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Healthy Indian food

Hello all,

 

I am an Indian guy settled in Washington State. I am working hard to loose some pounds and have been doing cardio as well as walking and still struggling. Since our food is so different ( wheat flour, spies, curries), I am looking for some ideas on how to loose weight with healthy Indian diet ( chicken,lentils, spinach etc.)

 

 

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Hi @vikasranjan - I believe the principles of weight loss apply regardless of the ethnicity of your diet and there is nothing in eating healthy Indian food that should prevent you from losing weight.  The recommendation is to log all your eating and ensure you eat less calories than you burn.

 

If you are looking for healthy Indian food recipes, you can get hundreds of ideas by googling "healthy indian food".

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Eat the same foods but increase the vegetables, fruits, and legumes and decrease the oils and fatty meats.  For example, I made keema matar this week.  I used 2 pounds ground lamb, two pounds onions, 6 tomatoes, etc.  I only used 1 teaspoon ghee to splutter the whole spices before I started adding everything else.  I served it with a small portion of basmati rice.  I also like chicken tikka masala.  If a dish calls for heavy cream or a lot of ghee, try to cut down on it and see if you still like the flavor.  I can make most masalas without adding more than a teaspoon of ghee for an entire pan of masala.  I try to avoid butter chicken though because it's just soooo tempting to have seconds and thirds. 

 

Also, cut down on the chapatis or naan if you have several with each meal try just two instead.  Avoid having too many fried foods like puris or pakora.  Use freshly roasted and ground spices (if you don't already) instead of buying the packets...the flavor difference is huge.  I still cook dark meat instead of white meat because the flavor is so much better.  If it's flavorful on it's own, you're less like to add more oil or ghee to increase the fat/flavor.  I also cook at home rather than going out for meals because I tend to find restaurant foods use a lot more oils and ghee in their cooking and less fresh vegetables.  Some of the healthiest meals I cook are Indian recipes.

 

I realize every region of India cooks differently...I mostly cook from the Punjab region so my advice is focused on that region's food but applies to other regions as well.

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