Broccoli is one of the lowest-calorie foods you can eat. A full cup of chopped, cooked broccoli contains roughly 55 calories, and a cup of raw chopped broccoli comes in even lower at around 31 calories. For perspective, that same volume of cooked white rice packs about 205 calories, nearly four times as much.
Calories in Raw vs. Cooked Broccoli
Raw broccoli has fewer calories per cup simply because the pieces don’t pack together as tightly. One cup of raw chopped broccoli (about 91 grams) lands around 31 calories. Cooking softens the florets and stems, so a cup of cooked chopped broccoli weighs more (about 156 grams) and contains roughly 55 calories. Either way, you’d need to eat several cups before the calorie count became meaningful.
The cooking method matters a little. Steaming or boiling without added fat keeps the calorie count at that baseline. Roasting with olive oil or sautéing in butter adds the calories from the fat, not from the broccoli itself. A tablespoon of olive oil adds about 120 calories, which can more than double the total for a side dish. If you’re tracking calories closely, the broccoli is almost a rounding error compared to whatever you cook it in.
Why Broccoli Fills You Up
Broccoli’s combination of high water content, fiber, and sheer physical volume is what makes it so useful for people watching their calorie intake. A single cup provides about 2 grams of dietary fiber, which slows digestion and helps you feel satisfied longer. That might not sound like much, but most people eat broccoli alongside other foods, and the bulk it adds to a meal can reduce how much of the higher-calorie items you reach for.
The water content is the bigger factor. Raw broccoli is roughly 90% water by weight, which means you’re chewing and swallowing a lot of physical volume for very few calories. Your stomach registers fullness partly based on volume, so foods like broccoli trigger that “I’ve had enough” signal well before you’ve consumed many calories.
How Broccoli Compares to Other Foods
Calorie density is the clearest way to see where broccoli sits. One cup of cooked broccoli at 55 calories delivers 3% of a standard daily calorie target. One cup of cooked white rice at 205 calories delivers about 10%. That means you could eat nearly four cups of broccoli for the same caloric cost as a single cup of rice.
Among vegetables, broccoli falls in the typical range for cruciferous and green vegetables. Cauliflower, spinach, zucchini, and green beans are all similarly low, generally ranging from 25 to 55 calories per cooked cup. Starchier vegetables like corn, peas, and potatoes run two to three times higher. Broccoli isn’t uniquely low-calorie among vegetables, but it holds its own against any food category you compare it to.
Nutrition Beyond Calories
Part of the reason broccoli comes up so often in diet conversations is that it delivers a lot of nutritional value for its calorie cost. A single cup of cooked broccoli provides more than a full day’s worth of vitamin C and a significant amount of vitamin K, folate, and potassium. It also contains roughly 3.7 grams of protein per cooked cup, which is notable for a vegetable.
Broccoli also contains sulforaphane, a compound that forms when you chew or chop the raw florets. This compound has been widely studied for its role in supporting the body’s natural detoxification processes and reducing oxidative stress. Cooking reduces sulforaphane formation, so lightly steaming rather than boiling preserves more of it. If your goal is maximum nutrition per calorie, broccoli is one of the most efficient foods available.
Practical Tips for Calorie-Conscious Eating
If you’re using broccoli to keep meals filling without driving up calories, a few strategies help. Loading half your plate with broccoli or other non-starchy vegetables before adding protein and grains naturally limits the calorie density of the whole meal. Eating the broccoli first can amplify this effect, since the fiber and water start working on your satiety signals before you move on to denser foods.
For snacking, raw broccoli florets dipped in hummus or a light dressing give you volume and crunch for very few calories. A full cup of raw florets with two tablespoons of hummus totals around 100 calories, roughly equivalent to a single handful of almonds but far more physically satisfying in terms of chewing time and stomach volume.