Indian meal

alexfaty

HI everyone, need some advice here! As its a bank holiday weekend my husband really wants to go and have an Indian meal on Sunday night. - HELP! isn't that the worst in terms of calories???
Has anyone got any good ideas how I can got and have an Indian meal WITHOUT loosing total control of my calorie intake!?? :drinker:
Doing 10mile run on the Saturday so that will burn 1,000 calories will those calories 'roll over' to the following day???

CarolMorris66

Its so hard isn't it....

We had a Dominoes Pizza Saturday night. We had spent Friday night doing a 12 hr night hike so by Saturday evening there was no way I felt like cooking, so Pizza it was.... Got another 1.5lb to lose before I can start on this week's weight loss....

Is it worth it..??

And curry for me is the worse... poppadums to start with can't be any good.... I feel for you !!!

charliebird

Ooooh I could so go an Indian!

Ok so....
Boiled Rice ( not Pilau)
Tikka (not tikka massala)
Stay away from cream sauce.

Try and only eat half a dish of rice and main dish. Popaddums are better than nan bread. Think chippatis are even better (but might have to check that)

Vegetable curry is better choice.

If it was me I would have chicken tikka, with a small amount of vegetable curry and boiled rice and a Pop!

It is difficult - but there again sometimes you have to treat yourself. As you say you are running the day before. And actually sometimes eating more calories actually helps the weight loss - just DON'T jump on the scales the next day!!!! You'lll have the shock of your life and it wont be a "true" reading!!!!

Enjoy is what I say!!

littlemili

Indian is most probably the easiest takeaway food to eat as part of a diet plan.

The best possible option:
Stick to vegetarian, tomato-based dishes. There are always LOADS of these and they are yummy.
No rice or naan, but go ahead with pickle and a small amount of chutney. Seriously the calories in naan are horrific.
They often serve a salad on the side. Eat it before you touch anything carby if you're still hungry after your main.

If you want more options:
Tomato based sauces still, fish dishes are good or meat which you know has not been fried.
A dry meat dish with a vegetable tomato-based sauce side would work ok.
Plain basmati rice, no naan!! Or lemon rice, you can ask what they put in the rice and if it's fried, my local doesn't fry the lemon rice, it's just a mix of spices and lemon juice.


Aside from the oil it's cooked in, most of the vegetable curry dishes will simply have a ton of veg in and little else. OK, the nutritional quality of the veg might be questionable, but calorie, carb and fat wise you are onto a big winner.

Smiler1968

I must say, and it may not be helpful, that I have had a couple of Indians since starting to watch my calories. I just eat what I want rather than going for a healthy option. Yes that does include nan bread and creamy dishes. However, since getting my portion sizes in check I only have one main meal (yes I'm embarrassed to say I used to order 2 dishes).
I believe that if I cut out the things I love completely I will fail. It's working for me so far.

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Fattack

Choose a couple of chapattis rather than a naan if you want bread A chapatti is about 120 calories (however they often cook them in ghee, so if you ask them to limit the ghee then you may save a couple of calories!) whereas a plain naan is around 500 cals. Go for boiled rather than basmati rice if the option is available.

Go for a vegetarian, chicken or prawn dish - less calories, and as aforementioned, avoid creamy dishes in favour of tomato based ones. If you can eat it hot, then all the better, as you'll probably feel fuller earlier. If you must have a starter, have a poppadom or two (think they're about 70 cals each) but beware of the mango chutney and the lime pickle, both are calorific for the amount, have raita / sambal instead. Also if you're concerned about fat, then bear in mind that although poppadoms are lower in calories, they're high in fat as they're fried (about 5g each). AVOID bhajis, samosas etc. If you drink mango lassi, bear in mind it's quite calorific, and you probably don't want to blow calories on juice

http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories/calorie_content/indian_food.htm here's a useful resource for you! But mostly, enjoy your meal.

I think your body works in stages of around 24 hours (but I could be wrong, maybe somebody can clarify) so if you burn 1000 the day before you should be able to move some of it to the next day.

sarahlindsayturner

I have had a curry every Friday night since January when I joined MFP. If you choose carefully then its fine.
Poppadoms are 65 cals each, and as someone said chapatis better than naan bread. A chapati is only 160 cals.
I avoid rice, but have 1/2 portion of chicken dhansak (lentil based, no cream), 1 chapati and often 2 popadoms too. That totals 543 calories - not bad!
I managed this when I was on 1200 a day. Have lost 22 lbs in 5 months and am now on maintenance calories, and now treat myself to rice too.

Curry MUCH healthier than a pizza.

jasmin1310

I'm indian and indian food is not that bad as long as you don't go for creamy sauces.
Avoid anything that say's 'butter' in the title as in butter chicken.

Have the veg, daahl is good as its lentils and avoid anything hat says makhani as this is also creamy butter.
All the grilled meats as starters is a good option, tikka and tandoori. and chapati's are also better than naan.

prepare what you will be eating in advance.

I would suggest chicken tikka, lamb tikka maybe even prawns, a mix veg jalfrezi or alu gobi (potato and califlower) a tomato based chicken curry is also good. and have boiled rice or chapati's no need to overload on carbs.

hope this helps.

rachypompa

I've had a few indian meals whilst on MFP, there's a fair few in the database and I just used those to guesstimate. I have poppadoms, rice and a bit of naan, I prefer naan to chapati, so a small piece of naan is preferable to a whole chapati.

And as for rolling calories over I always do that, I make sure my whole week balances, rather than worrying about each day, so you'll be all good.

nickyevans

Tandoori chicken should be ok, it normally comes with salad and is quite filling.

TheMrsBee

When i go to the Indian i have Chicken Tikka (not massala) and green salad, it's really filling and nice and yummy, i also have some mago chutney and mint sauce just to give it an extra kick and more taste.

Have one poppodum, onion salad etc you can treat yourself a little. I agree with the others try not to eat ALL of it, you are allowed to leave food on your plate, (that's my downfall!)

Good luck and ENJOY!!