Pasta so high in calories, any healthy ones?

petrinaradford
petrinaradford Posts: 77 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I knew pasta wasn’t the healthiest idea for weight loss. But just saw calories in “community co large shells pasta” for 125g which is the serving size (not sure if cooked or uncooked) but is 456 calories.

Any healthy pastas that anyone knows of?
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Replies

  • JessAndreia
    JessAndreia Posts: 540 Member
    Most white pastas I have seen are around 310-340 calories per serving (about 85 grams raw). So 456 cals is for 125 grams raw has well.
    I never get shell pasta so don't know what 125 grams raw looks like, but in penne, 85 grams is a decent serving size, especially paired with other foods.
  • nighthawk584
    nighthawk584 Posts: 1,992 Member
    try spaghetti squash as an alternative.
  • skelterhelter
    skelterhelter Posts: 803 Member
    If you don't want to do vegetable based pastas, I hear the brand Fiber Gourmet is very good and only 130 calories per serving. You can only order it online at netrition.com as far as I can see (no stores near me carry it). They have penne, spaghetti, and rotini. I plan to order it soon.
  • RemoteWilderness
    RemoteWilderness Posts: 29 Member
    petrinaradford wrote: »
    I knew pasta wasn’t the healthiest idea for weight loss. But just saw calories in “community co large shells pasta” for 125g which is the serving size (not sure if cooked or uncooked) but is 456 calories.

    Any healthy pastas that anyone knows of?

    Most pasta I've ever seen is 100 calories per ounce. I eat pasta at least 3x a week and I'm always satisfied for 400-500 calorie dinner.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    You will find that fitting into your daily calorie goal means compromising. A 125g raw pasta serving is big even where I live--Rome. A normal size is 100g and I get by with 50g + veggies and fish or meat, depending on the day. I make pasta in hundreds of different ways. Yesterday was ragu and today was with white beans. Pasta substitutes don't do it for me, but you can decide for yourself. Good luck on your weight loss.
  • floofyschmoofer
    floofyschmoofer Posts: 209 Member
    When I really want pasta, I have a small portion with a big honkin' salad so I still feel satisfied.

    Or I make pasta salad and use real pasta-- but only for about 1/4 of the total volume of the dish. I will use my spiralizer to create cucumber, zucchini and even squash 'noodle's, and cut carrot ribbons. Then big hunks of peppers and onion to fill in any gaps.
  • UmmSqueaky
    UmmSqueaky Posts: 715 Member
    As others have said, that's a lotta pasta! A serving per package is usually 56g. The first few times you make a single serving, it will seem tiny, but part of sustainable weight loss is reorienting our thinking about how much food we really need (spoiler alert, less than we normally eat, thus why we're overweight).

    I tend to avoid pastas and breads, as they're lots of calories for not as much nutritional value as I'd like. I spiralized a lot a lot of zucchini and butternut squash and toss those in as noodle substitutes. They don't taste like noodles, but they do make a good dish. Spiralizing has been getting more popular and there are a lot of recipes online. I'm making something like this for dinner tomorrow, served alongside some kind of chicken.

    When I'm craving actual pasta, I'll measure out a single serving of whole wheat pasta and fill up on other things.
    Also, I've been trying noodles made from things other than wheat. Ones that I like include:
    • Trader Joe's lentil and brown rice spaghetti - same calorie count as whole wheat pasta, but twice the protein (14g vs. 7g)
    • Simply Nature soybean spaghetti - same calorie count as whole wheat pasta, but a whole lot more protein (24g vs. 7g). These don't really taste as much like "normal" pasta, but I've found works really well in homemade ramen and in more asian-ish recipes vs. italian recipes
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    If you're up for a challenge, try shirataki noodles instead of regular pasta. Less than 10 calories per serving.

    Warning, it's an acquired taste. 😁
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    just_Tomek wrote: »
    LyndaBSS wrote: »
    If you're up for a challenge, try shirataki noodles instead of regular pasta. Less than 10 calories per serving.

    Warning, it's an acquired taste. 😁

    Nothing to do with pasta. Completely different beast used for different meals.

    I respectfully disagree. I use shirataki fettuccine instead of pasta fettuccine and also use a tomato based sauce with it.
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
    I eat pasta and rice almost every day. Depending on how I cook my pasta determines how much that I eat. If I include veggies and meat in the recipe I find that 1 to 1 1/2 oz. is plenty(100 to 150 calories). If it is mainly a pasta dish then I go with a full serving of 2oz of pasta(200 calories).

    Eating pasta has never caused me to not lose weight.
  • geminigirl6969
    geminigirl6969 Posts: 1 Member
    Zero Noodle is bean base and actually is very high in fibre and will balance out the carb quantity. For each gram of fiber you minus that from the carb content. Shirataki makes me vomit as it feels like rubber, Zero Noodles has benefit nutritionally and the taste is easier to swallow.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    You can either reduce your portion size, save up calories for the amount you want, or find alternatives (zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash, shirataki etc). I usually have a large serving of pasta once a week then have zucchini noodles the rest of the time. Just because something is more calorie dense does not mean it's unhealthy, but it is something you might want to pay attention to especially if you do not have a lot of calories to play with.
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
    If you eat whole grain pasta you get a fairly large portion of your daily fiber requirement.

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