Beware of Hidden Calories When Losing Weight: A Guide to Choosing Cooking Methods

Below, I will introduce specific methods for reducing calorie intake while ensuring calorie supply.

Beware of consuming invisible calories!

How to eat to lose fat? First, we need to choose cooking methods. For those trying to lose weight, cooking methods are closely related to calories.

Cooking, in essence, is heating food. You can steam, stew, fry, sauté, or grill, and the resulting flavors, aromas, and colors will all be unique, but the final result is the same—the food is heated, cooked, and finally ready to eat.

In this process, the amount of water added has little to do with calories, but one thing can determine the final calorie value of the dish: "oil."

The reason oil has such a significant impact is its high calorie content. How high is the calorie content of oil? To illustrate, every 100 grams of oil contains 3349-3767 kilojoules (800-900 kilocalories), almost half of the daily calorie expenditure of the human body.

Because oil is so high in calories, the calorie content of any food changes dramatically when oil is added during cooking. For example, 100 grams of bok choy contains only about 80 kilojoules (20 kilocalories), but if you stir-fry it with at least 10 grams of oil, that adds at least 335 kilojoules (80 kilocalories). A plate of stir-fried bok choy suddenly becomes a high-calorie food. Therefore, it's not enough to just look at the calorie label of the ingredient itself; you also need to pay attention to how many extra calories are added during the cooking process.

Let's take a look at how many calories are added to food by various common cooking methods:

Stewed and braised: Almost no oil is used, maintaining the original calories of the food;

Steamed: Uses a maximum of 6-7 grams of oil, with approximately 167 kJ (40 kcal);

Fried: 10-15 grams of oil, with 335-502 kJ (80-120 kcal);

Roasted: 15-20 grams of oil, with 502-670 kJ (120-160 kcal);

Deep-fried: Over 200 grams of oil, with over 8372 kJ (2000 kcal).

Although not all oil remains on the food, the calories attached are already very high. Therefore, to lose fat, adopt low-calorie cooking methods and use less oil, such as frying, deep-frying, and roasting. From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine, these cooking methods are prone to causing "internal heat," and frequent consumption can harm various aspects of the body.

Better cooking methods include steaming, stewing, boiling, and cold dishes. Although steaming and stewing sometimes use some oil, the amount is small and won't generate too many calories.

Of course, the ingredients themselves also contain calories. Choosing low-calorie ingredients and using the most suitable cooking methods can minimize the additional calories in the dish. For example, chicken thigh meat itself is not low in calories, but if it is steamed or stewed, and oil-absorbing ingredients such as winter melon and mushrooms are added, the total calories of the dish can be greatly reduced. Stewing often results in even lower actual calories because some of the oil from the chicken thigh meat dissolves into the water; as long as you don't drink all the broth, you can consume less oil.

The following three dishes are representative examples, serving as model dishes that combine deliciousness, high nutrition, and low calories.