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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: How hard is it to eat low carb (Atkins) in China?
I've lost 80 pounds or so on Atkins in the last few years and I'm in the best shape of my life. I know in the states all the Chinese food has thick corn starch gravies, and sugars. Is authentic Chinese food the same?
Thanks
Cook Chinese food yourself without the starch. Just use a lot of tofu and veg, and stay away from rice!
Yes, it is. I'm sure you can get around it to a large degree, though, by ordering individual dishes without rice, which normally comes as a side.
And, as the poster above says, cook for yourself.
"Authentic" food is fine! It's the more recent changes that you need to watch out for.
As above... plenty of vegies around, plenty of fish,and you can cut the fat (yeah, I know, that's not a carb...) off your meat. Lots of eggs around.
Put it this way... obesity in China is only a very recent phenomenon. Most people, especially in the countryside, are quite thin. And, it's not just because of a healthy exercise routine... while rice is/was a staple in the diet, so was hard work. So, if you're going to have your rice, do some physical stuff to balance it.
And, as you probably know, stay away from processed foods - they stuff up the body's metabolism.
All in all... if you want to lose weight (or just eat healthily), it's pretty easy
I propose not eating potatoes, pasta, rice and bread. Try steaming or cooking, eat white meat with veggies, that should be ok. It is all about keeping a balanced diet and a right attitude. Good luck with the diet
Hi. I lost 126 lbs on n low carb, and have spent almost a year of that in China.
Yeah, it's super easy, but can be expensive. Stay away from starches, rive, noodles, etc. cook your own food, or just buy low carb veggies.. There's enough fat to keep yourself in keto, and you can eat tofu all you want.
I recommend lamb Skewers (yangrouchuan) and pork as well. There are see really nice pork recipes for something... Called.. I don't know. It's basically very thick and Duffy bacon, and oh man... So good.
Sorry for the errors, i can't edit on my phone.
Shining_brow:
Query Pulker... why expensive?? Compared to non-carb diets (other than the lack of rice and potatoes? which is a non-expense...
Hulk:
Arrrrrrggggghhhhhhhh.... I had a huge reply typed out, but went through a tunnel and lost it on this damn phone. Me smash tunnel and phone. Veggies can be 1-2 RMB here, but meat is at least 7.5, and only for tiny portions. Western supermarkets have good western meat that costs up to 350 RMB... Maybe more. It's all expensive to me since I'm cheap, and a tightwad. I earn no money in China, I only live off my savings.
Shining_brow:
yeah, I get that... but you're implying it's more expensive that a carb-full diet (obviously, rice is pretty cheap here, and fills you up quicker..). I was wondering if there was something else you were thinking about that I didn't get.
It is easy. I eat chicken, lamb when I can find it and rice, but I don't eat much and I rarely have more than a cup of rice at any meal.
The right foods are here, you just find them and avoid the others.
You can definitely do a low carb diet, just skip the rice, which is always on the side anyway. Chinese love fatty meat, so no problems there, just watch out for bone shards. There's a large variety of vegetables to choose from, plenty of leafy greens. I would say the biggest issue you will have eating out is the large amount of vegetable/canola oil they use. Not only are they unhealthy oils, they're also very poor quality. Try cooking at home, see if you can get ahold of better oils. I recommend good old fashioned lard (not hydrogenated!) if you can find it. I heard that's the traditional cooking oil in China, although I doubt anyone in the city uses it anymore since vegetable and canola oils are much cheaper.
Chinese food basically is the atkins diet. All the meat and good stuff on top and if you don't feel full, you ear the ric.e