Can't live without my white rice!

shiragatama

Here's the deal; I'm half Japanese, and grew up on Japanese food. That means, short-grain, sticky white rice as part of my dinner most days a week. I've heard so many bad things about white rice, but I find it incredibly hard to cut out of my diet.
I want to switch to brown rice soon, but brown rice is a little expensive, and we already have a large bag of white rice at home that I don't want to waste!
I never go over my 1200 cal limit; can I still continue to eat white rice as long as I stay under my caloric intake?

Poisonedpawn78

The bad things about white rice you have read or heard are completely false. White rice is fine in moderation like any other food. Look up the calories for whichever strain/brand you are using and make sure you stay within your calorie goals.

crb426

Yes, there’s nothing wrong with white rice

livingleanlivingclean

There's nothing wrong with white rice, and there's nothing better about brown rice. Keep your white rice!

shiragatama

Thank you! Is there a certain amount I should try to keep to? Would a cup a day be too much?

crb426

Eat as much as you want as long as it fits in your goals

PAV8888

What the?

There is minimal nutritional difference between white and brown rice, assuming you're using commercial fortified varieties.*

There is minimal nutritional difference between sweet potato and regular potato.* There is also minimal satiation difference.*

To be very honest the extreme additional health benefits of either are mostly... underwhelming

At the same time and to be perfectly honest I also find it incredibly easy to over eat white rice. Because, well, it is yummy!

So I would keep a very careful eye on how many grams of uncooked white rice I was consuming.

* Minimal does not equal none. But enough to feel compelled to change a basic staple for some incremental nutritional benefits?

Some discussion: www.muscleforlife.com/brown-rice-vs-white-rice/

jennybearlv

Brown rice has more fiber and vitamins than white rice, so there is some benefit if you don't mind the texture and extra cooking time. Eating white rice is fine for your health and weight loss though, so no need to give it up completely. It is always easier to stick with a diet when you can eat the foods you love and can afford, so go ahead and finish that bag.

Poisonedpawn78

shiragatama wrote: »

Thank you! Is there a certain amount I should try to keep to? Would a cup a day be too much?

Get a food scale and weight the rice by grams if possible. Cups vary in size and the packaging is never correct when using generic serving sizes like cups.

Ultimately it comes down to how much of your calories for a given meal do you want to spend on the rice. It might depend on the meal that you are having it with. With veggies you might have room for more rice, With meats you might have to have a bit less.

livingleanlivingclean

shiragatama wrote: »

Thank you! Is there a certain amount I should try to keep to? Would a cup a day be too much?

I would personally find a cup of rice (assuming cooked?) too much to "spend" calories on when eating such low calories. I would personally find it difficult to fit in sufficient vegetables/fruit

Make sure you're weighing your rice (preferably dry, before cooking) for more accurate logging.

Also, 1200 calories could be too low for you. What are your stats?

FlyingMolly

How much can you fit into your daily calories and still eat enough other foods to feel full and satisfied?

livingleanlivingclean

jennybearlv wrote: »

Brown rice has more fiber and vitamins than white rice, so there is some benefit if you don't mind the texture and extra cooking time. Eating white rice is fine for your health and weight loss though, so no need to give it up completely. It is always easier to stick with a diet when you can eat the foods you love and can afford, so go ahead and finish that bag.

Minimal extra fibre... I hardly find it worth it! It may have more nutrients, but the nutrients may be hard to access, it can also be harder to digest...

shiragatama

livingleanlivingclean wrote: »

Also, 1200 calories could be too low for you. What are your stats?

I am an 18 year old female, fluctuating around 107 pounds, and I am 5'2". I have a very small frame though!

PixelPuff

I have a 20lb bag of sushi rice in my kitchen. I know those feels. Trust me, just make sure you weigh it to properly portion it into your daily allowance, and you are good.

CyberTone

I have white rice, usually Basmati, for most dinners. I use 50g of dry white rice, water, 5ml soy sauce, and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, which makes about 230 to 250g cooked depending on how much water I start with. That ends up being about 170 Calories.

I had no problem working that amount of rice per day into my diet when I was losing weight - lost 100 lbs.

rheddmobile

How's your A1c? Unless you are developing problems with insulin resistance, white rice is fine. The typical Japanese diet is healthy enough in other ways (tea instead of cola, lots of fish, limited meat, plenty of vegetables) that it balances out any problems with white rice not being the most nutrient dense food in the world. Several of the oldest people ever have come from Japan and ate rice every day.

On the other hand, if you eat like a typical American, guzzle colas, and only like fried sushi drenched in mayo, white rice would be just one more bad thing.

Either way, brown rice is not much better nutritionally. Enjoy the rice you like best.

shiragatama

I'm glad to say that my diet is not that of a typical American ;-) Just thinking about drinking soda makes me shudder.
I could definitely do better with eating more green veggies/less red meat, but I'm getting there! I've been eating a lot of fish, and basically no processed foods. I cook everything myself!

rickiimarieee

As long as it fits within your calorie limit you can eat as much rice as you’d like and not gain anything.

shiragatama

Also, I noticed the variability in the MFP calories when adding rice to my diary. One said 242 calories per cup, and another said 176 or something like that. What amount of calories seems the most accurate for short grain sticky white rice?

rickiimarieee

shiragatama wrote: »

Also, I noticed the variability in the MFP calories when adding rice to my diary. One said 242 calories per cup, and another said 176 or something like that. What amount of calories seems the most accurate for short grain sticky white rice?

