Is Gado-Gado Healthy? (3 Tips For Weight Loss) 

Whenever the word “salad” pops into your head you probably think of a bland boring mix of green vegetables and some croutons that overall make a very unappealing dish.

However, Gado-Gado is definitely an exception, since this Indonesian salad is filled with delicious ingredients to make a super mouth-watering meal. 

Gado-Gado, which means “mix-mix” in Indonesian, is filled with a variety of different Whole Foods and vegetables such as egg, tempeh, spinach, tofu, cabbage, and corn.

Using a unique Asian peanut sauce as the dressing, this final touch combines all the flavors into a cohesive and rich dish that is compacted with a nutty and delicious smelling salad. 

Gado-Gado sounds like a unique and absolutely delicious salad, but is this salad good for weight loss?

Since Gado Gado heavily utilizes peanut sauce, this calorically dense dressing adds a lot of additional fats and carbohydrates making Gado Gado an unideal food to eat an abundance of when you are trying to lose weight. However, similar to most salads, by making simple and quick fixes, Gado Gado can easily become a healthy meal perfect for your diet.

In this article, we will be covering three take away tips that will help you on your weight loss journey while still enjoying your favorite Asian dishes: 

1. Understand the Nutrition Behind Gado-Gado

2. How to Make Your Own Healthy Gado-Gado

3. Understand the Importance of Calories 

Tip 1: Understand the Nutrition Behind Gado-Gado

One of the most important things to understand or your weight loss journey is the ability to analyze and break down the information seen on nutrition labels.

We know that foods high in calories are not “healthy” but what are the other nuances to watch out for? 

In this section, we will cover the nutritional information behind Gado-Gado and how to break down the macronutrients to make your diet successful. 

For one serving of Gado-Gado, there is a total of 440 calories with 30 grams of fat, 27 grams of carbohydrates, and 21 grams of protein.

Through this macronutrient breakdown, you can see how the majority of calories of this dish come from fat.

Since fat is higher in calories per gram compared to carbohydrates and protein, this is an important factor to be aware of when analyzing the nutrition label of foods.

For every gram of fat, there is a total of 9 calories, whereas carbohydrates and proteins are only 4 calories per gram. 

This is why you do not need to consume as much fat compared to carbohydrates and protein, and overeating fatty foods can easily stack up the number of daily calories you are eating resulting in weight gain rather than weight loss. 

When looking at the macronutrient ratio of certain foods, try to look for foods that have a 1:3 ratio of fat to protein.

As you can see, Gado-Gado has more fat than proteins making it not the ideal dish for weight loss. 

However, the upside of Gado-Gado is that it is high in fiber!

Foods high in fiber are great for satiety meaning that it helps you stay full or a longer period of time and keeps your energy levels high.

Gado-Gado has 10 grams of fiber which is a great addition to your diet. 

Tip 2: How to Make Your Own Healthy Gado-Gado

Gado-Gado utilizes a lot of different ingredients that can easily be substituted or swapped out with healthier options but still have the overall same taste and nature of a Gado-Gado salad. 

These simple changes can be the “make it or break it” factor in your diet which will be all the difference between whether or not you reach your weight loss goals

In this section, we will be covering some of the more higher-calorie ingredients and what simple switches you can make to give you a less calorically dense and higher in fiber and protein dish.

Peanut Sauce

The ingredient that is highest in calories in Gado-Gado is definitely the peanut sauce.

Peanut butter is one of the most calorically dense foods ever and is difficult to incorporate into your diet.

There are around 100 calories in just one tablespoon of peanut butter!

However, by removing the peanut sauce from Gado-Gado takes away the main flavor and deliciousness of Gado-Gado.

Instead of completely eliminating the peanut sauce there are a couple of small adjustments you can make rather than getting rid of it completely.

If you order Gado-Gado out in public, ask for the dressing to be served on the side.

Now you can control the amount of peanut sauce you are consuming.

One of the most helpful adjustments to limit the amount of peanut sauce you are consuming is instead of drizzling your sauce all over your salad, use your bare fork to first dip it in the sauce and then grab a food.

