Is Hainan Chicken Healthy? (5 Tips For Weight Loss) 

From Maritime Southeast Asian, Hainan Chicken is a culturally rich dish that is often served with rice. 

It is a dish that has been mainly adopted in Singapore and Malaysia. 

What makes this food so special is that while it may look and sound pretty simple, it is actually filled with many flavors, from the tender and rick chicken to the rice seasoned with tangy rice. 

Although Hainan Chicken is delicious, is it considered healthy? 

Hainan Chicken is a healthy option as there is a good balance of macronutrients which promotes a healthy diet and lifestyle. Within every serving of Hainan Chicken, there are 15 grams of fat, 42 grams of carbs, and 23 grams of protein. This means that we can definitely eat our favorite Hainan Chicken dish while staying within a good range of calories. 

In order to incorporate Hainan Chicken into your diet in a way that will benefit you, I will be going over 5 tips you can follow that will hopefully help you out:

Tip 1: Understand the Nutritional Value of Hainan Chicken

Tip 2: Get Familiar With Overall Daily Calorie Intake So That You Can Incorporate Hainan Chicken Into Your Diet

Tip 3: Figure Out Your Macronutrient Ratio As You Include Hainan Chicken Into Your Diet

Tip 4: Keep Active and Build Muscle As You Enjoy Hainan Chicken

Tip 5: Learn How To Create a Healthier Version of Hainan Chicken 

Now that we know what the 5 tips to staying healthy while eating Hainan Chicken are, let's explore them!

How To Lose Weight When Eating Hainan Chicken

In order to grasp the concept of what weight loss actually is, it is important to know all about your calories!

Calories are important because they determine whether the food you eat is going to be used as energy or be stored to create body fat. 

Understanding weight loss is to understand what it means when people say calories in vs calories out. 

If your goal is fat loss, you should put yourself and your diet at a calorie deficit. 

Putting yourself at a calorie deficit means that you are burning more calories than you are consuming. 

When eating a delicious meal such as Hainan Chicken, you want to make sure you are looking at its nutritional content so that you know exactly what is being put into your body. 

We will be going over nutritional content in the following section so that you have all of your information in one place. 

Another topic we will be discussing is how many calories you should be consuming on an everyday basis as well as how to use those calories to build muscle and lead an active lifestyle. 

You will need to incorporate resistance training into your workouts to do so!

The more muscle you build, the more calories you will be burning at rest.

This means that you can eat and fill your body up more while still losing fat, and who doesn’t want that?!

Building muscle is truly what your ultimate goal should be because it is what will keep you healthy as you increase your metabolism. 

Now that we have a brief introduction into the world of staying fit and healthy while eating a food such as Hainan Chicken, let’s delve into the topics at a deeper level. 

Tip 1: Understand the Nutritional Value of Hainan Chicken

Hainan Chicken is a dish filled with surprise.

From the outside it can be seen as a food that is neat with fairly simplistic looks but once you take a bite you will be hit with a flavorful dish that leaves you craving for more. 

As you can see from the nutritional facts, it has a higher protein content than fat content which is good but, you can also see that it has 42 grams of carbs which is almost double the amount of protein it has at 23 grams. 

This may sound burdensome for some people because they may think that they can’t indulge in this dish anymore. 

That is not the case though!

Although it is not the healthiest food, you can definitely still incorporate it into your diet. 

When you eat this food though, make sure that you are adjusting your other meals accordingly so that you are not overeating on the carbs and fat.

With a little portion control as well, there is no issue in enjoying Hainan Chicken.

You want to make sure that you are making up for the other macronutrients which we will talk more about in Tip 3. 

Now that we are more informed about Hainan Chicken’s nutritional facts and value, let’s take a look at daily calorie intake. 

Tip 2: Get Familiar With Overall Daily Calorie Intake So That You Can Incorporate Hainan Chicken Into Your Diet

Understanding how many calories your body should be taking in will be beneficial for you in many ways. 

A calorie in itself is very important for you and your body because it determines how much energy you are consuming on a daily basis.

