Vietnamese food?

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nhainie
nhainie Posts: 5 Member
in Food and Nutrition
What is your trick to keep the calories count low when you are out eating at the Vietnamese restaurant? I have been researching and getting opposite advises on what to go for or what to avoid. A bowl of Pho can rack up to 800 calories is one of the result that came up, yike! I’m functioning with the limit of 1100 cal/day so I’m looking for tips to redude the calories counts in my vietnamese foods.

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  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,005 Member
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    That would have to be a VERY large bowl of Pho - It has noodles in it and meat and vegetables and flavoring but no cream or coconut milk or cheese, those things which make some soups have more calories.

    The data base gives most Pho's as around 400 calories per bowl - Pho is quite filling IME so if you have a medium size bowl and call it 400 calories and then have something small afterward, avoid fried, have small amount or no rice - you could easily get a meal for around 800- 900 total.

    leaves you small amount to spend on rest of day or go bit over that day and eat less the other days of the week.Or excercise bit more than usual to make it up
    Same strategies as you would use for any special meal

    and why are you on such a low total as 1100 anyway?
    MFP minimum is 1200 - and that is 1200 net - ( ie plus any excercise calories eaten back)
  • nhainie
    nhainie Posts: 5 Member
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    I’m a short person with a pretty sedentary life (desk work + school + volunteer take up most of my time). My TDEE is around 1500, and even with 1100 i’m only doing 400 deficit. I recently added exercise and try to burn 100 calories a day to make up for it, but I can’t do it everyday since my days are pretty busy. MFP let me go down to 1001 cal/day so I set mine in the middle to be safe :( it sucks to have a low TDEE because then I can’t lose weight as quick, so i’m already looking at longer plateaus and it’s really discouraging.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,005 Member
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    1200 is the minimum and that is for short older sedentary females - unless you are an outlier beyond this group - ie you are in a coma or are only 4 feet tall or 90 years old an amputee or something then no need to go lower than 1200.

    Anyway, as mentioned before, even on a low calorie allowance it would not be hard to fit in a bowl of Pho at a meal out.

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