Does it have a barcode or a way to search up how many calories it is?

shiragatama

It is 155 calories uncooked for 1/4 cups, (620 cal for uncooked one cup) but I don't know how that translates into cooked rice. It's easier for me to just measure cooked, since our family just makes a lot of rice in the rice cooker for everybody, which is why I've been trying to use the MFP options in logging.

If anyone knows the ratio of cooked to uncooked rice, that would be so helpful!

megs_1985

shiragatama wrote: »

livingleanlivingclean wrote: »

Also, 1200 calories could be too low for you. What are your stats?

I am an 18 year old female, fluctuating around 107 pounds, and I am 5'2". I have a very small frame though!

I
Why are you only eating 1200? I put your stats in a TDEE calculator and even at sedentary it says your maintenance is 1462 and you are at the low end of a healthy weight. I doubt you need to lose weight. Not sure what your goals are but I think white rice could fit into your day just fine especially when paired with lots of veggies and protein.

shiragatama

By the chart I am technically a healthy weight, but by appearance I do have a some pudge, almost exclusively on my midsection since that's where all my fat goes. I really want to get rid of that :-(. I've heard about this thing called recomping though, which I might try once I get over my "gymtimidation."

CyberTone

Logging any cooked rice entries in MFP by volume is going to be an estimate, because different people use different amounts of water to cook rice.

I use at least 200ml of water per 1/4 cup (50g about 170 Calories) of dry rice when I cook. My homemade rice yields about 230g of cooked and is very wet - I prefer it that way. The same weight of dry rice cooked with only 150ml of water will still be cooked, but will not be as plump or as wet; but it will still have the same amount of Calories because water has zero Calories.

If you can, do a test by measuring out the weight of the rice you put in the cooker and measure the volume of water you put in the cooker. After cooking, weigh the entire cooked batch and calculate the total Calories per batch. Then scoop out a level cup. Weigh the amount in the level cup and divide the total weight of the batch by the weight of one level cup, then calculate the Calories per cup using that data.

shiragatama

CyberTone wrote: »

If you can, do a test by measuring out the weight of the rice you put in the cooker and measure the volume of water you put in the cooker. After cooking, weigh the entire cooked batch and calculate the total Calories per batch. Then scoop out a level cup. Weigh the amount in the level cup and divide the total weight of the batch by the weight of one level cup, then calculate the Calories per cup using that data.

This is so smart! I will try as soon as I can!

sgt1372

FWIW, I use to eat white rice every day w/dinner. It was a habit developed over many years starting when I was a child.

I hardly ever eat rice any more, despite still having over 10# of it sitting around. Same applies to pasta, potatoes and bread.

Doesn't mean that I still don't eat these things from time to time. Just a lot less than I use to because I chose to reduce my consumption of them for my own reasons.

So, OP, it you WANT to continue to eat white rice w/in your calorie limit, there's no reason why you can't do so.

Nothing "bad" will happen to you if you do.

Not sure what "bad things" you've read or heard about white rice but millions (if not billions) of Asians throughout the world have been eating white rice daily for centuries w/o any reported nutritional, medical or other problems assoicated with this practice.

So, I wouldn't worry about it.

Lillymoo01

I normally eat brown rice simply because I prefer the more nutty taste of it over that of white rice. If white was my preference I'd eat that instead. The difference in nutrition is minimal so preference should be the deciding factor.

grinning_chick

shiragatama wrote: »

It is 155 calories uncooked for 1/4 cups, (620 cal for uncooked one cup) but I don't know how that translates into cooked rice. It's easier for me to just measure cooked, since our family just makes a lot of rice in the rice cooker for everybody, which is why I've been trying to use the MFP options in logging.

If anyone knows the ratio of cooked to uncooked rice, that would be so helpful!

Cook one cup uncooked (dried) per whatever technique you prefer as far as water, salt, oil. Divide into four equal portions based on weight using a scale. Using four containers that weigh the same does help here. Now you know what 1/4 cup dried, cooked per your technique, weighs. Dish that out, using a scale to weigh it, out of any communal batches cooked using the same technique.

iheartmakeup01

Rice cooked doesn’t matter 1 cup 46 g of carb, 3/4 cup 36 g of carbs, 1/2 cup 25g of carbs, and 1/4 cup 11g of carbs. When I logged into myp I select jasmine rice with the number correlating to how much rice I’m eating

grinning_chick

iheartmakeup01 wrote: »

Rice cooked doesn’t matter 1 cup 46 g of carb, 3/4 cup 36 g of carbs, 1/2 cup 25g of carbs, and 1/4 cup 11g of carbs. When I logged into myp I select jasmine rice with the number correlating to how much rice I’m eating

Even if we're only talking about grams of carbohydrate per 1/4 cup dried, no. I eat Hinode's Calrose white medium grain. It is 39 grams of carb (and 180 calories, for the record) for a 1/4 cup (49 grams) dried serving. Not 11. That is per the nutritional label on the rice itself and not some entry in some database created by some rando who is not me. Always verify database entries against the label in-hand. Always. They are notoriously inaccurate, regardless of the database, the USDA's database excepted of course.

This inherent inaccuracy is why I have built my own database of single foodstuffs as well as recipes within the food logging platform I use. It really adds up, and covers almost everything I eat, after a couple years of doing so. Of course, if that platform ever crashes with data loss or closes, I will be S.O.L.

vegmebuff

Apparently one can reduce rice caloric count by half when doing the following:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/25/scientists-have-figured-out-a-simple-way-to-cook-rice-that-dramatically-cuts-the-calories/?utm_term=.bd72415e5fd8