Is Tonkotsu Ramen Healthy? (3 Tips for Weight Loss) — Aspire Fitness
The most important thing for you to be aware of if you are seriously craving Tonkotsu Ramen is to make sure you are not overeating on this dish.
This is something that can happen very easily because Tonkotsu Ramen is a high calorie and low nutrient dish.
To put the facts behind this claim, let us take a look in detail at the nutritional information for one Tonkotsu Ramen dish.
One bowl of the typical Tonkotsu Ramen has around 44 grams of fat, 91 grams of carbohydrates, and 41 grams of protein.
With around 1000 calories in just one serving of Tonkotsu Ramen, this can seem like a very difficult food to fit into your diet!
I would definitely be on your side if you are thinking that this bowl of ramen is not a great dish to be eating if you are trying to lose weight.
However, as an advocate for flexible dieting, restricting certain foods from your diet has shown time and time again to lead to several diets fails and eventually gaining all the weight back or even more than before!
Why do restricting foods usually lead to such discouraging results?
If you are having a craving and not satisfying it, you are relying on your willpower to prevent yourself from eating food.
As this craving continues to fester while you try to hold yourself back from eating something, eventually you will give in to your cravings and potentially binge on all the foods you restricted yourself from eating.
This is why it is important to listen to your cravings and understand what your body and mind are asking for.
This does not mean that you should just eat whatever you want whenever you want! Remember, if your main goal is to lose weight, eating to your heart’s content is not going to give you the results you are looking for.
Satisfy your craving, but in moderation.
Let’s use this concept when looking at Tonkotsu Ramen. This is a highly calorically dense dish that may be difficult to fit into a diet since it has probably more than half the amount of calories you should be consuming on a daily basis when on a diet.
However, if you are desperately craving Tonkotsu Ramen, try cutting the portion size in half.
Now you have a 500 calorie dish that has 22 grams of fat, 45 grams of carbohydrates, and 20 grams of protein.
This is not too bad compared to before! It is still relatively higher in fat and carbohydrates and lower in protein, but it seems much more reasonable to fit a 500 calorie meal into your day compared to the previous 1000 calories.
If you are going out to eat with friends or family, and sharing is a common tradition, this is the perfect opportunity for you to satisfy your craving while still staying within your diet.
Try ordering a higher protein dish, like a grilled fish, or a voluminous low-calorie salad!
The Tonkotsu Ramen can be up for grabs and feel free to grab a small bowl as a treat.
Now you have only eaten approximately ¼ of the bowl which is only 250 calories!
Let’s review these three scenarios and simplify these choices:
Scenario 1: You eat the whole bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen
Now you only have a few calories left in the day and you get extremely hungry at night or throughout the day, so you possibly end up overeating and entering a calorie surplus.
Scenario 2: You eat half a bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen
Half a bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen may not be enough to satisfy you in one sitting so you possibly end up eating other things on the table and end up eating the same amount of calories as if you ate the whole bowl.
Scenario 3: You eat Tonkotsu Ramen as a side dish
By eating another lower-calorie voluminous dish as your main course and eating Tonkotsu Ramen on the side, you can satisfy your craving and still be satiated after a meal.
Each of these scenarios technically all works and can fit into your diet, but it is up to you to choose what works best for you.
The majority of the people would fall under Scenario 3, but if you feel like you will be full just by eating half the bowl or you only need to eat one big meal for the entire day, then Scenario 1 and 2 work just fine.
This is the beauty of flexible dieting, which teaches you not to classify foods as “good” or “bad” but simply foods that are higher in calories and those that are lower in calories.
When losing weight, the only thing you can do to achieve this goal successfully is to be placing yourself in a calorie deficit.