How many calories are in a lassi?
A 250 ml (8.5 fl oz) glass of sweet lassi is about 190 kcal made at home, and 300 to 350 bought. A mango lassi is usually 300 to 400. It starts from the same curd as a glass of chaas at 35 kcal — the difference is how much curd goes in, and how much sugar after it.
Per portion
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 ml salted (namkeen) lassi, no sugar | ~110–130 | 6 g | 8 g | 7 g |
| 250 ml sweet lassi, home, whole curd and 2 tsp sugar | ~190 | 6 g | 22 g | 7 g |
| 250 ml sweet lassi, shop style, thicker and sweeter | ~300–350 | 7 g | 40 g | 10 g |
| 250 ml mango lassi | ~300–400 | 6 g | 45–55 g | 9 g |
| 450 ml tall Punjabi lassi topped with malai | ~500–650 | 12 g | 60 g | 25 g |
| 200 ml bottled sweet lassi | ~150–180 | 4 g | 25 g | 4 g |
| 200 ml chaas, for comparison | ~35–45 | 2 g | 3 g | 2 g |
What changes the number
Sugar, by the spoon. Each level teaspoon is about 20 kcal. Home lassi takes two; shop lassi commonly four to six, which is 80–120 kcal of sugar before the dairy is counted. A shop sweetens to a recipe rather than to taste, and that accounts for most of the gap between the first two rows above.
How much curd is in the glass. This is the real difference from chaas. A lassi is thick, so 200 g of curd may go into a 250 ml glass where chaas uses 60 g — and 200 g of whole-milk curd is about 120 kcal, buffalo-milk curd nearer 190.
Malai, cream, ice cream, rabri. A tablespoon of malai is 50–60 kcal, a scoop of ice cream 100–150. A lassi with a float on top is a dessert in energy terms, whatever the menu calls it.
The glass. The steel glass at a dhaba is often 400–500 ml, not 250. Doubling the glass doubles everything in it, and it is the commonest reason a real lassi overshoots the figure you looked up.
Where it fits in a deficit
A sweet lassi is a 200–350 kcal item that takes two minutes to drink and does little for hunger, which is the general problem with liquid calories. The same energy as a meal would have held you for hours.
That does not make it a food to avoid; it makes it a food to count and to place. After a full meal it is a dessert that happens to be in a glass. Alongside lunch it is 300 kcal that go largely unregistered in the day’s arithmetic.
If you drink them often, three levers work, in order of size: ask for salted rather than sweet, which lands you at 110–130; take the small glass; or drink chaas, the same base at a tenth of the cost. Home-made with toned curd and one spoon of sugar, a 250 ml glass is about 130 kcal.
Mango lassi gets sweetened twice
Mango lassi is the dearest version in almost every shop, and not mainly because of the fruit: fresh mango is about 60 kcal per 100 g, so a 100 g scoop of pulp adds only that much.
The issue is that most commercial mango lassi is not made with fresh mango but with canned or frozen sweetened pulp, which already carries added sugar — and then sugar or syrup goes in on top. Two rounds of sweetening is how a drink whose ingredients should total 250 kcal arrives at 400.
Bottled lassi follows the same pattern, and there the label settles it: check the sugars figure and whether it is quoted per 100 ml or per bottle.
Figures are typical values and vary by variety, size and preparation. General information, not medical advice.