Chestnuts are the lowest calorie nut by a wide margin, containing roughly 213 calories per 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces). That’s less than half the calories of cashews and pistachios, which tie for the lowest among more commonly snacked-on tree nuts at around 560 to 570 calories per 100 grams. The gap is so large that chestnuts are nutritionally closer to brown rice than to other nuts.
Why Chestnuts Are So Much Lower in Calories
Most nuts get the bulk of their calories from fat. Almonds, walnuts, pecans, and macadamias are all between 50% and 75% fat by weight, which is why they pack so many calories into a small handful. Chestnuts are different. They have very low crude fat content compared to every other nut, and a much higher proportion of their weight comes from water and starch. Think of them more like a starchy vegetable wrapped in a shell than a typical oily nut.
That composition also changes how they taste and how you eat them. Chestnuts are mild, slightly sweet, and soft when cooked. You won’t get the rich, buttery crunch of a macadamia or the dense chew of an almond. They’re often roasted, boiled, or used in stuffing and baked goods rather than eaten raw by the handful.
Calorie Ranking of Common Nuts
If you’re comparing nuts you’d typically find in a grocery store snack aisle, here’s how they stack up per 100 grams (roughly two-thirds of a cup), based on USDA data:
- Chestnuts: 213 calories
- Cashews: 553 to 570 calories
- Pistachios: 560 to 570 calories
- Almonds: 580 calories
- Hazelnuts: 628 to 630 calories
- Walnuts: 650 to 654 calories
- Brazil nuts: 660 calories
- Pine nuts: 670 calories
- Pecans: 690 calories
- Macadamias: 720 calories
Per ounce (a more realistic single serving), macadamias come in at about 204 calories, pecans at 196, and almonds at 164. An ounce of chestnuts, by contrast, lands around 60 calories.
Best Lower Calorie Options for Snacking
Chestnuts win on the numbers, but they’re not always practical. They’re seasonal, need cooking, and don’t have the convenient grab-and-go quality of roasted almonds or a bag of cashews. If you’re looking for a lower calorie nut you can eat straight from the container, cashews and pistachios are your best bets at around 160 calories per ounce.
Pistachios have an added advantage: buying them in the shell slows you down. The extra effort of cracking each one makes it easier to eat mindfully and harder to blow through a full bag without noticing. Almonds sit just slightly higher in calories and offer a dense, filling crunch that can keep hunger at bay between meals.
Do Roasting and Flavoring Change the Numbers?
Less than you’d think. Raw and dry-roasted nuts have nearly identical calorie counts. An ounce of raw almonds has 161 calories, while dry-roasted almonds come in at 167. Raw pecans clock 193 per ounce versus 199 for dry-roasted. Even oil-roasted nuts are only marginally higher, because nuts are already so naturally fatty that they don’t absorb much additional oil during the process.
The real calorie jump comes from coatings and flavorings. Honey-glazed, chocolate-covered, or heavily salted and seasoned varieties can add significant sugar and calories on top of the nut itself. If keeping calories in check matters to you, stick with raw, dry-roasted, or lightly salted versions.
Nuts, Calories, and Weight
Even the highest calorie nuts on the list don’t appear to cause weight gain when eaten in reasonable amounts. A meta-analysis of 33 clinical trials found that people who added nuts to their diets didn’t gain weight, increase their BMI, or add waist circumference compared to people on nut-free control diets. Nuts are filling relative to their size, so people tend to compensate by eating less of other things throughout the day.
A good target is about four to six one-ounce servings per week, which works out to a small handful most days. One ounce is roughly 23 almonds, 19 pecan halves, or 10 to 12 macadamias. At that portion size, even calorie-dense macadamias add only about 200 calories to your day.
If you’re specifically trying to reduce calorie intake while still getting the heart-healthy fats and minerals that nuts provide, chestnuts give you the most volume for the fewest calories. But any nut eaten in moderate portions fits comfortably into a balanced diet.