Best Low Calorie Banana Bread {Half the Calories}

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With half the calories as classic banana bread, this low calorie banana bread does not compromise on taste at all. It has the perfect texture by using bananas, low fat buttermilk, and sugar free banana pudding mix.

Each 1 ounce slice of this low calorie banana bread has 78 calories, 12 grams carbs, 2 grams protein, and 2 grams fat.

You might be looking for some Low calorie bread if you are counting calories to lose weight, or maintain a weight loss. (you can read my weight loss story here) But sweet breads like banana bread can be notorious for being high in fat, sugar, and calories.

Ingredient Swaps to Lower Calories in this Banana Bread Recipe

It is possible to reduce the fat and calories in banana bread, without compromising flavor! Here are some changes I made for this recipe.

• First change was reduce the sugar. A lot of times, you don’t need all the sugar a recipe calls for, and you don’t even have to modify the other ingredients to make it work. My thinking was bananas that are very ripe can be quite sweet themselves, so I reduced the sugar here to 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Classic banana bread recipes have almost 1 cup of sugar (773 calories). So, this is a saving of 580 calories for the loaf.
• The second calorie savings was from reducing the oil. Classic banana bread uses 1/2 cup of butter or oil (964 calories). I used just two tablespoons (240 calories). A savings of 724 calories.
• The third swap was lowfat buttermilk vs. whole buttermilk. Since I only used 1/3 cup, the savings isn’t too much. But it did save 20 calories.
• The fourth swap was egg whites, vs. whole eggs. 1 whole egg is 72 calories. The equivalent for a recipe would be two egg whites at 30 calories. This saved 42 more calories.

Total saving for loaf of banana bread = 1396 calories, or savings of 77.5 calories PER SLICE!

How to make this healthy banana bread recipe

I usually start with a classic banana bread recipe, and give it a little makeover to replace high calorie ingredients with lower calorie ones. My final recipe had

• Bananas- because it’s banana bread! I used 1 full cup of mashed banana, or 200 grams, or 2 medium bananas.
• Lowfat buttermilk. Buttermilk gives a great texture to sweet breads!
• Egg whites. I like to use egg whites in all my cooking. It saves fat and calories.
• Cooking oil. I’ve made baked goods and left the oil out altogether, but I found I like the final bread a little better by leaving it in, but just reducing the amount significantly. I used vegetable oil, but any cooking oil will do.
• Brown sugar! I like the way this makes this bread a little richer in taste than granulated sugar.
• Banana Sugar free pudding mix! I think this really brings out the banana flavor, and helps the wet ingredients to thicken up.
• Salt
• And self rising flour. I’ve been using this in baking a lot, and I’ve had much more baking success.

In order to calculate the calories for this bread, I used and measured a 9 inch bread loaf pan. Once the bread came out of the oven and cooled, I sliced it into 1/2 inch slices, with each slice weighing approximately 1 ounce. The total loaf weighed 19.5 ounces. If you get fewer than 18 slices, you’ll want to adjust the calories and macros accordingly.

Can you make this sweet bread ahead of time?

You can make banana bread ahead of time, and keep it in an airtight container. However, with so little oil, it dries out much quicker than classic banana bread. I wouldn’t advise storing this for more than a day or two.

If you like this recipe, you might also like

• Banana Oat Protein Pancakes
• Healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes in Less than 15 Minutes
• Low Calorie Cinnamon Maple Roasted Butternut Squash
• Best Banana Bread Overnight Oats
• Crustless Low Calorie Banana Cream Pie

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