Sixty calories for a whole plate of food, bro. That is basically free. The raw herbs and leaves, the cucumber, the long beans, even the sambal belacan dip, none of it adds up to much. The petai contributes about 19 calories for a few pods, and the sambal belacan another 19, so those two together are actually the biggest calorie contributors on the entire plate. Everything else is just leaves and water. If you are trying to eat big volume on a deficit, ulam-ulaman is exactly the kind of side dish you want to load up on. It fills the plate, it takes time to chew, and it costs you almost nothing calorie-wise. To be honest though, these numbers are a ballpark estimate since there is not much hard nutrition data for traditional Malaysian ulam spreads, but the range is going to be in this territory.
What actually changes the maths here is the dip. Sambal belacan at 2 tablespoons is already 19 calories, but if you start doubling up or swap it for tempoyak, the plate climbs from 60 to 80 or beyond. The herbs themselves are so low in calories that portion size barely matters. Skip the petai and you are at 40 calories. The ulam leaves and long beans are genuinely close to zero. Where people accidentally turn this into a higher-calorie dish is by pairing it with a rich gravy side or by getting a plate that has been sitting next to oily dishes at the nasi campur counter, where a little of that cooking oil transfers over. As a standalone side with plain sambal belacan, this is one of the smartest things to put on your plate.