What's Good & What's Bad?

[HedKeeQuai]

OK, I live in Thailand, I want to lose weight i.e. not eat anything that has a substantial amount of fat in it.

I'm familiar with most of the local cuisine and I rarely pay over bt50 for a meal.

Which of the most popular thai dishes should I be eating, and which shouldn't I be?

Given the easy availability of sweets&snacks here, this will prove arduous, but I will cut down on snacking, and limit myself to 3 (thai-sized) meals a day.

With a bit of excercise I hope to lose 10kgs.

Thanks for u help.

[BambinA]

well , u'd eat 1500 Kcal per day , and if you can do like that ,for 3 days you'd lose your weight around 1 kg

example

breakfast- boiled egg , coffee (or the without sugar no cream)

lunch -Gao-lao Nua (beef soup), with/without 1 cup of rice

dinner -Som Tam , Gai Yang (grilled chicken) without skin (dont eat after 6pm)

if you are hungry , maybe you can take some Gauva(farang) , Papaya or Water Melon

Bambi

ps, forget curry with coconut milk as Green Curry

ps2, try Geang Liang Goong (prawn, vegetable in pepper soup), some soup with veggie (as Gaeng Jurd Phuk Gard Khow) ,Suki Yaki Talay (Suki soup),

Edited August 9, 2005 by BambinA

[chaiyapoon]

Cut out one meal a day and subsitute Thai fruits.Don't think much in the way of Thai food is realy that fattening;certainly against western foods,just cut down on volumes.I'm currently about 104 kilos around 5'10'' so overweight.

In six weeks will be back in thailand for 6 months,and judging on previous experience will drop down 20 kilos or more with little or no effort just wish I didn't put it back on so easily back in UK!

If you drink a lot of beer etc it will take a lot longer and don't forget to get some regular exercise.

[pedro01]

well ,  u'd  eat 1500 Kcal per day , and  if you can do like that ,for 3 days you'd lose your weight  around 1 kg

example

breakfast- boiled egg , coffee (or  the without sugar no cream)

lunch -Gao-lao Nua (beef soup),  with/without  1  cup of rice

dinner -Som Tam , Gai Yang (grilled chicken) without skin (dont eat after 6pm)

if  you are hungry ,  maybe  you can  take some  Gauva(farang) , Papaya or Water Melon

Bambi

ps,  forget curry with coconut milk as Green Curry

ps2,  try Geang Liang Goong (prawn, vegetable in pepper soup), some soup with veggie (as  Gaeng Jurd  Phuk Gard Khow) ,Suki Yaki Talay (Suki soup),

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bambina - no-one's going to be losing 1kg in 3 days doing what you suggest.

I just lost 45lbs & here's how you do it.

1 - be prepared to change you diet completely

2 - be prepared to miss out on stuff you enjoy eating

3 - be prepared to start enjoying food you don't currently enjoy

4 - do NOT eat in restaurants

5 - do not eat anything from a packet or tin - no pre-prepared foods

6 - do eat plenty of food - 3 meals a day is not the way to lose weight..

6am - bowl of oatmeal with water, after cooking add half a cup of fat free milk

9am snack - fruit plus some chicken breast (skinless) - best to pick high-fibre fruits like apples

12pm - grilled fish/chicken with steamed vegetables

3pm - fruit plus some chicken breast/fish steak/cottage cheese

6pm - dinner - grilled fish/chicken with steamed vegetables

The trick is to eat a diet low in carbs. The carbs you do eat should be combined with protein or fibre to slow their digestion. This helps your body to burn fat.

Forget white rice & potatoes & white bread. Wholemeal bread & brown rice are OK - but leave them out of meals after lunch.

Restaurant food just isn't going to do it for you - unless you want 3 micro-portions a day which will leave you hungry & miserable - the above diet may be a little boring but you won't be hungry.

For exercise - try walking for 1 hour a day before you eat - the weight will drop off.

You should aim for 2-3lbs or 1-1.5kg per week - if you lose more than that - back off the diet a little - don't loose too quickly 'cause it won't just be fat you are losing. The exception to this is at the start of your diet when you could lose a lot of water weight in the first 1-2 weeks.

[p1p]

Exercise - Good

Water - Good

Food - Bad

Slimming drugs - VERY Bad

[easy_jim]

Pedro is exactly right. Lose no more than 2 or 3 pounds a week apart from the first week when you will lose more but it will be mostly water. If you lose more than 2-3 pounds a week then you are certainly losing muscle tissue as well as fat and this is the worst thing you can do if you want to keep the weight off in the long term.

Exercise - cardio vascular is good for using calories but also try to do weights to increase muscle as this will increase your metabolism so you naturally use more calories a day.

Thai food is not always healthy. They use a lot of cooking oils and saturated fat which you need to keep to a minimum. Get your protein from chicken and fish rather than pork or beef - tuna is especially good. And eat plenty of fruit and veg.

[sendbaht]

It takes 8750 calories to lose a kilo or gain kilo. Try walking for a hour, work your way up to it if needed. But as posed above, exercise more eat less.

Good luck you are on your way.

Or 3500 calories to lose a pound or take in a extra 3500 calories to gain a pound if you perfer.

Edited August 10, 2005 by sendbaht

[HedKeeQuai]

thanks all for your help, especially Pedro, I will try what you say.

