Chole or Rajma for Weight Loss: Protein and kcal

By NYUS Inc. · Updated 12 November 2026

Chole or rajma: which has more protein and calories?

Per 100 g boiled: chole 164 kcal and 8.86 g protein, rajma 127 kcal and 8.67 g.

Chole has a little more of everything: the gaps are 0.2 g protein and 37 kcal (our arithmetic). No pick for weight loss: 5 g of oil in the masala adds about 45 kcal, worked out below. 150 g is a weight we chose, not a standard katori; fibre per 150 g is 9.6 g for rajma and 11.4 g for chole.

Rajma chawal and chole bhature are two of India's most-loved comfort meals, and both get accused of being "too heavy" for a diet. So chole or rajma: which is better for weight loss, and which has more protein? The honest answer is that plain, cooked, they're nearly a tie. What actually decides the outcome is the gravy — and a dry-weight trap that makes packet nutrition labels look far better than what lands on your plate.

The one-line answer

Plain and cooked, rajma and chole are nutritionally close to identical — boiled kidney beans list about 127 kcal and 8.7 g protein per 100 g and boiled chickpeas about 164 kcal and 8.9 g (USDA FoodData Central). Neither is the clear winner on paper. What actually moves the needle is how much oil goes into the masala, and whether you're comparing dry-weight numbers to what's actually cooked on your plate. This page gives no calorie target; the numbers only show where the energy comes from.

Rajma vs chole: the numbers

Here's the plain, cooked comparison first — no gravy, no oil, just the boiled legume. Source: USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, per 100 g boiled without salt: kidney beans FDC 173740, chickpeas FDC 173757. Values shift with variety and cooking time. For chole made into a masala, with the oil and gravy counted, see our chana masala guide.

Chole lists 37 kcal more per 100 g (164 against 127) and 1.2 g more fibre (7.6 against 6.4); protein is within 0.2 g (our arithmetic on the USDA values). Whether 37 kcal matters depends on the rest of your day, so we give no pick.

A katori of beans, and what oil adds

A katori has no fixed weight. Taking 150 g of boiled beans (a weight we chose, not a standard) and multiplying the USDA per-100 g values by 1.5 gives the table below, for the beans alone with no oil, gravy or salt.

The masala comes on top. The Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024 list cooking oil at 900 kcal per 100 g (Table 1.3, PDF p. 25), so each 5 g of oil or ghee in the gravy adds about 45 kcal (our arithmetic), and the guidelines' sample menus put 5 to 15 g of cooking oil in a single meal (Figures 9.1 and 9.2). Cashew paste or cream add energy too, and we have no figure for them, so we give no calorie range for a restaurant masala. Check the recipe, or the restaurant's own listing, before you trust a number. A home rajma masala and a rajma chawal plate are worked out from IFCT rows, with the oil and rice shown apart, in our rajma masala guide.

The dry-vs-cooked trap

Dry legumes list far more protein per 100 g than cooked ones. IFCT 2017 gives 19.01 to 19.91 g protein per 100 g for dry rajma (black B018, brown B019, red B020) and 18.77 g for dry whole Bengal gram, chana (B002), against 8.67 g for boiled kidney beans and 8.86 g for boiled chickpeas in USDA. That is a drop of about half or more once the beans are soaked and boiled and have taken up water. The labs and varieties differ, so read it as the size of the effect, not an exact ratio. It is the same trap that catches soya chunks: compare cooked with cooked, or dry with dry.

What the numbers show

• Protein and fibre. Boiled rajma lists 8.67 g protein and 6.4 g fibre per 100 g, and boiled chole 8.86 g and 7.6 g (USDA). For how legumes compare with dal, paneer and whey on cost, see our protein-per-rupee comparison; for dal and rice together, see dal chawal.
• What they do not show. These tables do not tell you how full you will feel, how your blood sugar will respond, or how much to eat; this page makes no such claim.

The two books also differ on the dry pulses themselves: brown rajmah is 297.6 kcal per 100 g in IFCT 2017 (row B019) against 333 kcal for USDA SR Legacy 175193 (kidney beans, raw), and whole chana 287.0 against 378 kcal (row B002; 173756). IFCT prints available carbohydrate and USDA carbohydrate by difference, which includes fibre; the rows and the reason are in IFCT 2017 vs USDA: 29 Indian foods compared.

Where rajma and chole go wrong

• The oil-heavy gravy. Oil and ghee add about 9 kcal per gram (900 kcal per 100 g, DGI 2024 Table 1.3), and cashew paste or cream add more, none of it with meaningful protein. How much goes in depends on the recipe.
• What they're served with. Rajma is often served with rice and chole with bhature, a deep-fried bread. Those sides change the total, so look at them as well as the beans: see chole bhature calories.
• Comparing dry-weight labels to your plate. If you're logging "20g protein per 100g" from a dry-legume packet against a cooked, watered-down portion, you'll overestimate your protein intake for the day.

How to build a rajma or chole plate

1. Measure the oil, don't pour it. Each 5 g of oil or ghee adds about 45 kcal (DGI 2024 Table 1.3), so weighing it lets you see what the tadka costs.
2. Portion the rice or roti separately. Use the same approach as roti vs rice — decide the grain portion before you sit down, and let the beans carry the protein.
3. Skip the bhature, keep the chole. If you swap deep-fried bhature for roti or a small portion of rice, the fried dough leaves the total; check the swap against the food entries you use.
4. Log cooked weight, not dry. If you're tracking macros, use the cooked, as-eaten weight of the beans, not the dry-packet number.
5. Add a side of salad or curd. A katori of curd or a kachumber salad adds volume; look up its calories in our curd guide or your tracker rather than assume.

The base matters as much as the bowl: compare brown rice vs white rice for weight loss, or swap in a millet with millets vs rice and wheat (bajra, jowar, ragi). For the three millets row by row, see ragi vs bajra vs jowar nutrition.

What actually decides weight loss

No single legume decides a weight-loss diet, and this page gives no calorie target. If you want to estimate your own need, start with our India TDEE and calorie guide. For exact numbers on the rest of your plate, see our calories and macros of common Indian foods reference.

A note on health

This article is general educational content, not medical advice. Calorie and protein figures are table values that vary by variety, soaking time and how a dish is cooked. Legumes can cause bloating in some people and require care in certain kidney conditions — if you have a medical condition or are unsure how legumes fit your diet, consult a doctor or registered dietitian.

Frequently asked questions

Sources (read 26 October 2026)

• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, per 100 g: FDC 173740 (kidney beans, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt: 127 kcal, 8.67 g protein, 6.4 g fibre) and FDC 173757 (chickpeas, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt: 164 kcal, 8.86 g protein, 7.6 g fibre).
• Longvah T. et al., Indian Food Composition Tables 2017, ICMR-NIN, Table 1, protein per 100 g, dry: Bengal gram, whole B002 (PDF p. 42) 18.77 g; rajmah black B018 (p. 43) 19.01 g, brown B019 19.50 g, red B020 19.91 g.
• ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024: Table 1.3 (PDF p. 25), cooking oil/fats 900 kcal per 100 g; Figures 9.1 and 9.2 (PDF pp. 80, 82), cooking oil in sample meals.
• The 150 g katori, the per-katori values and every "our arithmetic" figure are NYUS's own calculation, not from a study.