No. Ghee is almost pure fat, about 45 kcal per 5 gram teaspoon, and we found no human trial showing that it helps people lose weight. Reviews of diet trials link eating less fat overall to slightly lower weight; none tested ghee. If you are trying to lose weight, or have a medical condition, follow your doctor's or dietitian's advice on whether and how much ghee to eat.
Below are the calories, what India's dietary guidelines and systematic reviews say, and where claims such as ghee "burning fat" stand. This article does not tell you how much ghee to eat.
At a glance
- A 5 g teaspoon of ghee is about 45 kcal on USDA figures, within 1 kcal of a teaspoon of cooking oil; no human trial has tested ghee as a weight-loss aid.
- ICMR-NIN's 2024 guidelines say to cut calories from refined carbohydrates and cooking oils to lose weight, and to limit ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day.
- A 2020 Cochrane review of 37 trials found adults eating less fat weighed about 1.4 kg less; a 2015 review found low-fat diets no better than other weight-loss diets of similar intensity.
- In a 2022 crossover trial, 30 adults eating ghee or olive oil for four weeks each showed no difference in body weight; the ghee diet raised apo B and non-HDL cholesterol.
- No study has tested ghee on an empty stomach, and a spoon carries the same calories at any hour; follow your doctor's or dietitian's advice.
Does ghee help you lose weight?
Not on any evidence we could find. Ghee supplies energy like any other fat: 9 kcal per gram, more than twice the 4 kcal of protein or carbohydrate. We found no trial that set out to test ghee as a way to lose weight, and the systematic reviews below did not test ghee or any single fat.
Two arguments are worth checking. One is that ghee keeps you full. The ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) does say fats "impart a feeling of fullness and satisfaction and thus delay the onset of hunger". But the same guidelines say fats "increase the energy density of food" and that a high intake of saturated fat "enhances calorie intake". Feeling full after a meal is not the same as eating fewer calories over a day.
The other is that something in ghee makes the body burn more fat. We found no human trial showing this. A finding in rats or in a laboratory cannot tell you what happens in a person eating ordinary meals, so we do not repeat such claims here.
How many calories are in a teaspoon of ghee?
About 45 kcal in a 5 gram teaspoon and about 135 kcal in a 15 gram tablespoon. These use the USDA FoodData Central entry for clarified butter (ghee), 900 kcal per 100 grams, and the spoon weights in ICMR-NIN's household measures, which list "Teaspoon 5g" and "Tablespoon 15g".
The table compares ghee with butter and three cooking oils, using the same spoon weights and USDA's figures. Each spoon value is the weight multiplied by the calories per gram.
| Fat (USDA entry) | kcal per 100 g | 1 teaspoon, 5 g | 1 tablespoon, 15 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ghee (clarified butter) | 900 | 5 × 9.00 = 45 kcal | 15 × 9.00 = 135 kcal |
| Olive oil | 884 | 5 × 8.84 = 44.2, about 44 kcal | 15 × 8.84 = 132.6, about 133 kcal |
| Sunflower oil | 884 | 5 × 8.84 = 44.2, about 44 kcal | 15 × 8.84 = 132.6, about 133 kcal |
| Soybean oil | 884 | 5 × 8.84 = 44.2, about 44 kcal | 15 × 8.84 = 132.6, about 133 kcal |
| Butter, unsalted | 717 | 5 × 7.17 = 35.9, about 36 kcal | 15 × 7.17 = 107.6, about 108 kcal |
Ghee and the oils differ by about 1 kcal a teaspoon. Butter comes out lower because it is not all fat: USDA lists 81.1 grams of fat per 100 grams of unsalted butter, against 100 grams for ghee. For weight, a spoon of ghee and a spoon of oil are nearly interchangeable. Where they differ is saturated fat, which USDA puts at 60 grams per 100 grams of ghee, against 13.8 for olive oil, 10.3 for sunflower oil and 15.6 for soybean oil.
The USDA figures are for olive oil, sunflower oil (linoleic), soybean oil and unsalted butter. Our article on ghee spoon measures in grams explains why a tablespoon can be counted as 12.8 or 15 grams.
What do India's dietary guidelines say about fat and body weight?
The ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians (2024) put diet and activity at the centre of weight control. They say excess energy intake and reduced physical activity lead to fat build-up, and that "for reducing weight, cut down on calorie from refined carbs and cooking oils". The guidelines count ghee among the visible fats used in cooking, alongside oils.
On fat specifically, the guidelines say visible fat, meaning oils, vanaspati, butter and ghee used in cooking or added at the table, "must be limited to 20–50g (4–10 teaspoon full) per person/ day depending on the level of energy (calorie) requirement". Inside that, they say: "Limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible." That is a limit for the general population, not a weight-loss dose, and our article on how much ghee per day the guidelines allow sets it out by sex and activity.
