looking to get ripped. eating out dos and donts.

[l1ncs]

i'm looking to drop some fat as since i moved here i seem to have put on some unwanted weight. I pretty much exclusively eat out at hawker centres and the like as it generally works out cheaper and the cooking facilities where I live are not ideal.

Just wondering what kind of dishes people would recommend and what should be avoided.

[DrPaulMasters]

Hi l1ncs,

If you're eating at hawker centres, then it will be almost impossible to lose the extra poundage. Char kway teo (hor fun) is especially bad, as it contains a lot of lard.

One of the most important factors in weight gain is the timing of meals. Skipping breakfast, a light lunch and then a heavy supper means that your body is full of calories, but isn't using them, so it turns them into fat. A good breakfast, a regular lunch and a light supper means that the majority of the calories have been consumed whilst the metabolism is active, and you are less likely to gain weight.

The second important factor is snacking. The coffee here is regularly served with approximately 50% of your calorie needs in each cup. Just by switching to 'kopi kosong' can make a huge difference.
Also, the supermarkets here sell fruit in deals of five pieces. if you are serious about losing weight, make sure you maintain your five-a-day.

The third important factor is exercise. Before you decry a lack of time, it doesn't have to be a marathon every day. In fact, you can have mini-exercise breaks at the MRT station - by taking the stairs, or at the bus stop - by walking to the next stop. Whilst five minutes isn't as good as the regular half hour, five mins here and there will add up, and is a lot better for you than none at all.

The last factor is happiness. When we are upset/lonely/stressed, our bodies interpret this as a sign of impending doom, and begins to hoard energy. This can make us more stressed, and so the cycle begins. This cycle can be interrupted by talking out our stresses with friends, having new experiences, seeing new sights; getting perspective on the situation.

I hope this helps,

Paul

[the lynx]

I'll concur with the above reply. To add more:

If you want to eat at hawker centres, here is a list of least health-damaging hawker fare you can look into.

1. Popiah

Something like Vietnamese spring roll, but with radish, bean sprouts, eggs, peanut chunks and sauce - two rolls of those is enough for a meal, one roll is good to be considered as 'light' meal.

Price: $1.30 per roll (cheapest).

2. Yong Tau Foo

Although it has been bastardised from the traditional YTF - the idea is that you choose the ingredients you want - ranging from vegetables to tofu and meat, and have the hawker to boil it for you. You can have the option to have those with soup alone, or to add rice/noodles/vermicelli instead. You have control over what you put into your meal (although you can't control the content of the soup they serve with YTF - if you're lucky, it has less MSG, if you're not - it gets a bit too salty, so it takes a while to figure out which YTF serves salt bombs).

Price: $3.00 per bowl of 5-ingredient combo with rice/noodles (cheapest)

3. Penang (assam) laksa

Different from the regular Singaporean laksa, it is minced fish-based assam broth with thick rice sticks. The toppings are shreds of cucumber, pineapple, cilantro, onions and torch ginger. Some people opt to add shrimp paste but you can skip it because it isn't exactly healthy to have much of it. Voted as CNN's World #7 for being delicious and healthy in 2011.

Price: $4.00 per bowl. Shrimp paste is usually added for free at request (not healthy!)

4. Tea rice

Also known as lei cha or thunder tea rice. It is a Hakka dish of brown rice served with nuts, seaweed, beans, lettuce shreds and some mild spices. The gravy for the rice is actually tea.

Price: $5.00 per set

That's all I can think for now.

[Max Headroom]

My meals are almost exclusively take-away (or to go). Not all hawker places serve up unhealthy food, as the lynx states, although it takes a while before you've got a good number of decent makan places in your quiver.

One thing to look for is visible fat (or fats). A lot of people are into fat - chicken skin, pork belly, etc. - in a major way here, because they feel it's the best part. So oftentimes your plate will be brimming with the stuff. Obviously, you need to trim this if you want to lose weight.

