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Let's break down what's actually in your vape and where those calories hide.
These are the base ingredients in every vape juice. VG is often a major portion of many e-liquids and contains about 4.32 calories per gram when ingested. PG is commonly calculated at about 4 calories per gram (400 calories per 100 g) in nutrition labeling contexts. But here's the catch: when you vape, you're not eating these compounds—you're inhaling aerosolized particles.
Research and basic respiratory physiology suggest lung exposure does not behave like digestion: a meaningful share of what’s inhaled is exhaled or deposited and then cleared, rather than “metabolized as calories” the way food is. Because robust, diet-focused “calories absorbed from vaping” measurements aren’t well standardized, it’s safer to treat the energy impact as negligible rather than quote a precise absorption percentage.
Flavor concentrates typically make up 5-15% of vape juice. Most use alcohol-based or oil-based carriers, which do contain calories in their pure form. Sucralose itself is widely treated as a non-nutritive (“no/low-calorie”) sweetener in food use; however, tabletop products sold as “Splenda” can contain small calories because of added bulking agents like dextrose/maltodextrin—so calories depend on the product, not the sweetener molecule alone.
However, flavoring concentrations in vape juice are so diluted that even a full day's vaping might expose you to very small amounts of actual flavoring compounds.
Pure nicotine has negligible caloric content—essentially zero. Other additives like distilled water or small amounts of citric acid (used for pH balance) contribute virtually nothing to the calorie count. The nicotine concentration in e-liquid ranges from 0 mg to about 50 mg per mL in many consumer products, but since nicotine itself isn't a macronutrient, it doesn't factor into calorie calculations.
Understanding these vape juice ingredients helps put the calorie question in perspective. You're dealing with trace amounts of compounds that aren't efficiently absorbed as calories through inhalation.
Let's get into actual numbers you can work with.
A typical vape puff does not “use 0.1 mL” of e-liquid. In disposable-device lab discussions, a commonly cited theoretical consumption is on the order of a few microliters per puff (about 3 μL, i.e., 0.003 mL per puff) when a 2 mL device delivers 600 puffs.
Real-world users vary widely, but one published study of exclusive e-cigarette users reported an average of about 365 puffs/day and weekly e-liquid consumption ranging from 5–240 mL (median ~32.5 mL/week)—which is a better anchor than guessing “200–300 puffs.”
But remember—you're not ingesting this liquid. You're vaporizing it. Because the fraction retained/cleared/exhaled varies by device, puffing style, and aerosol properties, giving a single “10–30% absorbed” number is not reliably supported across products—so treat any calorie math as rough upper-bounds, not precision tracking.
This distinction matters. When you drink a sugary beverage, your digestive system efficiently breaks down and absorbs nearly all the calories. Your lungs? Not so much. They're built to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, not metabolize nutrients.
A frequently repeated claim is that “X% of VG/PG is absorbed,” but hard, consumer-relevant calorie conversion data for vaping isn’t standardized in the way food calories are. A more accurate framing is: some aerosol is exhaled, some deposits and is cleared, and only a portion is systemically taken up, making the net energy contribution tiny compared with normal food intake.
Let's say you vape heavily—well above published averages. Even then, the energy contribution is still best understood as trivial compared with normal dietary variance. If you want strict fasting rules, the issue is less about “counting vape calories” and more about what your specific fasting protocol allows (and how strict you want to be).
The act of vaping with hand-to-mouth motion and slightly deeper breathing might actually burn more calories than the trace amounts you absorb from the vapor.
The calorie impact from daily vaping is negligible for anyone tracking their diet.
This is where fasting folks get nervous. Let's clear it up.
Most fasting protocols focus on whether you’re consuming anything that meaningfully triggers digestion/insulin signaling, and many people treat plain, non-caloric beverages as acceptable. There isn’t a single universally “official” calorie cutoff (like “50 calories”) that applies to all fasting goals—especially if your goal is strict fasting or autophagy-focused fasting.
Because there’s no standardized way to convert vaping into an absorbed “calories per day” number across devices and users, it’s safer to treat vaping’s energy impact as trace and hard to quantify rather than assume a specific daily calorie range. You're not consuming a concentrated dose of calories that would spike insulin.