This significantly limits the amount of sauce and gives you just enough flavor for each bite.

Rather than drenching your food in this high-calorie dressing, you can still taste the same nutty flavor while consuming significantly fewer calories.

Tempeh

Traditionally, tempeh is used in Gado-Gado, but tempeh is high in fat and calories making it not the best food to eat for weight loss.

Instead, replacing tempeh with tofu not only reduces the amount of fat but the overall calorie count.

Tofu is also higher in protein compared to tempeh which adds in a bit more of protein into your diet.

Eating a higher protein meal is beneficial because protein is the essential macronutrient used to preserve muscle mass and is also keeps you the most satiated. 

Vegetables

The vegetables in the Gado-Gado salad are what make it such a fibrous filled dish. 

Do not be afraid to stack up on the spinach, beansprouts, and the other green veggies in the salad.

These voluminous foods are packed with fiber and a bit of protein which makes you feel satiated after eating your meal.

By eating foods that are higher in nutrients and healthy vegetables that have a higher satiety index, this can prevent you from overeating or feeling hungry throughout the day.

Dieting does not need to be a painful process that requires you to starve yourself, but by filling your day with a majority of healthier options can make it much more sustainable and successful.

Tip 3: Understand How Many Calories You Need to Eat to lose Weight

There is only one way to truly lose weight which has been proven time and time again by scientific studies and observations that surprisingly, do not seem to have as much popularity as several fad diets. 

To lose weight, you must maintain a caloric deficit for an extended period of time, or in other words, consume fewer calories than your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)

It does not matter what your diet is composed of, or if you’re consuming carbohydrates or fats, but more so how many calories you are eating per day.

As long as you do not eat over your TDEE you are guaranteed to lose weight!

However, you may be wondering, how can you figure out your specific TDEE?

Your TDEE is composed of your resting metabolic rate, your energy used up in daily activity such as walking or doing simple tasks, and finally, the calories burned from eating, swallowing, and digesting food. 

Since everyone has a different height, weight, and gender, everyone’s TDEE is different but can be easily calculated using an online TDEE calculator.

I highly recommend using the one from the NASM certified website! 

Remember, this number is simply an estimate of your actual TDEE and it is up to you to make adjustments according to what you see throughout your weight loss journey.

I recommend starting off by simply eating around 200-300 calories per day to see gradual progress and won’t make you too hungry.

If you don’t see any change in weight, simply lower the calories by increments of a hundred calories until you start seeing results.

Weight loss is definitely a process and journey and can not be done within just a couple of weeks.

By simply being patient and having faith that being consistent will yield promising results, you will not regret sticking to your goals!

Now you know how to incorporate Gado Gado into your diet while still losing weight, you do not have to be afraid of eating your favorite foods when you are on a diet!

CONCLUSION 

Remember, although nutrition is a huge factor that influences weight loss, it is important to pair this journey with exercise as well.

Especially strength training.

Several years of research on the benefits of weight training have shown that individuals that do some sort of consistent resistance training at least 3-5 times a week have shown not only a great amount of weight loss but are also able to keep the weight off! 

The secret to this phenomena is that strength training leads to a build-up of muscle.

Not only does your body recomposition into a more fitting and athletic-looking aesthetic, but having more muscle also increases your resting metabolic rate which essentially means you burn more calories at rest! 

Now that we know the importance of muscle we need to make sure we stay on track with our workouts.

Consistency and longevity are the two key factors when building muscle so there will be some commitment involved.

We understand that not everyone has access to a gym membership or feels comfortable starting off in such an intimidating environment.

Although I would strongly recommend that everyone should get a gym membership, don’t worry we got your back!

You can either go to the gym or build one for yourself.

It really just comes down to 3 pieces of equipment that you need to do most workouts.

These three are the workout bench, dumbbells, and gym flooring.

Check out our recommended gear page to see our best picks for these pieces of equipment here. 

https://www.aspirefitnesswalnut.com/home-workout-equipment

If a home gym is not for you then getting a membership somewhere works too.

As long as you are starting your muscle-building journey, we’re happy! 

Stick with it for the long run and you’ll see how amazing the results can be. 

RECENT POSTS