Calories in Chinese Food

sapphire1166

I am so lost. Other than big chains (like PF Changs) it's nearly impossible to know how many calories are in Chinese food. We're going to grab Chinese from the little family place down the street for dinner and I have 850 calories to spend. Would like to keep dinner at around 600ish. Does anyone have a entree that standard Chinese food places sell that would be around that?

callsitlikeiseeit

i have chinese all the time and can do it always under 800 and under 600 if you plan right. had sesame chicken and an eggroll last night if you want to look.

JoRumbles

I had chinese last night and just logged 1,000 and didn't worry TOO much.

However, I would think chicken and sweetcorn soup and then for a main anything not battered, stir fry sort of thing and give the rice/noodles a miss and you should be ok

sapphire1166

So for 1,000 does that mean you ate the whole dinner? Including the rice, egg roll, and fortune cookie? Or is it just the entree itself? I really want General Tsao's. If I ate 1/2 of the chicken, rice, and egg roll think that would safely be around 900 calories or so?

MsJulesRenee

Stay away from the fried stuff and you should be okay with calories. Order the chicken and veggies with rice - some places offer brown rice if you ask. I also always order the Chinese broccoli in oyster or garlic sauce, I don't think its on most menus but you can still ask for it.

peterjens

I always ask the server to tell the chef to use as little oil as possible when cooking my order. Assume a minimum of 2T per entree - 1T for the meat and 1T for the veggies.

Edit - D'oh! I just realized Gen. Tsao is deep-fried. Forego the rice or noodles.

callsitlikeiseeit

sapphire1166 wrote: »

So for 1,000 does that mean you ate the whole dinner? Including the rice, egg roll, and fortune cookie? Or is it just the entree itself? I really want General Tsao's. If I ate 1/2 of the chicken, rice, and egg roll think that would safely be around 900 calories or so?

i ate roughly 1/3 of sesame chicken combo, and less of the rice and an eggroll and came in way under that. if you forego the rice, you should be able to do it under 900, sure. not sure about eating all that rice though- its pretty calorie heavy.

but really, if you want it. EAT IT. even if you eat the whole thing you're probably under maintenance for the day.

Cortneyrenee04

For Chinese food, I call it 1000, have an extra work out, drink a you-know-what load of water and don't weigh myself for a while.

Usually worth it!

sunnyside1213

Oh my. It is the salt that gets you in Chinese food.

Meganthedogmom

When I lived in New Orleans there was a Chinese place that actually had a "light" menu, with the calorie counts on it! That was nice. Overall though I think a lot of it is pretty high-cal. Especially the fried stuff.
I don't eat it much, but when I do have a craving for it, I make my own. So much easier to track that way!

Queenmunchy

I always order the plain steamed protein and vegetable. It usually comes with sauce on the side and rice. Sometimes I eat the rice, but I typically order plain steamed chicken and broccoli and drizzle a little bit of the sauce on it. Chinese takeout is probably my easiest on the go eating.

AmazonMayan

My favorite is sesame chicken so I usually eat half of it then call it 1000 calories. I have started asking for much less rice (white - don't like fried rice) and some places offer some steamed veggies in its place...some charge, some don't. I let myself enjoy it since it's not often, try not to go overboard, and drink extra water after.

namelesshere

If you make it at home, you can forego the deep frying, and have all the taste with fewer calories. I also have been buying café steamers Gen. Tso and really enjoy for under 300 cal. If you are headed out, Eat half the chicken, 1/2 cup rice, the egg roll and take the rest home for tomorrow. Enjoy! The salt will take a couple of days to get out of your system so don't think you gained.

Laurend224

I had Chinese today. Like others, I logged 1000 calories and called it good. Deep fried tofu... yum. I will pay for it with 5 lbs of water weight in the morning.

shadowfax_c11

I had General Tso's early in the week one day for dinner and one day for lunch. I split the dinner into two meals. I think dinner came in somewhere around 900 with a spring roll. My diary is open if you want to have a look and see if the information helps. I was able to find some entries for other General Tso's at various places and picked the one that was about middle of the road for calories.