Their chapter on obesity adds:
- Avoid or restrict foods high in sugar, fat and salt, and ultra-processed foods, which they say "hasten the process of adiposity/obesity".
- Swap deep-fried snacks, which contain "high levels of cooking oil/fat", for nuts and seeds.
- Use sautéing, steaming, grilling or baking "with minimal oil instead of frying", which "reduces the energy density of your meals".
- Weight reduction "should be gradual", with about half a kilogram a week "considered to be safe", and rapid weight-loss approaches avoided.
Nothing in the guidelines singles out ghee as an aid to weight loss.
Does eating less fat lead to weight loss?
A little. A 2020 Cochrane review of 37 randomised trials with 57,079 participants found that adults eating less fat, with no intention to lose weight, weighed on average 1.4 kg less than those eating more fat. The reviewers rated this as consistent, high-quality evidence of a small effect.
The review, by Hooper and colleagues, found greater weight loss where fat was cut further and in people with a higher body mass index at the start, and no evidence that lower-fat diets harmed blood fats, blood pressure or quality of life.
For people deliberately trying to lose weight, a 2015 systematic review of 53 studies lasting at least a year, by Tobias and colleagues, found that low-fat diets did no better than other weight-loss diets of similar intensity. Low-fat diets beat only people's usual diet, and low-carbohydrate diets produced slightly more weight loss than low-fat ones (about 1.15 kg). Read together, the two reviews say cutting fat can reduce weight a little, but a low-fat diet is not better than other diets of similar effort. Neither review tested ghee or any single fat.
Has ghee itself been tested for weight loss in people?
Not as a weight-loss aid, as far as we could find. A few small human trials used ghee for other purposes and recorded body weight along the way. None tested whether adding ghee helps people lose weight, and none is large or long enough to settle the question.
The three we found on PubMed:
- Ghee against olive oil (2022). In a randomised crossover trial, 30 healthy adults in Iran ate ghee or olive oil in equal energy amounts for four weeks each. "Body weight was not different between the two interventions." The ghee diet raised apo B and non-HDL cholesterol compared with olive oil.
- Ghee replaced by rapeseed oil (2024). In a 12-week randomised trial in 110 Iranian adults with fatty liver disease who ate ghee daily, one group was advised to swap it for the same amount of rapeseed oil, while the other kept eating ghee and was told to follow a healthy diet. The abstract reports a 4.3 kg fall in weight in the rapeseed oil group. One trial in patients is not enough to say what ghee does to weight in the general population.
- An Ayurvedic oleation procedure (2021). An uncontrolled study of 29 healthy volunteers given rising amounts of ghee over several days, followed by a cleansing procedure, reported weight loss. It had no control group, and the authors note that the ghee reduced how much people ate. It is a treatment procedure, not a diet to copy.
Does ghee on an empty stomach burn fat?
We found no study that tested it. A PubMed search for ghee and "empty stomach" returned no results, and we found no human trial showing that ghee burns body fat at any time of day. A teaspoon of ghee taken first thing carries the same 45 kcal as one eaten with dinner.
The same goes for ghee stirred into coffee, which our article on ghee in coffee covers in more detail. ICMR-NIN notes that fats give a feeling of fullness, but a spoon of ghee in a cup also adds its calories to the day.
Where does ghee fit if you are trying to lose weight?
Count it as part of your total fat, not as a treatment. ICMR-NIN's advice to limit ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, or avoid it, is general advice, and a dietitian planning your weight loss may set a different figure for you. Their plan comes first.
- Measure ghee with a level spoon rather than pouring it, so you know what you are eating.
- Count the ghee on rotis, dal and rice as well as the ghee in the pan.
- Remember that fried snacks and sweets carry added fat too.
- If ghee replaces oil, the calories barely change, but saturated fat rises.
We make ghee at Himdhara, which is why this article sticks to the published evidence and suggests no amount of its own.
The short version
Ghee does not help you lose weight on any evidence we could find. It carries about 45 kcal per 5 gram teaspoon, almost the same as cooking oil, though far more of its fat is saturated. Systematic reviews find that eating less fat lowers weight a little, and that low-fat diets do no better than other weight-loss diets of similar effort. Claims that ghee burns fat, or works best on an empty stomach, have no trials behind them. Follow your doctor's or dietitian's advice on how much, if any, to eat.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (2024). Dietary Guidelines for Indians. ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- Hooper L, Abdelhamid AS, Jimoh OF, Bunn D, Skeaff CM (2020). Effects of total fat intake on body fatness in adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
- Tobias DK, Chen M, Manson JE, Ludwig DS, Willett W, Hu FB (2015). Effect of low-fat diet interventions versus other diet interventions on long-term weight change in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
- Mohammadi Hosseinabadi S, Nasrollahzadeh J (2022). Effects of diets rich in ghee or olive oil on cardiometabolic risk factors in healthy adults: a two-period, crossover, randomised trial. British Journal of Nutrition.