If you have an excess of energy, then it will lead to weight gain.

If we are speaking upon the topic of calories, we can’t leave out the concept of energy balance.

This is the concept that will determine whether you will gain weight, lose weight, or maintain your current weight with no change. 

If you want to lose weight, you want to burn more energy than you consume.

If you want to gain weight then you will do the opposite. 

You want to keep in mind that staying in a healthy range of calories is very important.

You do not want to fall too far below your calorie levels and at the same time you want to make sure that you are not decreasing your calorie intake too quickly.  

Determining daily calorie intake can be a little difficult in theory because it involves a lot of trial and error. 

I want to share 2 methods with you to get you on the right track. 

The first method is to calculate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). You can do so through online calculators.

The second method is to multiply your body weight (in pounds) by 12. 

You should adjust accordingly when you get your calculation though because it is essentially an estimated number and everyone’s body is different. 

I want to let you know that overall once you figure out the daily calorie intake for your body, you want to decrease your calories very slowly and steadily (if your goal is to lose weight) for great long-term results. 

So, when we figure out our calories and want to eat something like Hainan Chicken, we must look at how it fits within the number we received from those two calculations! 

For example, if you are trying to lose weight and are allotted 1,600 kcals a day, then having a meal like Hainan Chicken will take out 400 as we learned about in the previous section. 

This means that this is a great option as it is low in calories and satiates us as there is a lot of protein per serving. 

It’s all really a numbers game so let’s make sure we find out our daily allotted calories and fill them with foods that are good for us and thoroughly enjoy! 
Now, let’s move onto macronutrients.

Tip 3: Figure Out Your Macronutrient Ratio As You Include Hainan Chicken Into Your Diet

Macronutrients are very important in filling your body with daily necessities. 

You want a healthy balance of the three macronutrients: protein, carbs, fats. 

The daily macronutrient ratio you should be striving for is 45% carbs, 33% protein, and 22% fat. 

This is the ideal balance of macronutrients that your body needs.

You want to balance out all of the foods you eat and all of the drinks you drink to fit in as close as possible with this ratio. 

It will definitely take a lot of practice especially when eating out but if you gradually incorporate this into your daily lifestyle, your body will thank you in the long run. 

In order to track your macronutrients, you want to use a TDEE calculator which you can find online.

After you’ve figured out your macronutrients, we just want to delve deeper into the nutrition labels of the foods we enjoy! 

For example, let’s take a look at Hainan Chicken again. 

We know that there are 400 kcals per serving of Hainan Chicken. However, what do those 400 kcals consist of nutritionally? 

To reiterate, there are 23 grams of Protein, 15 grams of Fat, and 42 grams of Carbs. 

This means that we must subtract these numbers from our daily allotted macronutrients while trying out best not to go over those macros. 

For example, if we need 130 grams of Protein per day, this meal will take out 23 grams from that 130 leaving us with 107 grams of Protein left. 

A great way to track these a lot better is to use an app like MyFitnessPal where they subtract calories and macronutrients for you! 

It’s like a puzzle where you find different foods that fit into the mix. 
It really comes down to portion control and choosing foods that are satiating and satisfying. 

Now that you are more comfortable with macronutrients, let’s move onto staying active and healthy so that you can enjoy Hainan Chicken as guilt free as possible.

Tip 4: Keep Active and Build Muscle As You Enjoy Hainan Chicken

You can see from the previous sections that Hainan Chicken is a food that is high in carbs. 

You want to use the carbs from this food, as well as the fats, to your advantage. 

Maximizing the amount of calories you burn is key here.

You want to make sure that the calories you intake are being used to fuel your muscles to grow.

Muscles are very important in staying fit, I can’t emphasize this enough!

If you are looking for a workout plan or don’t know where to start on your fitness journey, be sure to check out our routines listed below.

