Is Nasi Goreng Healthy? (3 Tips For Weight Loss)  

Nasi Goreng is Indonesia’s staple fried rice dish.

It actually translates to rice (nasi) fried (goreng) so you can just imagine that it’s a popular dish amongst Indonesian people.

Every Asian country has their own version of fried rice and Nasi Goreng has to be on the top tier dish amongst the others. 

Although Nasi Goreng is delicious, is it healthy? 

Nasi Goreng can definitely be a healthy meal as its contents are very customizable. However, a typical Nasi Goreng has most of its calories coming from fats and carbs so it has high potential for poor weight management. By making this dish at home, we can add more protein which creates a better balance of macronutrients. 

The best part of fried rice dishes is the customization that can go from making this dish at home.

Here are three steps you can take in order to make sure that you stay healthy while eating Nasi Goreng: 

1. Understand What Goes Inside Nasi Goreng & Make Your Own

2. Understand How Many Calories Are In Nasi Goreng 

3. Stay Active & Workout Consistently While Eating Nasi Goreng

Now that we know the three steps to eating Nasi Goreng while staying healthy, let’s take a deeper look into the specifics of what we can do. 

Tip 1: Understand What Goes Inside Nasi Goreng & Make Your Own

Nasi Goreng is something I like to call a blank canvas dish as there’s so much room to add different ingredients to the dish.

What separates Nasi Goreng from many of the typical fried rice dishes is the shrimp paste that adds a seriously deep umami flavor into the dish. 

There are really three components of Nasi Goreng that make up its components, so let’s go over each one and see what we can find. 

The Sauce

A typical Nasi Goreng dish has 2 tablespoons of shrimp paste, 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce and 3 cups of white rice whine to season the rice.

These are the three ingredients that add a tremendous amount of flavor to the dish and really separates Nasi Goreng from any other Asian fried rice dish. 

You can expect a lot of sodium coming from this dish which is fine as long as you manage your sodium levels throughout the day.

Tracking your food is a great tool to help with getting results quickly and is what allows us to manage weight loss properly. 

The Toppings

As for the vegetables, Nasi Goreng usually comes with some onions and a few pieces of garlic to flavor the soy sauce and shrimp paste mixture.

Some garnishes used are eggs, cucumbers, green onions or shallots. 

These pair tremendously well with the fried rice as it adds some much needed freshness to the dish.

There’s a lot of fat that typically goes inside fried rice so adding things like cucumbers or green onions go well as it cuts through the oils or butter used. 

The vegetables also add a texture difference as you get a nice crunch within every bite.

Rice on its own can be a very boring dish so adding some crunch is always welcomed in my opinion.

What I find goes great with Nasi Goreng is some acidity coming from either lemons or lime. It really goes well with the savory flavors and takes the dish to the next level.
The Proteins 

Typically, Nasi Goreng is topped with either chicken breast or chicken thigh which are both high sources of protein.

The problem with adding chicken thigh, however, is the fact that there is a large portion of fat within each serving.

Nasi Goreng is, essentially, an already fatty dish so adding more fats will definitely lead to a higher potential for overeating. 

If possible, chicken breast should be the protein of choice as it is both delicious and adds lots of texture and flavors that will compliment the dish.

I understand that chicken breast doesn’t hold a candle to chicken thigh but it’s definitely a food that will benefit a healthy diet! 

It can be difficult to find a Nasi Goreng dish that uses chicken breast rather than chicken thigh as restaurants will always choose the fattier, more delicious, option when they can.

What we recommend is to make Nasi Goreng at home and customize it to have less fat and higher proteins. 

Now that we know what goes inside a typical Nasi Goreng dish, let’s take a look at the nutrition label and see how we can fit this into a healthy diet. 

Tip 2: Understand How Many Calories Are In Nasi Goreng

Checking in on the nutrition labels of your favorite foods is the best way to make sure of a healthy diet as it will alert you of how many calories you consume and what those calories consist of. 