Just wondering: 1 hour of walking would be equivalent to how many mins of dancing?

[easy_jim]

Everybody is diferent but you are probably using around 250 calories an hour walking. Not much when 3500 calories equals one pound weight loss but it is the general health benefit and overall increase in your metabolism that really matters.

Dancing - depends how energetically you dance. High intensity aerobic exercise can use around 600 calories an hour.

[Khutan]

I lost about 30 Kg in a bit over a year.

How did I do it.

# 1 by a very long way Sugar. Get as much sugar out of your diet as possible. It is your worst enemy. The sugar gets straight into your blood-stream as glucose. Your Pancreas detects this and then adds Insulin to convert the sugar quite quickly into fat.

So no more sweet fizzy drink, no added sugar nothing. The same goes for Maltose and fructose, all of them will pile on the pounds.

#2, Protein is your friend. To convert protein into fat is a lengthy and inefficient exercise by your body. It involves breaking it into amino acids etc. What your body doesn't use goes away.

#3 Exercise, very good, make it regular and fun. Go for a reasonably quick walk, look at the eye candy etc, or get on a treadmill and watch TV, any exercise as long as you measure it and do it regularly.

#4 Simple one, but its so obvious, have a zone in your day when you don't eat. Drink as much water as you like, but no food. It takes about a month to get used to it, and you want the period to be about 4 - 6 hours. Sleeping doesn't count. When you are hungry, it means your body wants food, particularly clucose in the blood stream. So you know if you are slightly hungry all the time, you are losing weight.

#5 Main meal of the day, reduce its size. Eat until you are barely satisfied. Never eat until you are full, that is very bad. This also will help your stomach to shrink.

#6 Chilli is a good friend. Eat as much as you can. Then eat more. It is an irritant to your bowel, therefore making everything move through faster. It will take 4 - 5 days to get used to eating alot of Chilli.

This worked for me, but everyone is different. I went from 133 Kilos to 95 kg in about a year. I had Type 2 Diabetes and I was in very bad shape. I was also taking alot of diabetic medication for basicly being overweight. Now I am down to a better weight, I still want to shed another 10kg I do not take any diabetic medication and I have not for at least 6 months now.

Remember also weight loss is a gradual thing, and you should not lose more than 10% of your body mass in three months.

Good Luck

[OxfordWill]

I once lost about 3 stone in a month and a half, by simply going to Laos.

Hope that helps.

When you feel hungry, drink pints of water until you no longer feel hungry. That will help you force yourself into whatever eating routine you decide on.

Eat breakfast.

[Moo Dohn]

It takes 8750 calories to lose a kilo or gain kilo. Try walking for a hour, work your way up to it if needed. But as posed above, exercise more eat less.

Good luck you are on your way.

Or 3500 calories to lose a pound or take in a extra 3500 calories to gain a pound if you perfer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

EXACTLY... and this is ALL you need to know about dieting/excercising to lose weight. Very scientific, very straightforward...

[Davey]

Get your protein from chicken and fish rather than pork or beef - tuna is especially good.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tuna isn't really a good source of protein, only about 40% of protein content in tuna is absored by the body, ultimately meaning if you ingest 100 grams of tuna, only 40 grams is of use

[brahmburgers]

Thai foods are generally unhealthy. Have you ever had a Thai meal that was not overcooked and extremely spicy. Over half the ingredients in a typical Thai curry dish are inedible -even by Thais. I eat home made sandwiches with fresh ingredients. My favorite place to eat out is a Muslim restaurant that serves yellow rice (curry & saffron) and chicken tender enough to cut with a plastic fork. all that plus water, salad and soup for Bt.30.

I will never go on a first date to a Thai restaurant. The girl will invariably order nine dishes, take one bite of each and look to me to finish everything. I eat my one dish and am sated. 90% of the over-priced, over-spiced meal is thrown out. It's happened numerous times. bummer.

[Khutan]

Thai foods are generally unhealthy.  Have you ever had a Thai meal that was not overcooked and extremely spicy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes actually.

I eat my one dish and am sated. 90% of the over-priced, over-spiced meal is thrown out.  It's happened numerous times. bummer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well thats your opinion and you are entitled to it.

Do you eat much away from Sukhumvit Soi 3 - 5 ?

[chaiyapoon]

''Thai foods are generally unheathy''. Generally another incorrect statement!!

Where did you get this from????Sounds like you have never tasted proper Thai food!

Fresh ingredients, mostly vegetables,very lightly stir fried,with boiled rice.

I quote from 'The taste of Thailand' by Vatcharin Bhumichitr:

But it is also the lightnessof the food and the way it corresponds to recent nutritional thinking that has made it so popular:meat,always without fat,makes up only a small proportion of a Thai meal,the largest element being quickly cooked vegetables that remain firm with all their flavours preserved.Thai food is seldom cooked for long and is always fresh.

[meadish_sweetball]

There's both healthy and unhealthy Thai food. The curries left standing for hours in the street stalls with insufficient heating are anything but healthy, both in terms of fat and bacterial growth.

On the other hand, a freshly prepared Som Tam is very healthy (unless there's too much sugar in it).

Stir fried food made from fresh ingredients and repared in the right way can be healthy, but it will take a few adjustments from the usual street style preparations (using less cooking fat, for example).