Any Indian People In Here???

Hey!

It seems like everyone has a group for everything on here so I thought I would try indian!

I'm originally from India and I thought it would be nice if we had a group.  As you know it is really hard to count calories when you make meals at home. ESPECIALLY with indian food!

So we could come here every day or every other day and talk about recipes and our goals and other stuff!

Oh and my stats: 24, 5'6, 135. Starting weight 145. Goal 125

I'm not indian, but if you are making your meals at home, it's actually easier to figure out the calories - use the recipe analyzer (under foods) - you just need to know how many servings you'll get, and it'll divide the recipe into 1 serving nutritional facts.

 Now, if you know a good way to estimate the calories when I get Indian food at a restaurant...

Hi!

I am from India.I just count the calories by inputting the ing. separately.eg:Dal-split beans ,oil,sugar etc.

The calories for Roti seems okay.

I know its hard but sometimes I would rather count over then under.I try to find something as similar in calories as possible.And since we consume more oil .I just count 2-3 tbsp od oil everyday.

 

 

How about titling your 'group' INDIA - AND OUR RECIPES.  Since you are the 'experts', and those of us in other countries, would LOVE to learn, we could 'tag' this site, and not only learn more about the good foods, but we could all practice entering the information into the analyzer, and with 'combined thinking', probably get some valid results from us all pitching in.

I LOVE INDIAN FOOD - I AM READY TO LEARN.  DIANE

Hi,  I'm Indian and I can relate to your issue.   I'm also  currently in "weight loss" mode, religiously counting everything.  I don't cook Indian food everyday at home, but when I do I've made modifications. 

 Here are some tricks that I use that may help you:

• Instead of roti, try whole wheat tortilla.  I found one at the grocery store the other day with only 80 cals.
• No more oil!  I only use Pam (0 cals!!) with my cooking and no one can tell tell the  difference!
• I don't count cals for the masala and veggies as they are are minimal and actually good for you.  I start counting cals when the food has lentil, meat, or is sweet.
• Portion control!!  I agree with you that with Indian food it's hard to count cals so I really watch how much I'm putting on my plate, especially if I'm at my parents house or out somewhere.  I eat only half of the roti, a small scoop of rice, fill up on the veggies, avoid the fried foods, only a palm size amount of chicken/meat, etc

Hope that helps!

Hey...Indian...with the same issues (i'm also vegetarian).  i eat a lot of home cooked dinners and just have to estimate calories.

 I tried the recipe anlyzer a couple of times, but it wouldnt recognize some of the ingredients i was putting in..black gram was one (Urad).  but it should be fine with the more simple curries. 

indian take out is difficult, as alot of its fried, heavy cream, or just alot of oil. 

I am 5ft starting weight at 130, current weight at 118 and goal weight 110

favourite meals are paneer (bad i know), muug (mung beans) and Dosa (a kind of crepe i guess) =)

I used to work in healthcare in Toronto (very multicultural city).  The Public Health department published diet sheets about the typical fat and calories, cholesterol, nutrients in typical meals for various countries - published in Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, etc.  I think they might be available online.  There was a pretty big concern that South Asians had higher incidences of high cholesterol and heart disease.

Indian food is VERY healthy when cooked at home by a health-conscious person, the basics like rice, dal, roti and curried vegetables are basically EXACTLY what you should be eating on a low-cal, high-fibre diet.  But, when people are entertaining they seem to overload on the oil/ghee to make the food taste richer - it's really a killer to eat at parties or restaurants.  Staying away from the deep-fried stuff and the desserts, filling up on salad helps.

I make a lot of Indian/Pakistani food at home... but I try to make to make it as healty as I can..
For example in one cup of raw lentils...I add 1tablespoon of oil..which brings it to 680+120 cal and around 58 g of fiber.... I make this almost every other day and I swear this is what made me loose 30 lbs!!

I'm not indian, but when I make punjabi I use extra firm tofu in place of paneer. It's delicious!

I usually make South Indian food. Mmmm!

carleyrapp,

do you marinade the tofu first?

 

hi guys

im indian and can totally relate to the difficulty in tracking cals - especially in things like paneer and all different types of dhal. im not even sure how much the average roti is in in cals!!!!

ne help/idea???

thanx guys - so good to start this thread!

Nope, I just press extra firm tofu while I carmelize onions & toast spices, add the cubes & simmer them with the gravy. Usually I make Shahi "Paneer" over vegetables... *drool*

You could definitely marinade it though. Marinading tofu cubes in lemonjuice & water gives it more of a cheesey flavour, I'm just more of a quick fix kind of girl.