Another thing to go for is texture and color. Make sure your plate isn't uniformly soggy and brown, i.e. cooked to death, oily and doused with soy. Go for plenty of crunchy greens.

Oh, and if you can, ask for brown rice, rather than white rice. But this one is a real mission here in Singapore.

Speaking of white rice, if you can cut out simple carbs altogether in favor of complex carbs, you'll find losing weight becomes a lot easier, because your blood sugar level will remain within limits, rather than spiking madly at every meal from the sugar rush.

Yup, exercise. I find that rather than eating less, it's so much better to eat the same number of calories whilst exercising more. Your raised heart rate will carry over for hours after you're done in the gym or whatever, all the while burning calories. Whereas just dieting will just put your body into war mode, meaning it'll try to become more energy-efficient by getting by with fewer calories.

Eat fruit. (Or fruits). Nature's candy. It keeps you feeling full and mops up any free radicals.

[l1ncs]

thanks for the input everyone. Time to get my running shoes by the looks of it!

[ray88]

If you wish to have noodles, opt for the soup-based ones instead of the dry version.

For rice, perhaps ask for less gravy(if there's any)?
Skip chicken rice(Or have it less frequently) even though it's one of the most delicious meal.

For drinks, I usually prefer fruit juice to carbonated drinks.
Fruit juice has lots of vitamins as well.

Hope it helps..

[TippyToes]

thanks for the input everyone. Time to get my running shoes by the looks of it!

That's a great start. It is so true that eating correctly plus working out and burning off the calories by doing cardio gets faster results.

[BedokAmerican]

If you wish to have noodles, opt for the soup-based ones instead of the dry version.

For rice, perhaps ask for less gravy(if there's any)?
Skip chicken rice(Or have it less frequently) even though it's one of the most delicious meal.

For drinks, I usually prefer fruit juice to carbonated drinks.
Fruit juice has lots of vitamins as well.

Hope it helps..

Why are soup-based noodles more healthy than dry noodles?

[sundaymorningstaple]

I don't see noodles as being particularly healthy at all, full stop.

[Wd40]

...The coffee here is regularly served with approximately 50% of your calorie needs in each cup. Just by switching to 'kopi kosong' can make a huge difference.

Where did you get that from? A person's daily calories need is ~2000. How can a cup of cofee give you 1000 calories.

A spoon of sugar is just 16 calories!
http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutri ... ount=1.000

I dont think a cup of coffee exceeds even 50 calories. For heavens sake, put things in perspective and everything is relative.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Don't forget to add the other 65 calories for the tbsp of sweetened condensed milk as well that is in the normal cup of kopi from your kopitiam as well. So there is around 80 calories x how many cups/day?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Don't forget to add the other 65 calories for the tbsp of sweetened condensed milk as well that is in the normal cup of kopi from your kopitiam as well. So there is around 80 calories x how many cups/day?

[Wd40]

Yeah, the volume of tea served at Kopitiams here, easily serves 2 people. If I have tea at kopitiams, I have only half and just leave the rest. But most often, I make tea at home. 2 spoons of sugar and about 30ml of milk. I have only twice a day. I used to have 4 times a day, sometime ago though.

[the lynx]

Yeah, the volume of tea served at Kopitiams here, easily serves 2 people. If I have tea at kopitiams, I have only half and just leave the rest. But most often, I make tea at home. 2 spoons of sugar and about 30ml of milk. I have only twice a day. I used to have 4 times a day, sometime ago though.

OMG that's a lot!

[Wd40]

Yeah, the volume of tea served at Kopitiams here, easily serves 2 people. If I have tea at kopitiams, I have only half and just leave the rest. But most often, I make tea at home. 2 spoons of sugar and about 30ml of milk. I have only twice a day. I used to have 4 times a day, sometime ago though.

OMG that's a lot!

Thats about 50 calories each cup. Why is it a lot?