Chinese Takeaway Calories?

[MadmellyGT]

Hi all, Going to have a chinese takeaway for my tea after I finish work at 6. I have only had my weetabix today (220 calories) Does anyone know how many calories are in a chinese mushroom curry. I'm ordering chicken chow mein, boiled rice and mushroom curry. (I will be sharing it with my partner) My daily allowance in 1420 calories so in theory, after taking into account my drinks, I should be left with about 1100 to use on my takeaway.

[Claz]

have you tried logging it all on MY FITNESS PAL? that should give u a good indication x

[MadmellyGT in reply to Claz]

I haven't got that. But thank you anyway.

[PTKeith]

Hello. The chow mein is about 400 the mush curry is about 500 the boiled rice is about 200. However this is a really bad way to eat. Think of your body like a washing machine. Put a load it can handle and it copes fine. Put in too much and a large portion is not washed. Your body can only process so much food at one time. Everything else will be stored as fat!!

[Fran182716 in reply to PTKeith]

I don't really understand what you mean here, surely your body can't store anything as fat until it has processed it. Agree it's maybe not great for the digestion or particularly nutritious and personally wouldn't suit me to have one tiny meal, long gap, and one big one but some people do very well on that style of eating and shouldn't make a difference to weight loss if it fits into total calories for the day.

[PTKeith in reply to Fran182716]

Oh wow, this would take a whole page worth of text to really explain this. I might do a page just on this. I will try and do a short reply. The body processes everything you eat, and turns it into something the body can use. when you eat carbs they are digested, broken down to glucose, and then transported to all the cells in your body. They are then metabolised and used to support cellular processes. If you’re active and eating appropriately for your activity level, most of the carbs you consume are more or less burned immediately. if however you’re eating a lot more calories per session than you are burning, then your liver will convert excess calories from carbohydrate into fats; second, not all carbs are created equal. If you consume too many calories from simple sugars like sucrose and fructose and white goods like Rice then your body will more readily take some of those sugars and turn them into triglycerides (fat) in your liver.

So yes some people eat one meal a day, but most people will say this will lead to overeating. If I tried this I would be eating my own hand by lunchtime!! lol. I could take most of my clients and if I got them to eat what they eat for breakfast for their evening meal and have their evening meal for breakfast they would lose weight. The first thing I do with a client to kick off their food modification (we don't like the D word) is to break down the mealtimes into 4 smaller meals a day, eating more for breakfast and really nailing down your Macro-nutrients to make sure you hit your targets. I eat 40% Proten, 40% Carbs and 20% fat. This is to support all the weight training that I do. I think on this site its the eatwell plate? This is a much higher Carb percentage.

[Fran182716 in reply to PTKeith]

Yes I do understand digestive/metabolic processes, I was disagreeing that the original poster would automatically store fat just because she ate a lot of calories at one meal though she would be within her calorie target for the day. Certainly it's not a way of eating that would suit me and I almost never eat "white" carbs (or Chinese food) but a lot of people do very well on intermittent fasting and Michael Moseley does cite evidence to back this up which I cannot quote but I'm sure is listed in his books.

[PTKeith in reply to Fran182716]

Yes Michael Moseley is the font of all knowledge. and what a fantastic physical specimen he is. I could write a whole book on the problems of Intermittent fasting and how the body can only do this for a short while. And what happens when you want to stop? If you do not adjust your calories you just put all the weight back on. So if you ate all your calories from chocolate and sweets in one sitting the body would be able to process all this? One guy ate nothing but twinkies and sweets in America up to his 1600 cals limit and yes he lost weight. But he only did this for 2 months. I spend all day talking to people about their weight problems and I review their eating diaries for the week and their weight loss and gain. Most everybody who loses weight control their macro nutrients and the size of their portions. The clients that put on weight or stay the same, eat too big a portion of food at one time and eat too many carbs at once.

The problem with scientific studies is they are not long term. If you followed every trend over the past few years you would, eat no carbs, eat nothing but carbs, eat nothing but protein, do eat eggs, do not eat eggs, do eat eggs, eat like a caveman, starve yourself two days a week, starve yourself one day a week. Our problem as Personal trainers is getting over all this crap to teach people how to lose FAT. Not just weight. but FAT. People who enter competitions like Body-builders can get down as low as 6-12 % bodyfat for guys and 14-19% for ladies. They never overeat carbs in one sitting as they know this will effect their preparation.

Sorry went a bit over the top with this reply. None of us as PT's are fans of these programmes or the presenters. The other day in the daily mail I saw a piece about how walking was better than running for exercise! it was taken from a bit of scientific work that somebody had done. The only thing they forgot to mention from the study that this was for people from 70-90 who were unfit. So I have ladies telling me their 6000 steps is better than my 30 minute HIIT class!!!

[Fran182716 in reply to PTKeith]

Ok no need to be sarcastic, sorry to original poster your thread got turned into an argument

[MadmellyGT in reply to PTKeith]

Hmmm, I seem to have started something here. Let me put your minds at rest. I rarely have chinese. This is the 1st one I have had in a few months. It is/was a rare treat to which, yes, I saved my calories so I could enjoy it without the guilt. (which I did, very much so.) I shall break down my meal for anyone that's interested. With a lot of research I have found caloric contents for everything I ate. (approximately of course but pretty much there abouts)

I weighed my food 1st as I didn't want to over portion myself.

175g Chicken chow mein: 257 calories.

120g Boiled Rice: 156 calories

195g Mushroom curry: 146 calories

73g Spare Rib (fat and bone removed) 178 calories

So the whole meal cost me around 737 calories. A number I am pretty pleased with considering. I don't usually starve myself so I can gorge at my evening meal, this was just a one off so I could enjoy me treat. I say a one off, I might do it again in another months time. I otherwise eat healthy with proper portion sizes for each meal and stick within my calories, I don't mind feeling hungry every 3 to 4 hours as that is a healthy sign that everything is as it should be and that I am not overeating. Thank you for your input PTKeith and Fran182716 , it is greatly appreciated.

[Layne-mia in reply to MadmellyGT]

Lol lady you just enjoy your Chinese. I'm sure it won't kill you as for the super fit bloke keep drinking your carrot juice 👍

[Modernfitness1 in reply to PTKeith]

Half correct 👍

[Modernfitness1 in reply to PTKeith]

Totally untrue

[RG07 Maintainer]

Ho there is a calorie counter link on NHS Choices website on the live well page and that has chow mein on its listings

[Modernfitness1]

It's totally fine! It's just a numbers game you can eat one or 10 meals a day it makes no difference. All carbs are converted to glucose and glycogen. ALL CARBS! if you have one large meal some maybe metabolised into fat if it's not needed but you will have burnt up an equal amount of fat going the whole day without food so it balances out fine. Also I think a meat curry and fried rice is around 1000 calories so considering mushrooms are basically calorie free and the rice is boiled your well within your limit... not that this helps you now