A medium celery stalk (about 40 grams) has roughly 6 calories. A full cup of chopped raw celery comes in at about 14 calories. That makes celery one of the lowest-calorie whole foods you can eat, largely because it’s 95% water by weight.
Calories by Serving Size
The calorie count shifts depending on how much celery you’re actually eating. A single medium stalk, the kind that’s about 7.5 to 8 inches long, contains 5.6 calories, 1.2 grams of carbohydrates, 0.3 grams of protein, and 0.1 grams of fat. A cup of chopped celery, which is roughly two and a half stalks, lands around 14 calories. Even if you sat down and ate an entire head of celery (roughly 10 stalks), you’d take in fewer than 60 calories total.
For comparison, a single medium apple has about 95 calories, and a cup of baby carrots has around 50. Celery sits at the extreme low end of the calorie spectrum for any solid food.
Does Celery Have “Negative Calories”?
You’ve probably heard the claim that your body burns more calories digesting celery than celery contains. It’s a persistent idea, but it doesn’t hold up. Researchers tested this directly by feeding celery to bearded dragons (omnivorous lizards whose digestive process can be measured precisely) and tracking every calorie in and out. The lizards used about 33% of the meal’s energy on digestion, lost another 29% in waste, and still retained a net gain of roughly 24% of the calories they ate.
In plain terms, celery does cost your body energy to digest, but not enough to erase the calories it provides. That said, the researchers made a useful distinction: while celery isn’t truly “negative calorie,” it’s what they called a “negative budget” food. Eating it contributes so few calories that it easily fits into a daily calorie deficit, which is what actually drives weight loss. So the spirit of the idea isn’t entirely wrong, even if the math doesn’t work out to zero.
What Else Is in Celery
Celery’s nutritional value goes beyond its near-zero calorie count. A single medium stalk delivers 0.6 grams of fiber, 104 milligrams of potassium, about 14 micrograms of folate, and nearly 12 micrograms of vitamin K. That vitamin K content is notable: just a few stalks can contribute meaningfully toward the daily recommended intake (90 micrograms for women, 120 for men), and vitamin K plays a key role in blood clotting and bone health.
Celery also contains two flavonoids, apigenin and luteolin, that are relatively rare in the food supply. Few vegetables contain apigenin at all. These compounds have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, though the concentrations in a casual snack are modest. The fiber, while not dramatic at 1.6 grams per cup, adds up if you’re eating celery regularly alongside other vegetables.
One thing worth knowing: celery is higher in natural sodium than most vegetables, with about 32 milligrams per stalk. That’s a tiny amount compared to processed foods, but it’s enough to give celery its slightly salty taste. For most people this is completely insignificant, though it’s occasionally flagged in very strict low-sodium diets.
Raw vs. Cooked Celery
Raw celery retains more nutrients than cooked celery. Boiling in particular can leach water-soluble vitamins like folate into the cooking liquid. If you’re adding celery to soups or stir-fries, it still contributes fiber and flavor, but the vitamin content will be lower than eating it fresh. The calorie count stays roughly the same either way, since cooking doesn’t meaningfully change celery’s energy content.
Practical Ways to Use Celery’s Low Calorie Count
Celery works best as a volume food. Because it’s almost entirely water and fiber, it takes up space in your stomach without adding meaningful calories. Pairing it with something that has protein or fat (peanut butter, hummus, cream cheese) gives you a snack that’s both filling and satisfying. Two tablespoons of peanut butter on three celery stalks comes to roughly 210 calories total, with celery contributing fewer than 20 of those.
Dicing celery into tuna salad, grain bowls, or egg salad stretches the volume of the dish for almost no caloric cost. It also adds crunch and hydration, since that 95% water content means celery contributes to your daily fluid intake in a small but real way.