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Indian dishes ranked by grams of protein per 100 kcal at realistic portion sizes, with ICMR-NIN and USDA numbers. The honest list for weight loss with…
If you are trying to lose body fat without losing muscle, the single most important number on your plate is not the calorie count of the dish — it is how many grams of protein come with each 100 kcal. The international literature on weight loss is consistent: at 1.2-1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight per day, you preserve lean mass through a calorie deficit; below 0.8 g/kg, you lose roughly a third of the weight as muscle [1][2][3]. For a 65 kg adult on a 1,400 kcal cut, that target is 80-100 g of protein. The arithmetic only works if every meal is built around dishes with a high protein-per-kcal ratio.
This is where most 'high-protein Indian food' lists go wrong. They quote the per-100g number for paneer (18g protein, 265 kcal) and call it a protein hero — but a typical restaurant paneer dish gives you 30-50g of paneer, which is 6-9g of protein, swimming in 400 kcal of gravy [4][5]. Tandoori chicken, by contrast, delivers 27g of protein in a 175 kcal leg. Egg whites give 11g of protein in 50 kcal. Cooked moong dal gives 7g of protein in 105 kcal. This article ranks the Indian dishes that actually deliver the ratio, sized the way you actually eat them, and shows what to build around when you are aiming for 80-100 g of daily protein inside a deficit.
The pattern that comes out of the numbers is uncomplicated. Lean animal protein — tandoori chicken, grilled fish, egg whites and Greek-style hung curd — gives you the best protein-per-kcal return on any plate, by a wide margin. Among plant-based options, the winners are pulses cooked with restraint (moong dal, sprouts, chana) and rehydrated soya chunks, not paneer or tofu sitting in cream and oil. Paneer is a useful ingredient but a portion-size trap: when you eat the 30-50g restaurant cube, you are getting 6-9g of protein, not the 18g the per-100g number suggests.
If you take one number away from this article, let it be 1.2-1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight per day on a deficit [1][2][3]. Work backwards from that. For most Indian adults on 1,400-1,600 kcal that means three meals, each delivering 25-30g of protein from one of the high-ratio dishes ranked below — a tandoori main, a katori of dal-with-sprouts, an egg-white scramble — rather than a single paneer dish doing all the work. The dishes you already know are mostly here. You just need to read the protein column, not the calorie column.
Sourabh writes about Indian cuisine, budget cooking, and the everyday nutrition questions that come up in Indian kitchens — chapati portions, dal protein, how to keep dishes balanced without losing the flavours families actually want. His pieces lean on credible sources (ICMR-NIN, peer-reviewed studies) and home-cook reality in equal measure.
Meet the editorial team →Built using verified nutrition databases, culinary research, and traditional cooking knowledge — every claim is cross-referenced against the sources listed in the article. Last reviewed May 2026.
Articles are curated using trusted food databases (USDA FoodData Central, IFCT), culinary literature, and dietary guidelines, then structured by our editorial team for clarity, accuracy, and usefulness.
Paneer bhurji done honestly: 80-100 g of paneer scrambled dry-heat with low oil delivers ~15 g of protein at ~230 kcal — about 1 g of protein per 15 kcal, in the league of grilled chicken. The single roti adds 3 g and 80 kcal; the kachumber adds fibre and volume for almost no calories. The whole meal lands around 25 g of protein in ~380 kcal, a clean fit for a weight-loss dinner that still tastes like dinner [4].
Moong dal cheela is one of the highest-ratio Indian breakfasts: the crepe itself is ground soaked yellow moong (no flour), giving ~12 g of protein at ~180 kcal for two medium cheelas. The paneer stuffing adds another 6-8 g of protein and the mint-coriander chutney is essentially calorie-free. Total around 18-20 g of protein in 250-280 kcal — better than most Western 'high-protein' breakfasts and gluten-free [4][6].
Simple egg curry built without cream or cashew paste delivers ~14 g of protein from two eggs at ~180 kcal of egg-and-gravy, and the ½ cup of cooked brown rice adds 2.5 g of protein and 110 kcal. The whole plate lands around 17-18 g of protein in ~310 kcal — proof that you can eat a curry, eat the rice, and still be under 350 kcal with a reasonable protein hit. Eggs are gold-standard for amino-acid completeness; the gravy here is restraint, not deprivation [5].
Besan cheela is a useful but middle-ratio plant breakfast on its own — 1 medium cheela is ~7 g of protein at ~160 kcal. What lifts this meal is the cucumber Greek yogurt raita: a 150 g katori of strained Greek-style yogurt adds 8-10 g of high-quality dairy protein at ~100 kcal. The pair lands at 16-18 g of protein in ~260 kcal, comfortable for breakfast and well above the ratio for most chana-and-poha-style Indian breakfasts [4][6].