Women 

Monday (Full Upper): 

• Seated Shoulder Press: 4x20 

• Lateral Raises: 4x15

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12

• Dumbbell Row: 3x10

• Dumbbell Fly: 3x10 

• Knee Push Ups: 4x20

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

Wednesday (Back/Hamstrings/Biceps) 

• Assisted Pull Ups: 3x10

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12 

• Cable Row: 4x15

• Stiff Leg Deadlift: 4x15

• Hamstring Curl: 4x15

• Bicep Curls: 3x10

• Hammer Curls: 3x10

Friday: (Legs/Butt/Abs): 

• Squats: 5x5 

• Goblet Squats: 4x20

• Glute Bridge: 4x20

• Glute Kickbacks: 4x20 each leg

• Jump Squats: 4x20

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

• Leg Lifts: 3x35

MEN 

Mon: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs (Push Day)

• Bench Press: 3 sets 10 reps

• Dumbbell Press: 4 sets 12 reps

• Shoulder Press: 3 sets 10 reps

• Lateral Raises: 3 sets 15 reps

• Triceps Rope Push Down: 3 sets 15 reps

• Cable Crunches: 4 sets 15 reps 

Wed: Legs & Abs

• Goblet Squats: 4 sets 20 reps

• Weighted Walking Lunges: 2 sets 20 steps

• Stiff Leg DeadLift (Romanian Deadlift): 4 sets 15 reps

• Glute Bridges With Weight: 4 sets 20 reps

• Jumping Squats With Resistance Bands: 5 sets 20 reps

• Weighted Sit Ups: 4 sets 25 reps

• Weighted Toe Touches: 4 sets 25 reps

Fri: Back & Biceps (Pull Day)

• Assisted Pull Ups: 3 sets 10 reps

• Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets 12 reps

• Dumbbell Rows: 4 sets 10 reps (Each Side)

• Seated Cable Rows: 4 sets 15 reps

• Bicep Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

• Hammer Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

This is a simple resistance training workout plan.

What I recommend is to just look these workouts up on Youtube and choose weights that are not too heavy at first so you can really get your form down. 

All it takes are a couple of adjustable weights (bowflex adjustable weights on Amazon) and a reliable workout bench (steelbody bench on Amazon) that will allow us to do all the necessary workouts. 

When you feel that you’ve grasped the form, feel free to go heavier and heavier every week. 

Remember, this will not get you big and bulky. 

It will get you nice and lean.

Now that you have a workout routine to follow to fuel muscle growth, let’s move onto Hainan Chicken itself and how we can make it healthier.

Tip 5: Learn how to create a healthier version of Hainan Chicken

Hainan Chicken is served with the chicken itself, of course, along with rice and veggies. 

A way that you can make this dish more beneficial to your body is to add more veggies and a wider variety of veggies. 

You want to make sure that your meal is as nutrient packed as possible.

For example, Hainan Chicken is usually served with a number of cucumbers and coriander as garnish. 

You can increase the level of cucumbers added to your meal so that it doesn’t act as just a side to your chicken and rice. 

You can also add a different set of fresh greens (of your choice) to your meal that will act as something bigger than a garnish. 

If you are looking to lower the carbs, then make sure to order easy rice or, if you’re making it yourself, then add more salad than rice! 

The great thing about Hainan Chicken is how delicious it is for the amount of calories it contains. 

It’s truly a food that you can enjoy every day and it will improve both your physique and your health. 

Foods, in general, are more customizable than you think and you can make it customizable while still keeping the integrity of the original dish.  

Ginger is a strong and main ingredient in making Hainan Chicken, Hainan Chicken. 

Ginger also comes with many health benefits such as providing antioxidants and aiding in digestion.

You can customize your sauce for this dish by mixing together ginger, garlic, and spring onion paste to make your dish come alive. 

Now that you have a better understanding about your body and what Hainan Chicken can do for it, hopefully, you are more at ease about determining how you could go about your fitness and health journey. 

Conclusion

We’ve reached the end and hopefully, we will have answered some of your questions about staying healthy while eating Hainan Chicken!

We discussed 5 tips you can follow and apply to your lifestyle while delving into the world of Hainan Chicken.

Make sure to check out our other articles if you are interested in Asian cuisine!

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