Which foods have the most protein per calorie?

What your result means and what to do next

• Pick three or four foods from the top that you like. Keep them in the kitchen and put one in each meal.
• If calories are tight, on a diet, on a GLP-1 or on 1,200 calories, stay with foods above about 15 g per 100 calories.
• If they aren't, look at the serving column instead. Sardines, firm tofu and lean steak carry as much per serving as chicken, with more calories.

Then put them into a meal in the meal line calculator. Eating mostly plants? The best plant-based protein sources, ranked has the plant list on its own.

Why per calorie

A protein day has to fit in your calories. 100 g of protein is 400 calories, so on a 1,600 calorie day it's a quarter of everything you eat. Foods with 15 g or more per 100 calories make that easy, and foods under 5 make it hard, however much protein the label shouts about.

It works like miles per gallon. A big tank tells you little until you know how far each gallon goes.

The surprises

• Shrimp (24.2 g per 100 calories), canned light tuna (22.6), cod and turkey breast (21.7) and egg whites (21.0) beat grilled chicken breast (20.2).
• Peanut butter and almonds have 3.7, less than a plain bagel (4.0) or a slice of whole wheat bread (4.9). They're good food, but not protein foods.
• 1% cottage cheese (17.2) matches nonfat Greek yogurt (17.3). 2% cottage cheese is 12.8.
• Farmed salmon (10.7) has about half the protein per calorie of cod (21.7).
• A large egg's yolk carries 43% of its protein, 2.7 of 6.3 g.

How the table works

Each row is one USDA FoodData Central record, SR Legacy unless marked branded, with its FDC ID linked. Grams per 100 calories is the protein in 100 g divided by the calories in 100 g, times 100. Servings are US servings, and cooked meat is weighed cooked unless the row says raw.