Awful taste. Too thick. Too runny. Unsatisfying.
These are all complaints people hear about why so many low-calorie food options are so bad. But after hours of tasting, reading nutrition facts, and cracking open pints of ice cream, it is safe to say there is a list of the top five low-calorie ice creams that not only keep one’s waistline slim, but also keep them feeling satisfied.
While there have been all sorts of dieting “hacks” and ways for people to eat a little healthier, now more than ever, the calorie counts are being taken seriously. According to the IDFA, in the US alone, ice cream is a nearly $12 billion industry, and in 2024, 1.31 billion gallons were produced. While ice cream is an extremely popular sweet treat, it’s loaded with sugar, fat, and tons of calories. Some of the lowest-calorie full-fat and full-sugar ice creams are at least 500 calories per pint, even for plain old vanilla. And for flavors with more add-ins? It would be lucky to find a pint that is less than 1000 calories.
But full fat and full sugar are not the only way to go, and many top companies are figuring that out and taking advantage of a growing industry; The low calorie food industry. In an article by Insight Ace Analytic, the low-calorie food industry is worth 14.17 billion dollars as of 2026 and is projected to grow to nearly 28.59 billion by 2035. Ice cream specifically has managed to drop to as low as 150 calories in brands like Arctic Zero. And there are many more pints that stay well within the 200-400 calorie a pint range that definitely qualify as low calorie.
#5 Swoop Chocolate Charge
410 Calories a Pint – 30g Protein – 29g Sugar
Swoop took a swing at a staple flavor with this ice cream and hit a home run. The flavor is spot on. While Chocolate Charge it is a bit steeper in calories than some others on the list, everything else about it is on point. The creaminess is wonderful, and by using cocoa processed with alkali this ice cream delivered a signature, authentic chocolate taste. For anybody opposed to artificial sweeteners, this is the one for you, as it is flavored with all-natural coconut nectar (and one cannot even tell it is coconut). It may also be a pleasant surprise to some that the pint has 30 grams of protein, and consumers would not even know without reading the nutrition facts.
#4 Swoop Mighty Mint Chip
440 Calories a Pint – 30g Protein – 29g Sugar
This was one of the most interesting and unusual flavors tried. Similar to the ice cream at No. 5, this flavor used water as the base and coconut nectar as the sweetener; it was surprisingly awesome. Not only is the texture extremely smooth, but it also freezes just enough that it is not too hard, yet not like whipped cream texturally. The flavor was even better than many full-calorie ice creams. If it had fewer calories, it would surely be at #1, but since it is the second highest calorie ice cream, that was a dealbreaker.
#3 Protein Pints Coffee
360 Calories a Pint – 30g Protein – 9g Sugar
Coffee lovers are in for a treat with this flavor. Protein Pints Coffee uses real coffee as an ingredient, and its inclusion is obvious. If the creamiest ice cream ever had a baby with coffee and hid 30 grams of protein with the baby, this would be the result.
The texture is a perfect match for coffee ice cream, and the flavor is excellent. While not everybody likes coffee, this ice cream strikes the perfect balance between an authentic coffee flavor and great ice cream overall. Additionally, for being a low-calorie ice cream, it is seriously unbelievable. If this reporter were more of a coffee lover, this flavor could surely have snuck its way onto the top of the pedestal, but it now sits in the middle of the list.
#2 Yasso Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt Bars
370 Calories a Box (4 bars) – 20g Protein – 50g Sugar
It is very surprising that a flavor with cookie bits could manage to be so good while staying so low in calories, but this ice cream blew it away. Although frozen yogurt and not ice cream, Yasso Cookies and Cream Frozen Yogurt Bars definitely earned their spot on the list. The cookie chunks in these bars are excellent, and one cannot even taste the Greek yogurt, which is one of the top ingredients. Yasso perfectly masks the naturally sour taste of Greek yogurt with cane sugar, the only sweetener in all their bars.
Even with a full-calorie sweetener, these bars stay below the calories in most ice creams and taste fantastic.
#1 Halo Top Strawberry
270 Calories a Pint – 15g Protein – 25g Sugar – 15g Sugar Alcohol
Halo Top Strawberry was an easy choice to take the top spot on this list. It has the perfect strawberry flavor, blended with a wonderfully soft texture, making it ideal for strawberry ice cream. Halo Top also uses real strawberries in this flavor, making it taste identical to normal strawberry ice cream (although there are no big strawberry chunks). But on top of all of this, it is the lowest-calorie ice cream of the 15 sampled, and it is not even close, making Halo Top Strawberry rise above and beyond all of the rest of these wonderful flavors. Halo Top hit the mark on the head with this flavor, and it rightfully earned the first spot on the list.
