Understanding Indian Food Calories

MusuDad · June 2020

Hey superstars,

I’ve been doing IF for 2 weeks now and want to get serious about tracking my calories. I’m eating basically whatever I want between 5-9pm.
I’m trying to understand how much calories variation of rice is actually coming up to.
For example a full regular size (not the smaller ones nor some huge *kitten* ones) plate of chicken biryani.
How much calories would be in something like this?
And when we talk about cups of rice, are we talking uncooked or cooked? I could probably eat 1 cup of cooked rice in like 2 bites, I would think?

Dumb questions, but need to wrap my mind around some of this. Thanks!

harper16 · June 2020

Rice should be weighed uncooked, but if you are buying already cooked rice I'd weigh the dish, and look up calories for a similar dish.

ritzvin · June 2020

What is generally labeled as "1 serving" of rice is a ~ a custard cup of cooked rice (and yes, it is indeed a sad depressingly small amount of rice which is why I rarely buy it). What many people would call a 'plate of rice' is at least 3 'servings'. Other than batch cooking an entire pot of rice for multiple people and meals, a 'cup' in reference to a rice serving is most likely cooked, and would be ~200 calories.

ritzvin · June 2020

Rice can also pack into a cup at differing bulk densities, so it's more accurate to weigh it.. There are weight-based entries for both raw and cooked in the database here.

freda666 · June 2020

MusuDad wrote: »

Hey superstars,

For example a full regular size (not the smaller ones nor some huge *kitten* ones) plate of chicken biryani.
How much calories would be in something like this?

There is no such thing as a "regular size" nor is it easy to know how many calories is in something unless you made it yourself or the packaging gives information.

If you are talking take-away then, depending on where you live, they will have that information either on display or on their website.

And always weigh, rather than use USA 'cups" as you will can get widely different results depending on how densely you pack the food in.

vegtolose10 · June 2020

@MusuDad There is no such a thing as a regular/kitten size servings. Invest in a food scale.Worth every penny. For the first week just try to weigh and track what you normally eat. Liquids use measuring cups and for solids weigh. Rice ,lentils dry and uncooked. Once you get a handle on managing tracking you can cut down based on your goal and current weight.
T

PAV8888 · June 2020

Here is the process I would go through if I was considering an item I frequently eat.

Weight your dish and definitely weight what you're going to eat. This is the easiest variable to anchor down before we get into what the cook used to make your food!!!!

Locate USDA's Food Data central. Type chicken biryani. On the page that shows click "require all words".

Observe. 7 branded and 1 survey item. No SR Legacy items. SR Legacy is actually preferred by myself as it was evaluated by USDA personnel and it usually can be located in the MFP database.

Going down the list quickly we establish an energy density of:

1.17; 1.41; 1.80; 1.70; 1.13; 1.63; 1.40

While not necessary when it comes to first approximations, it pays to have some general knowledge. For example a similar search for rice pilaf (no chicken in other words) will yield a density of 1.48 for rice/vermicelli pilaf prepared with some added fat, and the always very interesting corresponding survey item which comes in at 1.36 Cal per gram and a portion of 206g a cup.

Survey items are interesting because you can see in their tabs both the ingredients that went into the recipe and how many grams the USDA considered as a cup.

The biryani survey item is interesting in that it has a lower caloric density than all of the frozen entrees and a lower density than the usda rice pilaf entries. Unless I had reason to suspect it was more correct, I don't know that I would go with it. Incidentally it presents a portion of 196g per cup.

SO. A cup of rice thingy is about 200g. By comparison (using the same database, SR Legacy), white rice prepared for a cup is 165g and energy density is 1.24Cal. Spanish rice is 1.25Cal and 198g for a cup.

Looking at the above I would consider my food.

Does it look greasy and is it made with a goodly amount of chunks of chicken leg/thigh perhaps some skin? Then we are looking in the 1.63 / 1.7 / 1.8 Cal per gram range.

Is it more plain, chicken breast, tiny pieces or none, lots of non greasy sauce? Then maybe in the 1.4 or even 1.2 range.

Then find an entry... and log by weight (or copy the information off the USDA site and create your own entry)

By the way, the nutritional info for the first frozen chicken biryani entree that popped up on a search came in at about 1.34g per gram.

The cup entries above are also interesting. When you're measuring your chicken on your scale, check out what you would have called a cup and see how many grams by comparison. By the looks of it, a saucy cup is around 200g, mostly just under that.

yirara · June 2020

Biryani can be very high in fat, thus a portion might contain quite a lot of calories. Do you prepare the dish yourself or do you buy it ready-made? (and now I want biryani!)

PAV8888 · June 2020

PAV8888 wrote: »

Does it look greasy and is it made with a goodly amount of chunks of chicken leg/thigh perhaps some skin? Then we are looking in the 1.63 / 1.7 / 1.8 Cal per gram range. Or you may even want to add 13.5g or 27g of oil (1 to 2 tblsp) if it is looking particularly greasy!

@yirara's comment brought to mind that I had been planning to point out that take out is generally more "oil rich" than frozen entrees.

yirara · June 2020

Wait, there is frozen biryani?!?

Understanding Indian Food Calories

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