons alone. Thighs, drumsticks, and wings contain more fat and therefore more calories. A chicken thigh with skin can reach 200 calories for the same 3-ounce portion. If calories are your main concern, stick with breast meat.
Fish and Shellfish Go Even Lower
White fish consistently beats poultry on calories. Cod clocks in at just 70 calories per 3-ounce serving because it carries almost no fat. Other white fish like tilapia, haddock, and sole fall in a similar range. Shellfish can be even more dramatic: five small scallops (about 30 grams) contain just 26 calories, and a single oyster has roughly 41.
Fattier fish like salmon sit around 99 calories per serving. That extra fat comes from omega-3 fatty acids, which have well-documented heart and brain benefits. So while salmon isn’t the absolute lowest-calorie option, it’s still lean by any reasonable standard, and the nutritional trade-off is worth it for most people.
The Leanest Beef Cuts
Beef has a reputation for being calorie-dense, but certain cuts are surprisingly lean. The USDA classifies a cut as “extra lean” if a 3.5-ounce serving contains less than 5 grams of total fat and less than 2 grams of saturated fat. Several common cuts meet that bar:
- Eye of round roast and steak
- Top round roast and steak
- Bottom round roast and steak
- Top sirloin steak
Eye of round is the leanest of the group, at about 138 calories per 3-ounce cooked serving. These cuts come from the rear leg and hip of the animal, muscles that do a lot of work and store less intramuscular fat. They’re noticeably tougher than fattier cuts, so slow cooking or slicing them thin works best.
Pork Tenderloin Rivals Chicken
Pork tenderloin is often overlooked, but it’s one of the leanest meats available. At about 120 calories per 3-ounce roasted serving, it qualifies as “extra lean” by USDA standards. The Association of Nutrition and Foodservice Professionals notes that pork tenderloin is just as lean as skinless chicken breast, and their comparison data actually shows it slightly lower in calories (120 versus 139 in their testing).
The important distinction is “tenderloin” versus other pork cuts. Pork shoulder, ribs, and bacon are far higher in fat and calories. Pork chops fall somewhere in between, depending on the cut and whether they’re trimmed. If you’re scanning the meat case for low-calorie pork, tenderloin is the one to grab.
Game Meats: Venison and Rabbit
Wild game is typically leaner than farm-raised meat because the animals are more active and carry less body fat. Venison (deer meat) is a standout. A pound of lean ground venison contains roughly 650 calories and 109 grams of protein. That works out to about 120 calories per 3-ounce serving, comparable to pork tenderloin and not far off from chicken breast.
Rabbit is another low-calorie game meat, generally falling in a similar range. These options aren’t always easy to find at a regular grocery store, but they’re increasingly available at butcher shops, specialty stores, and online retailers. If you hunt or have access to game meat, it’s one of the best protein sources from a calorie standpoint.
Organ Meats Are Surprisingly Lean
Beef liver contains just 133 calories per 100 grams, which puts it right in line with the leanest muscle meats. It also packs over 20 grams of protein per serving, along with exceptionally high levels of iron, zinc, and vitamin A. Liver has the highest protein content of all organ meats.
Heart is similarly lean. Organ meats aren’t for everyone, but if you’re open to them, they deliver a lot of nutrition for very few calories. The main thing to watch is cholesterol: beef liver contains about 274 milligrams per 100-gram serving, which is meaningful if you’re monitoring your intake.
How to Pick Low-Calorie Meat at the Store
You don’t need to memorize calorie counts for every cut. A few simple rules cover most situations. First, look for the words “loin” or “round” in the name of beef and pork cuts. These come from leaner parts of the animal. Eye of round, top round, sirloin, tenderloin: these names reliably signal lower-calorie options.
Second, check the label for “lean” or “extra lean” designations. The USDA regulates these terms. “Extra lean” means less than 5 grams of fat per 100-gram serving. “Lean” means less than 10 grams. Both are solid choices.
Third, visible marbling (the white streaks of fat running through the meat) is a quick visual guide. More marbling means more fat and more calories. A well-marbled ribeye tastes great but carries significantly more calories than a clean-looking eye of round. For ground meat, choose the highest lean-to-fat ratio available. Ground turkey or 96/4 ground beef will be noticeably lower in calories than 80/20.
Finally, cooking method matters. Grilling, baking, roasting, and broiling don’t add calories the way pan-frying in oil or butter does. A tablespoon of oil adds about 120 calories, which can nearly double the calorie count of a lean 3-ounce portion of chicken breast. If you’re choosing low-calorie meats specifically to manage your intake, cooking them without added fat preserves that advantage.