The lowest calorie cheese is cottage cheese, coming in at just 23 calories per ounce for the low-fat variety. Nonfat cottage cheese is even leaner, with about 81 calories in a full half-cup (4 oz) serving. After cottage cheese, the next lightest options are ricotta, feta, goat cheese, and mozzarella, in that order.
Low-Calorie Cheeses Ranked by the Ounce
Here’s how the most common low-calorie cheeses compare per one-ounce (28g) serving:
- Low-fat cottage cheese: 23 calories
- Whole milk ricotta: 42 calories
- Feta: 75 calories
- Soft goat cheese (chèvre): 75 calories
- Full-fat mozzarella: 85 calories
- Part-skim mozzarella: 90 calories
For comparison, most hard aged cheeses like cheddar and Gruyère land between 110 and 120 calories per ounce. That means cottage cheese has roughly one-fifth the calorie density of a typical block cheese.
Why Some Cheeses Are So Much Lighter
The calorie gap between cheeses comes down to water. Cheesemaking is a concentration process: you remove moisture and what’s left behind is a denser mix of fat, protein, and minerals. Soft, fresh cheeses like cottage cheese and ricotta retain far more water than aged varieties, so each bite contains less concentrated fat and protein per gram. A block of cheddar has been pressed and aged until most of that moisture is gone, which is why it packs so many more calories into the same weight.
This is also why reduced-fat versions of hard cheeses don’t save as many calories as you might expect. Switching from full-fat to part-skim mozzarella, for example, only drops you from 85 to about 90 calories per ounce (part-skim servings tend to be slightly larger by weight in practice). The real savings come from choosing a fundamentally wetter cheese.
Cottage Cheese: The Clear Winner
Cottage cheese dominates the low-calorie cheese category, and it’s not close. A standard half-cup serving of nonfat cottage cheese delivers about 81 calories and nearly 12 grams of protein. That protein-to-calorie ratio is hard to beat in any food, let alone one that counts as cheese. The low-fat (1%) version is nearly identical in nutrition.
The texture and taste are polarizing, though. If you find plain cottage cheese unappealing, blending it smooth turns it into a surprisingly good substitute for ricotta in lasagna, stuffed shells, or even as a base for dips. Whipping it with a pinch of salt and some herbs gives you a spread that works on toast or crackers for a fraction of the calories in cream cheese.
Ricotta: A Versatile Middle Ground
Whole milk ricotta sits at 42 calories per ounce, making it the second lightest option. Part-skim ricotta is even lower. Because ricotta is naturally creamy and mild, it works in both savory dishes (pasta, stuffed vegetables) and sweet ones (pancakes, desserts). It’s a practical swap anywhere you’d normally use a heavier cheese as a base or filling.
Ricotta also holds up well when heated, which gives it an edge over cottage cheese in cooked recipes where you want a smooth, cohesive texture without blending first.
Feta and Goat Cheese: More Flavor Per Calorie
Feta and soft goat cheese both land at 75 calories per ounce, which is higher than cottage cheese or ricotta but still well below most cheeses you’d slice or shred. Their real advantage is flavor intensity. A small crumble of feta on a salad or a thin smear of goat cheese on a sandwich delivers a strong, tangy punch, so you naturally use less.
Feta does tend to be high in sodium because it’s cured in brine. If you’re watching salt intake, goat cheese is the better pick of the two. Both work best as finishing cheeses rather than the main ingredient, which keeps portion sizes small.
Quark: A Lesser-Known Option
Quark is a soft, spoonable cheese common in European grocery stores and increasingly available in the U.S. A full cup (240g) contains about 173 calories and 32 grams of protein, with almost no fat. That makes it similar to Greek yogurt in texture and nutrition, but technically it’s a fresh cheese. You can use it as a high-protein swap for sour cream, cream cheese, or yogurt in most recipes. If your store carries it, it’s worth trying as an alternative to cottage cheese for people who dislike the curds.
The Parmesan Strategy
Hard aged cheeses are calorie-dense by the ounce, but that doesn’t mean they’re off limits. Grated Parmesan contains only about 22 calories per tablespoon, and because its flavor is so concentrated and salty, a tablespoon is often all you need to finish a bowl of pasta or top a soup. Thinking in tablespoons rather than ounces makes Parmesan one of the most calorie-efficient ways to add real cheese flavor to a dish.
Neufchâtel: A Smarter Cream Cheese
If you regularly eat cream cheese, switching to Neufchâtel is one of the easiest calorie cuts in the dairy aisle. Standard cream cheese runs about 350 calories per 100 grams. Neufchâtel, which looks and tastes almost identical, comes in at 253 calories for the same amount, roughly 28% fewer calories. The difference is fat content: Neufchâtel contains about 23 grams of fat per 100 grams compared to cream cheese’s 34 grams. Most people can’t tell them apart on a bagel.
Choosing the Right Cheese for Your Meal
The best low-calorie cheese depends on what you’re actually making. For meals where cheese is the main protein source (think a lunch bowl or a snack plate), cottage cheese or quark gives you the most protein for the fewest calories. For cooked dishes like casseroles, baked pasta, or stuffed peppers, ricotta or part-skim mozzarella melts well and keeps the calorie count reasonable. For salads, grain bowls, or flatbreads where you want a punch of flavor from a small amount, feta or goat cheese is the better call.
One practical tip: weigh your cheese rather than eyeballing it. A one-ounce portion of most cheeses is smaller than people expect, roughly the size of four dice for a block cheese or a thin slice about the size of your thumb. Knowing the actual portion size matters more than which cheese you pick, because even the lightest option adds up fast if the serving triples.