Calories in Chinese Food - help!

OK, I figured the least-calorific thing I could get was stir-fried vegetables with boiled (white) rice. I had 1 cup of each for dinner... now how am I supposed to log the vegetables? (I'm sure they put something fattening in there... it is fast food after all!)

Thanks!

Does it seriously annoy you that ever single other fast food restraunt except for chinese food lists the calorie content, either on a pamphlet in-store, or online? I could not find a single example of nutrition info for chinese food through cc or google! Argh!

If you do a cc search in foods for "stir fry," you'll find several.  I'm sure they're not exactly the same as what you get at a restaurant - they're different frozen meals, I think - but it should give you at least an idea.

Usually, the thing that gets you about chinese food, even mixed vegetables, is all the oil that they use in the stir frying. I always get my veggies steamed from my local chinese restaurant, with the sauce on the side. It's a lot better for you. There's been a few stories on the caloric content of chinese food lately, so maybe if you google it, you'll find it. I believe they even mention how bad the stir fried mixed vegetables are for you, too.

always steam when you order chinese. Safest way.

I understand you. I'm in Hong Kong for 7 months and there's some days I can't even try to log my food as what I ate was too weird (for instance yesterday I went for dim sum. How to log a steamed bun Shanghai style? Or a Chow Chiew style one? I don't even know what's inside! All I know is that it's good!). Same for other ethnic food like indian...

rice is high in cal/carb treat it like you would do bland pasta
stir fried vegetables are very healthy compared to other items at a chinese restaurant so don't worry but yes you have to be aware of the sauce (I think they mix soy sauce, a little bit of oyster sauce, sugar etc) and the oil to cook the vegetables
if its only a cup then I would guess 100 for veggies at maximum

No, gennx, you have to consider all the oil they use. Go google it. Stir fried is really high in calories, most of the time. If you steam the veggies with the sauce on the side, then it'll be about 100 calories maximum.

Unless they pour oil on it, after steaming which isnt an uncommon practice. But you'd know if they did

I've never had that happen to me, although now, after looking at caloric values for the steam veggies dish from PF Chang's, I get where that 200 calories is coming from over there!

this happens not only in Chinese Restaurants but many others too. The trick is to ignore. The day we eat out, I don't even count calories. Just eat what I usually so. I have 5 meals so if I go out to eat, I skip one meal. It works. Do as much exercise as you would normally do.

If you are a Chinese food buff (like me) there are many home-recipes for Chinese food you can try and since you'll know what you are putting in and how much, you can estimate the calorie count and adjust the res tof the day to fit your needs.
Where there is a will, there's a way.
Cheers!

heys! no worries! i'm from asia & i've found this webby which has calorie content for some asian dishes.

so! for the stir fried vegs, here's the nutrition data: clicky!
hope i helped. ;]

I have the same problem here, I never know how much calories there is. I just have to guess thinking at all the ingredients. Specially the sauce or some soups, which they often put corn starch to thicken. How the hell am I suposed to know how many calories there is?

"How the hell am I suposed to know how many calories there is?"

You don't know.

When I was trying to lose, I just logged every time I ate chinese as being 1,000 calories. I still managed to lose, despite eating chinese every week. I just ate around it the rest of the day.

i made stir fried veggies w/ teriyaki sauce today and i just used a bag of frozen veggies that was the stir fry mix (broccoli, snap peas, water chesnuts, etc.) It was 40 calories for 3/4 a cup of cooked veggies so i would say it probably wasnt over 100 cals even w/ the oil they cook it in

Chinese restaurants use several tablespoons of oil for each dish. At 120 calories per tablespoon, the calories add up quickly.