Thai Food!

elle18287
elle18287 Posts: 267 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am going out for Thai food tonight. I am budgeting my calories and I just did 30DayShred. I will be doing a bit of Yoga and will have approximately 900 calories to "spend" on dinner/wine.

What are some good lower calorie options for me?
What should I stay away from?

Thanks guys!

Replies

  • elle18287
    elle18287 Posts: 267 Member
    By the way, the meal can be slightly more calorie dense than I would usually eat, because my husband and I will be sharing!
  • TeeDeezy
    TeeDeezy Posts: 40 Member
    It's always hard to say what people are putting in their recipes. But you have a few options that will save some calories for sure. For example, you could skip the coconut soup (which most Thai places have) and get a salad with low or non-fat dressing. I love coconut milk but it's pretty fattening. You could ask when you order a dish if it's made with coconut milk. A lot of the curry dishes are and they will have the added fat of the milk.

    Also, most Thai restaurants serve rice on the side, so you could leave it on the side and cut out a good amount of carbs. Or, you can order some type of noodle bowl. The noodle bowls are usually pretty low in calories, but you might want to limit how much of the actual noodles you eat and save yourself from all the carbs. The bowl is going to be loaded with sodium, but so will most everything else, so that's almost a given.

    Hope that's at least a little help.
  • elle18287
    elle18287 Posts: 267 Member
    Thanks TeeDeezy!
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    Pretty much the same as any other Asian restaurant (Chinese, Japanese, Thai) - avoid anything fried/crispy, avoid anything with peanut sauce or coconut milk/soup. Stick with grilled meats and steamed veggies. My favorites actually come from the appetizer listing - chicken satay (grilled chicken tender on a stick) and steamed dumplings. YUM!
  • samblanken
    samblanken Posts: 369 Member
    Opt for nam sad or beef salad - it is very low carb and high protien.
  • starcurl
    starcurl Posts: 41
    When I go out for Thai food, I avoid any of the curries because they have so much coconut milk in them. I love the larb gai salad- and usually order prawns on them as extra. These salads have ground chicken, mung bean noodles, lettuce, tomato, onions, and are mixed with a lime / cilantro / fish sauce / chile type of dressing. Very healthy, and delicious!
  • trybabytry
    trybabytry Posts: 181
    See if they have "fresh" or "summer" rolls -- like egg rolls, kind of, but wrapped in clear rice paper rather than fried. Absolutely delicious as an appetizer. Tom Yum soup also has very few calories, like 100 for the whole bowl. Everything else, just eat in moderation! I ask for a side of shredded lettuce sometimes and use that instead of rice, so I can save calories and splurge on a peanutty sauce or something. (Massaman curry... be still my heart!)
  • TeeDeezy
    TeeDeezy Posts: 40 Member
    No problem! Like SamBlanken mentioned the beef salad is actually a good option if you get the right dressing. The only problem is that if you want to actually feel like you're at a Thai restaurant and eating Thai food, sometimes a salad can be a little ...eh. Stir fry vegetables are also a good way to go, but you never know what kind of butter and oil their cooking them with. I've seen restaurants take a piece of fish that has 100 calories and virtually no fat and, instead of cooking it with a little salt and olive oil and letting the flavor stay natural, they cook it with tons of butter. Then you wind up with something that you perceive as healthy, but that actually has 1000 calories or more. It can be the same with veggies.

    Steamed is probably the safest option on veggies, meats, dumplings, etc... But again the only problem is that you often don't get the full experience of the Thai dish since most stuff that is steamed doesn't get the spice soak.

    At least you have some options to think about now :). If it were me, I'd probably pick an entree that sounded like something I'd really enjoy and then try to trim the calories by limiting the extras like the rice, coconut soup, fried or simmered appetizer, etc...
  • Magenta15
    Magenta15 Posts: 850 Member
    I make Thai all the time, love it!!!
    as with any place (chineze, thai, etc) I think you have to be aware of the amount of sodium thus prepare for that... otherwise I don't think too many of the choices are all that horrible if you choose ones that are veggie laden, not deep fried, etc.

    If I am going to go out and enjoy thai, I AM going to enjoy my pad thai (one noodle dish) and a few other veggie/meat type dishes. so long as I account for it and drink hella ton of water... why shouldn't I enjoy it once in a blue moon :)

    And I know the place I go has a "healthy" section where the rice is steamed, and the veggies are steamed rather then cooked in oil and stuff... so pick one thing you love and the rest more healthy.... I am not sure if everyone does what we do at the thai restaurant here... but me and my honey go with another couple once every few months, we all order stuff and share a bit of this and that, so I get a bite of "the good stuff" and my healthier stuff :)

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