Your body enters a fasted state when insulin levels drop, and growth hormone rises, typically 12-16 hours after eating. This metabolic shift happens when you're not actively digesting food. The trace calories from vaping don't require digestion and don't flood your system with glucose.
According to metabolic research, it takes a meaningful intake of macronutrients within a short timeframe to meaningfully affect fasting ketone production. Vaping's slow, minimal calorie delivery doesn't meet this threshold.
Autophagy—your body's cellular cleanup process—is a major reason people fast. Some research (especially in animals) suggests fasting can increase autophagy, but in humans, the timing varies and isn’t pinned to a single “16–24 hour” threshold.
While technically any calorie intake could theoretically slow autophagy slightly, the real-world impact of vaping's micro-calories appears unclear and not well quantified in diet-calorie terms.
Most fasting experts agree that obsessing over single-digit calories defeats the purpose of sustainable fasting. If breathing environmental particles doesn't stop autophagy, vaping's minimal absorption likely won't either.
Keto dieters have different concerns—mainly carbs and insulin response.
Here's good news: VG and PG are not carbohydrates in the traditional sense. VG is a sugar alcohol, but it's not the same as dietary sugars or starches that impact blood glucose. When metabolized (which again, happens minimally through vaping), VG can enter normal energy pathways in the body, but it’s not comparable to eating bread or fruit—and the inhaled exposure isn’t something you can reliably convert into “dietary carbs.”
The flavoring compounds might contain trace sugars, but we're talking very small amounts. And when sweeteners are involved, “sucralose itself” is considered non-nutritive; calories (if any) come from carriers/bulking agents in specific consumer products.
Staying in ketosis requires keeping carbs under 20-50 grams daily and avoiding insulin spikes. Vaping doesn't trigger insulin release because you're not actually consuming digestible carbohydrates. Your pancreas responds to blood glucose levels, and the minimal absorption from vaping doesn't raise blood sugar.
For strict keto tracking, net carbs matter most. Even if we pretend all the theoretical exposure from vaping came from carbs (they don't), you'd be looking at trace, hard-to-quantify amounts—and that’s before considering that vaping isn’t oral ingestion.
Most keto practitioners have a 5-gram buffer for incidental carb exposure from medications, supplements, or trace ingredients. Vaping falls comfortably within this margin. Unless you're aiming for therapeutic ketosis for epilepsy management (which requires stricter limits), vaping won't kick you out of ketosis.
The bottom line for keto dieters: track your food, not your vape. The calories in vaping are too minimal and the wrong type to interfere with ketone production.
No, second-hand vapor exposure won't add measurable calories to your diet. When someone vapes near you, you're breathing in already-dispersed vapor particles that have been exhaled. The concentration of VG, PG, and flavorings in second-hand vapor is extremely diluted—far less than what the primary vaper inhales. Any particles you might breathe in would amount to a fraction of a fraction of a calorie, similar to walking past a bakery and smelling bread. For context, you'd absorb more calories from using scented hand lotion than from occasional second-hand vape exposure.
Vaping's impact on appetite varies by person, but it doesn't directly cause hunger through caloric mechanisms. Some vapers report that sweet or dessert-flavored e-liquids satisfy sugar cravings, potentially reducing snacking. Nicotine itself is actually an appetite suppressant, which is one reason people sometimes gain weight after quitting smoking. However, if you're vaping sweet flavors constantly, the sensory experience might trigger psychological cravings for actual food. This is behavioral, not metabolic—your body isn't responding to calories from vaping, but rather to flavor associations.
Marketing claims of "zero-calorie" vaping are technically misleading but practically accurate. No vape juice is literally calorie-free because VG and PG do contain calories when measured in a lab for oral consumption. However, the absorption rate through the lungs is so low that the functional calorie impact rounds down to essentially zero for dietary purposes. For nutritional tracking, you can safely treat vaping as zero calories without affecting your diet outcomes.
Stop stressing about vape calories—they're not sabotaging your diet. Whether you're fasting or doing keto, the minimal absorbed calories won't break your progress. Focus on your actual food intake and keep crushing your health goals without the guilt.
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