Leanest High-Protein Foods

The cutting-phase shortlist: every food here clears the 20g-protein bar per 100g, then ranks by fat, ascending. Two nonfat cheeses sit at zero (0g and 0g of fat), Pacific cod follows at 0.2g, and shrimp, tuna, scallops, smoked haddock and turkey breast crowd the sub-1.5g band. Even the table's last row — cooked cuttlefish — carries only 1.4g of fat with 32.5g of protein.

How this ranking works

The bar: protein ≥ 20g per 100g — the classic "protein food" threshold. The sort: fat per 100g, ascending, ties broken deterministically. Raw dry-legume rows are excluded (nobody eats raw kidney beans, and their per-100g numbers are triple the cooked plate). Raw fish and meat rows stay — they are standard ingredient states, and each linked page declares its own.

The table: top 20

#	Food	Fat (g / 100g)	Calories (kcal/100g)
1	Cheese, American, nonfat or fat free	0	126
2	Cheese, cheddar, nonfat or fat free	0	157
3	Fish, cod, Pacific, cooked (not previously frozen)	0.2	84
4	Crustaceans, shrimp, cooked (not previously frozen)	0.3	99
5	Shrimp	0.3	99
6	Crustaceans, shrimp, raw (not previously frozen)	0.5	85
7	Fish, tuna, fresh, yellowfin, raw	0.5	109
8	Fish, tuna, light, canned in water, without salt, drained solids	0.8	116
9	Mollusks, scallop, (bay and sea), cooked, steamed	0.8	111
10	Fish, whitefish, mixed species, smoked	0.9	108
11	Fish, haddock, smoked	1	116
12	Fish, tuna, fresh, skipjack, raw	1	103
13	Canned Tuna	1	116
14	Turkey Breast	1	135
15	Crustaceans, crab, dungeness, cooked, moist heat	1.2	110
16	Mollusks, conch, baked or broiled	1.2	130
17	Fish, snapper, mixed species, raw	1.3	100
18	Crustaceans, shrimp, mixed species, canned	1.4	100
19	Game meat, buffalo, water, raw	1.4	99
20	Mollusks, cuttlefish, mixed species, cooked, moist heat	1.4	158

Source: the Alkemos food database — the same rows each food’s page shows (per-100g values; every name links to that food’s full page).

Reading the table

White fish is the cut's best friend

Cod at 0.2g fat and 20.4g protein, snapper at 1.3g, tuna family rows throughout: the ocean's lean white filets give meat-portion protein at vegetable-adjacent calorie costs (84 kcal for cod). If your deficit budget is tight, this column is where you shop.

Turkey breast over chicken, this once

The table's poultry seat goes to turkey breast: 30g protein against 1g of fat at 135 kcal. Chicken breast — the default lean pick — carries more fat per row (its pages say exactly how much) and still beats nearly everything else; turkey simply edges it on this one metric.

The zero-fat cheese trade

Nonfat cheddar's row — 32.1g protein, zero fat, 157 kcal — is the most extreme protein-per-calorie object in the database. The honest trade: nonfat cheese melts differently and tastes sharper; it is a tool for the last weeks of a cut, not a way of eating.

Common questions

Does eating lean protein automatically cut body fat?

No — fat loss is the calorie deficit, and these rows simply make building one easier: high protein at minimal fat cost keeps portions large and muscle protected. The calorie column here is the working number; the deficit itself is set outside any single food, in your daily total.

Why is beef missing from this table?

Lean beef rows clear the protein bar easily but carry 4-6g of fat per 100g even trimmed — above every row here. They remain excellent proteins on their own pages; this table simply answers the narrow question of which proteins cost the least fat per bite.

Is raw fish in the list safe advice?

The raw rows are database states, not serving suggestions — sashimi-grade handling is a separate discipline. Cooked rows of the same species sit beside them (cod, shrimp, tuna all appear both ways), and the protein number barely moves between the two states.

Turn these tables into a plan: the Macro Calculator splits your daily budget into grams — free, no account needed.

New to this topic? Start from the curated Low Fat Foods collection — the hand-picked staples — then come back for the full ranking.