Is Bibimbap Healthy? (3 Tips For Weight Loss) 

Bibimbap is one of the most popular Korean dishes as it is very traditional and is embedded deep within our culture.

It’s essentially rice that’s served with a variety of vegetables along with small pieces of marinated ground beef. 

Although Bibimbap is delicious, is it healthy?

Bibimbap is definitely a healthy dish as it offers a balance of all three macronutrients which translates to a suitable range of calories. You can also find a large variety of pickled vegetables which offers many different micronutrients such as fiber and certain vitamins.

Bibimbap is a simple dish but it has a lot of elements that go into each simple ingredient shown.

If you want to stick within your diet and stay healthy while eating Bibimbap, then stick to these 3 steps to understand the benefits that Bibimbap can offer. 

1. What Goes Inside Bibimbap?

2. How Many Calories Does Bibimbap Have? 

3. How To Lose Weight While Eating Bibimbap

Now that we know our three steps, let’s get into the details on how we can eat Bibimbap and stay healthy. 

1. What Goes Inside BiBimBap? 

Bibimbap is a dish that features a variety of different vegetables which can range from mushrooms, carrots, radishes, spinach, and radishes.

Each one is pickled in a solution of sesame oil and salt and is sauteed till they are nice and tender. 

Check out our recipe to make some Bibimbap for yourself!

Each of these vegetables offer a certain textural element to the dish which makes every bit really exciting as you never get two of the same bite as you do with many Korean dishes.

The carrots add a crunch, the spinach adds a bit of bitterness, the mushroom adds chew, and the radishes offer sweetness with a crunch. 

The best part of Bibimbap, however, comes from the sauce which comes from a Korean chili paste called gochujang.

It’s a sweet and spicy sauce that is mixed with sesame oil and goes so well with the rice and veggies provided in this dish. 

Bibimbap usually has some bulgogi in the bowl as well which offers some protein and a delicious meaty taste that is really complimented by the sauce and veggies.

There is so much balance in this dish which is what makes it really amazing. 

You can find this dish in many Korean restaurants and it’s crucial that the restaurant serves the sauce.

There is a form of Bibimbap that has no spicy chili sauce and, in my opinion, is incomplete as I believe each element was created to really compliment each other. 

If you want to try to make it at home, here is a healthy recipe that I’ve found online that correlates to the nutrition facts that will be mentioned in section two of the article. (1) 

Now that we know what Bibimbap is, let’s take a look at the nutrition facts and see how many calories goes inside a typical Bibimbap dish. 

2. How Many Calories Does Bibimbap Have? 

If we take a look at the nutrition facts, you can see that a typical bowl of Bibimbap has 490 calories with a macronutrient ratio of 14 grams of fat, 75 grams of carbs, and 18 grams of protein. 

This is not bad at all for a complete meal as there are low fats and a moderate amount of protein.

The issue with this dish is the amount of rice that is placed in a typical bowl of Bibimbap.

However, if you take a closer look at the fiber, you can see that there is a whopping 10 grams which you get from all those great veggies in the dish. 

It can be a little high still for anyone watching their weight so just be sure to add a little less rice or to eat less carbs for another meal.

Carbs get a bad rep because of the way it retains water and the feeling of bloating that it may offer. 

I’m here to tell you, however, that carbs are not bad at all as they act as a direct source of energy when dieting.

It’s just up to you to make sure to use that energy so that your body does not retain the excess calories that may come from eating carbs. 

When you eat a bowl like Bibimbap, you get a ton of fibers which is a type of carb that really helps when dieting.

Fiber allows you to feel full and satiated which is key when you’re in a caloric deficit. 

Keeping healthy and fit is all about calorie or energy balance which means that you can still eat your carbs and stay in shape.

You just have to understand how many carbs you need to eat in a day and to make sure not to overeat on your total allotted calories for the day. 

The key to dieting is really getting a nice balance of macronutrients which you don’t really get in a typical bowl of Bibimbap.

This is why we recommend you try to make this at home and focus on getting more veggies than rice while adding some more protein coming from leaner sources. 

If you want a more in-depth article on how you can find your calories and macronutrient range, then make sure to check out this article.

For example, choose chicken breast instead of bulgogi and add way more than you would because chicken is a much more forgiving dish in terms of nutrition.

Add double the portion of veggies you would normally put and go easy on the rice.

Doing this will lower the carbs significantly and raises the protein so you can get a more balanced meal throughout the process. 

Now that we know a little bit more about the nutrition facts of a typical Bibimbap dish,

let’s take a look at how you can eat Bibimbap to stay in shape and get nice and lean. 

3. How To Lose Weight While Eating Bibimbap

We mentioned this in section two of the article but we’re going to stress again the importance of understanding how many calories you need to eat in order to stay in shape.

The fastest way to get out of shape is to overeat which is easy to do with unhealthy and processed meals. 

Eating something like Bibimbap which is customizable and filled with whole fresh ingredients is a great option if you’re looking to shed some fat and feel great.

Before we get into those tips, however, let’s go over how you can figure out your daily caloric needs and see how much of each macronutrient you should be consuming. 

Your daily allotted calories more than you can imagine and is the only factor that determines weight gain, weight loss, or maintenance.

So, how do you know how many calories you should be eating in a day?

The answer is through trial and error and finding a calorie range that allows you to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. 

A good place to start, however, is to multiply your body weight by 12 or to use an online TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculator.

These will both give you very rough estimates that are not specific for your body but you’ll see that they can get pretty close. 

Once you get that number from the either function, stick with it for a week and see how it affects your body.

For example if you either function tells you to eat 1600 kcals a day, eat that for a week and see what happens. 

If you stay the same, drop the calories by 100 and see how that works.

You most likely won't have to drop too low as you’ll get a pretty low number to start off with regardless. 

So, how do you lose weight while eating Bibimbap?

You can see that Bibimbap is 490 kcals with macros, 14 grams of fat, 75 grams of carbs, and 18 grams of protein. You can just add that into your day and subtract that from your total daily calorie intake. 

The trick here is to find really satiating and filling foods like Bibimbap which is a mixture of whole fresh ingredients.

That’s where those macronutrients come in.

You don’t want all of your calories simply coming from carbs or fats, you want there to be a balance coming from carbs, fats, and protein. 

A great ratio to stick to is 30% carbs, 40% protein and 30% fats.

This can be a little low on the carbs but you can definitely increase them if you live an active lifestyle.

So just do the calculation of whatever calorie range that you find and split up your calories by following those macro guidelines. 

Bibimbap is a great food as it has potential to offer everything you need in a healthy diet.

Once again, we recommend that you make this on your own and play around with the ingredients a bit to make it more favorable towards your diet. 

Make sure to eat whole fresh ingredients and save the bad stuff for your cheats days or social events with friends.

The bulk of your meals should come from the fresh stuff so just keep yourself in check and see the difference you make when you take initiative to eat healthier! 

There It Is! 

Bibimbap is such a versatile food as it has so many delicious components that compliment each other.

The typical Bibimbap is filled with great benefits and can be a balanced meal if you make sure to customize it and add some leaner proteins.

Overall, Bibimbap is a great example of a dish that features whole foods and offers not only a delicious flavor but great nutrition.

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