Most soups are relatively low in calories compared to other meals, typically ranging from 100 to 300 calories per bowl depending on the ingredients. But the range is enormous. A bowl of clear vegetable broth might clock in under 50 calories, while a creamy chowder or cheese-based soup can easily exceed 400. The answer depends entirely on what’s in the bowl.
What Makes Some Soups Low-Calorie
Soup’s biggest advantage is water. Because a large portion of every serving is liquid, you’re consuming a lot of volume without a lot of energy. A bowl of broth-based vegetable soup, minestrone, or chicken noodle soup generally falls between 80 and 200 calories per cup. That high water content also helps explain why soup tends to be filling relative to its calorie count. Research on soup and appetite has found that eating soup before a meal reduces hunger more effectively than eating the same solid ingredients alongside a glass of water. In one study, chunky soup suppressed hunger significantly more than vegetables and water served separately, even though the ingredients and total volume were identical. Participants who started with soup also ate less during the rest of the meal.
This is part of why soup shows up so often in weight management advice. It fills your stomach, slows your eating pace, and delivers fewer calories per bite than most solid meals.
Where the Calories Add Up
The low-calorie reputation falls apart once you move beyond broth-based recipes. The ingredients that make soup rich and creamy are the same ones that drive up calories: heavy cream, butter, cheese, coconut milk, and starchy thickeners like flour or cornstarch. A cup of New England clam chowder typically runs 200 to 300 calories. Broccoli cheddar, one of the most popular restaurant soups, hits 360 calories per bowl at Panera Bread, with 21 grams of fat.
Protein-heavy soups with sausage, ground beef, or large amounts of pasta or rice also sit higher on the calorie scale. A hearty beef stew or loaded potato soup can reach 300 to 450 calories per serving, putting it in the same range as many entrées.
The general pattern is straightforward: the thicker and more opaque the soup, the more calorie-dense it tends to be. Clear broths and thin vegetable soups sit at the bottom. Cream-based and cheese-based soups sit at the top.
Canned Soup vs. Homemade vs. Restaurant
Canned soups vary widely, but most fall in the 100 to 200 calorie range per cup for broth-based varieties. The bigger concern with canned soup is usually sodium rather than calories. Many popular brands contain 700 to 900 milligrams of sodium per serving, and some exceed 1,000 milligrams. Even reduced-sodium options like Amy’s Light in Sodium Split Pea still contain 310 milligrams per cup. High sodium intake can cause water retention and temporary weight gain on the scale, which sometimes gets confused with actual calorie-driven weight gain.
Restaurant soups are a different story. Portions are larger, recipes are richer, and calorie counts climb accordingly. At Panera Bread, ordering soup in a bread bowl adds roughly 550 calories, 120 grams of carbohydrates, and up to 800 milligrams of additional sodium on top of whatever the soup itself contains. A bread bowl of broccoli cheddar tops 900 calories total, turning a “light” meal choice into something comparable to a burger and fries.
Homemade soup gives you the most control. You can keep calories low by using broth as a base, loading up on vegetables, and adding lean protein like chicken breast or beans. Skipping cream and limiting added fats keeps most homemade soups comfortably under 200 calories per generous serving.
Calorie Counts for Common Soups
- Chicken broth: 15 to 40 calories per cup
- Vegetable soup (broth-based): 70 to 120 calories per cup
- Chicken noodle: 100 to 170 calories per cup
- Tomato soup: 100 to 180 calories per cup (higher with cream)
- Split pea or lentil: 160 to 230 calories per cup
- Chili or beef stew: 200 to 350 calories per cup
- Cream of mushroom or broccoli: 200 to 300 calories per cup
- Broccoli cheddar: 250 to 360 calories per cup
- New England clam chowder: 200 to 300 calories per cup
How to Keep Soup on the Lower End
If you’re trying to keep calories down, the simplest rule is to start with broth or stock instead of cream. Vegetable, chicken, or bone broth all work as low-calorie bases. Load up on non-starchy vegetables like spinach, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and cabbage, which add volume and fiber without many calories. Beans and lentils are calorie-efficient protein sources that also make soup more filling.
When a recipe calls for cream, you can substitute low-fat milk, blended cauliflower, or pureed white beans to get a creamy texture at a fraction of the calories. Blending part of the soup itself creates thickness without adding any extra ingredients at all.
Watch portion sizes with toppings and sides. Croutons, shredded cheese, sour cream, and crusty bread on the side can easily double the total calorie count of what started as a modest bowl. A cup of soup with a thick slice of buttered bread is a fundamentally different meal from a cup of soup on its own.
For packaged soups, the nutrition label is your best guide. Under FDA labeling rules, a food can only be marketed as “low calorie” if it contains no more than 40 calories per standard serving size. Soups that carry this label are genuinely light options, while those marketed simply as “healthy” or “natural” may still contain 200 or more calories per serving.