Is Din Tai Fung Healthy? (Din Tai Fung Calories)

If you live in Southern California and are a lover of asian cuisine and food then you’ve probably heard of the most popular Taiwanese dumpling restaurant, Din Tai Fung.

Although the dumplings are delicious, are they healthy?

Din Tai Fung has a variety of different traditional Taiwanese dishes that focus heavily on carbs and fats while offering small amounts of protein. This means that there is a poor balance of macronutrients within their menu which could lead to weight gain if portions are not controlled properly.

However, it is totally possible to enjoy your favorite dumplings while staying in great shape.

It really comes down to portioning out your meals and understanding how many calories go into each of your favorite dishes.

Here are three steps you can take in order to eat Din Tai Fung and stay healthy.

Be Mindful of How Many Calories Each Dish Has
Don’t Eat Too Much Before Or After Your Meal
Order Lots Of The Veggie Options

There is going to be some sacrifice that goes into this so just be aware that it’s not going to be your typical Din Tai Fung experience.

How To Lose Weight Eating Din Tai Fung

A staple of Asian dishes is definitely the humble dumpling.

It’s small, delicious, and has an amazing texture that people love and admire.

The most famous dish, xiao long bao has a very fun and exciting element as they not only taste amazing,

but also have a unique twist as it is filled with soup that burst out of the dumpling within every bite.

So, how do we still enjoy our delicious dumpling dish without gaining too much weight?

Well, you need to know what goes into your dumplings, how many calories each of the dumplings have, and all the steps you need to do specifically to be a fit individual.

Let’s talk about your calories.

If you’re someone that is trying to lose weight or stay lean, then you will need to know how many calories you need to eat in a day.

This is crucial as understanding your calories allows you to control how fat or skinny you are.

What you want to make sure of is that you are not overeating throughout your week.

You can use many different calculators online that figure out your calorie range but, remember, they are not personalized to you and your body type so you will have to play around with the number to see some substantial results.

The next thing that you should be concerned with is exercise.

Muscle is the key to staying healthy and building it in all areas of the body is crucial if you want to stay fit.

Calories are one thing but if your activity level is low, then you will not be able to burn calories throughout your day.

The reason muscle is so important is because it increases your metabolism over time as muscle burns calories at rest.

Basically, the more muscle you have, the more you can eat while still staying lean.

If you want a simple workout plan that will help you with building muscle, then check out our blog “How Are Taiwanese People So Thin”

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Now that we figured out how many calories we should eat in a day and what kind of workouts that we need to do, let’s dive into our three tips on how you can stay lean while enjoying your favorite dumplings!

Tip 1: Be Mindful of How Many Calories Each Dish Has

There are really four dishes that make up the Din Tai Fung menu and it’s time we figure out how many calories goes into a serving of one of those dishes.

Since each calorie count is not mentioned online we tried our best to find the calorie ranges of it’s dumpling counterparts and through recipes we found from our research.

Let’s get started with the four dishes served at Din Tai Fung

Xiao Long Bao

For every 5 pieces of Xiao Long Bao we have discovered that the macronutrient ratios are 39 grams of carbs, 10 grams of fat, and 11 grams of protein.

Not bad at all! Here are the nutrition facts for more details.

Although the carbs are a little high on this meal, at least it has around 11 grams of protein.

Protein is great as it helps build and retain muscle so having this macronutrient in every meal is pretty crucial.

Just like for all the other foods in this list we are going to suggest not overeating this dish.

The tip here is to enjoy these foods family style and share it amongst a group of people.

Depending on your calorie range, figure out how many of these dumplings you can eat and still stay in a safe range.

Shrimp Shumai

For every 100 grams (2-3 pieces) Shrimp Shumai usually has around 15.9 grams of carb, 10.3 grams of fat, and 10.2 grams of protein.

This is actually much better to have than the Xiao Long Bao as the carb to protein ratio is much better than the ones previously mentioned above.

Here are the nutrition facts for a typical Shumai dish we found.

These dumplings are the most delicious item on the menu, in my opinion and is something I’ll definitely eat over the Xiao Long Bao.

The tip here is to eat more Shumai!

Shrimp Fried Rice

For every cup of Shrimp Fried Rice served you get around 41.9 grams of carbs, 11.6 grams of fats, and 10.9 grams of proteins.

Remember what we said about the protein to carb ratio? Well, we want to make sure we get that as close to one to one as we can.

This is very much far from that so maybe this is something that we should eat in moderation.

Here are the nutrition facts for a typical shrimp fried rice that we found.

If you had the Shrimp Fried Rice at Din Tai Fung before, then you know how delicious this dish is.

We have the same tip as before on this one.

Share this dish with your friends or family and focus on the other dishes that have a higher protein content.

Moderation is key on eating any fried rice dish when losing weight and staying lean.

Fried Pork Chop

For every 4 ounces of Fried Pork Chop served you get 5.3 grams of carb, 7.3 grams of fats, and 8.2 grams of protein.

This is great!

The fats are a little high on this one but it’s fine since there are less carbs and more protein in this dish.

Here are the nutrition facts we found for a typical fried pork chop recipe.

If you have the opportunity to order more of these pork chops then definitely have them on your table all throughout the meal.

It’s rare to find a dish at Din Tai Fung with a low carb count so this is definitely going to be your friend when you’re eating to be fit.

Tip 2: Don’t Eat Too Much Before Or After Your Meal

We’ve mentioned it in this post many times and we’re going to keep stressing it.

Do not overeat your daily caloric allowance as this is what makes you really gain that weight.

Whenever I go to get a meal at Din Tai Fung it’s usually a great feast and stopping myself from devouring all of the delicious dumplings is a very difficult thing to do.

So, from my experience of going to Din Tai Fung, one of the best tips I can give is to plan ahead!

Whether you’re eating Din Tai Fung for lunch or dinner, you want to make sure that the other meals that either lead or follow this hefty feast is going to be packed with protein and fibers.

Think low calorie and high protein for these meals.

You’re going to be consuming a ton of carbs when you go to Din Tai Fung as that is what dumplings naturally are.

Consuming carbs is totally fine but you want to make sure that your fats and proteins are in check as well!

Carbs are never the enemy when it comes to weight gain and health problems, it is the action of overeating them that causes those stories you hear about them.

So, make sure that you’re eating fewer calories meals before or after this hefty one. You’ll definitely thank yourself in the long run.

Tip 3: Order Lots Of The Veggie Options

The most underrated dishes at Din Tai Fung, in my opinion, are the green, stir fried, veggie options that you can find on their menu.

Often served as an appetizer for the meal, these stir fried veggie dishes are low in calories and have lots of great fibers that can fill you up during your feast.

Our tip here is to order more than you usually do. They’re delicious and they’re good for you. Why not order as much as you can?

I always look forward to the greens and, although probably stir fried in some oil, they still are greens that have many health benefits and fibrous insides.

Veggies are crucial to dieting as they really fill you up and allow you to eat more and stay lean. I’m not saying to sacrifice the Shumai for some of these veggies, I’m just saying order more and have them with your Shumai.

The flavor combination is amazing and the vegetables will be there to help you get all your wonderful nutrients in.

There you guys go!

Three tips on how to lose weight while eating your favorite at your favorite dumpling restaurant.

Check out our other posts on healthy Asian foods and share the content if you really liked it!