By looking into the nutrition label of Nasi Goreng, we can see that there are 8 grams of fat, 36 grams of carbs, and 12 grams of protein per serving. This equates to 270 calories for every cup served where calories come from a large portion of carbs and fats. 

There are many things you should watch out for when trying to stay healthy.

The first is the amount of fats a dish has.

If the amount of fat, in grams, is higher than any other number then the dish is high in fats.

You want to make sure that only 20% of your calories come from fat as this is the optimal percentage for weight loss. 

The second is if there is a good balance between carbs and protein.

Protein is often the hardest macronutrients to consume as you are limited to meats and certain plant based products.

However, many healthy dishes offer high amounts of protein which would really boost a lagging protein diet. 

We can see that Nasi Goreng has 36 grams of carbs for every 12 grams of protein served.

Protein is much less in this situation so, by the end of this meal, you’ll need to find another protein source without adding carbs as they will be quickly exhausted. 

It’s all really a numbers game and it starts with understanding how many grams of each macronutrient you should eat.

Here is an article you can check out if you want to know how many calories you need to eat in a day and what macronutrient ratio is suitable for those calories. 

https://www.aspirefitnesswalnut.com/how-to-actually-get-a-six-pack-after-30

To sum it up, you want to make sure you have a good balance of macronutrients where the fats aren’t too high and the protein isn’t too low.

As for carbs, it depends on how active you are and how well your body utilizes them.

Each macronutrient ratio is different for each individual so find out the ratio that fits your lifestyle the best from the article above. 

Now that we’ve looked into the nutrition label of Nasi Goreng, let’s take a look at the steps we can take in order to eat this delicious Indonesian dish while staying healthy. 

Tip 3: Stay Active & Workout Consistently While Eating Nasi Goreng

There is a concept called energy balance that compares the amount of calories burned to the amount of calories consumed.

Staying healthy means understanding where you fall into the different states of energy balance.

Simply put, you must know whether or not you are consuming more than you burn, consuming just as much as you burn, or burn more than you consume. 

If you have no idea where you fall, then it can be difficult to maintain weight as your calories can be all over the place.

The trick is to stay within a good range of body fat and maintain it by eating the correct amount of calories.

However, if we stay sedentary and inactive throughout the majority of our lives, we can find ourselves stuck in this low calorie state. 

There is something called TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) which is the amount of calories the individual burns in a day.

If you eat more than your TDEE, then you will be gaining weight. If you are eating right at your TDEE, then you will be maintaining weight.

And if you eat less than your TDEE, you will be losing weight. 

The trick here is to raise your TDEE which can be done by deliberately seeking out training and active lifestyles.

15-30% of your TDEE comes from something called TEPA (Thermic Effect of Physical Activity).

Which is the amount of calories the individual burns from movement and activity.

This means that we are in control of up to 30% of the calories we burn in a day! 

By figuring out what your TDEE is at, staying highly active, and tracking calories, we can control how we feel and look while staying as healthy as we can be.

So, when you look at foods such as Nasi Goreng, take a look inside the nutrition label and see what you can find. 

In the previous section we talked about the importance of macronutrient ratios so make sure that your calories are coming from a balance of all three.

You’ll find the foods that are easy to fit into your diet and foods that are harder and more fattening. 

Once again, if you want a more in-depth article on how you can find your TDEE and macronutrient ratios, then make sure to check this post out where we go over the steps and calculations. 

https://www.aspirefitnesswalnut.com/how-to-actually-get-a-six-pack-after-30

So, where does working out fit into this mix?

Working out, or more specifically, resistance training, helps build muscle over the course of time.

Muscle is important because it burns calories at rest. This means that, the more muscle we have, the more calories we burn by simply existing.

It can take time to build muscle and it can be a little intimidating so our solution is to provide a basic workout plan that will go over the movements of each muscle group.

Take your time to learn these movements and make sure you get out there and start lifting some weights! 

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

Muscle also looks great and will really help shape the body.

When you eat your favorite foods such as Nasi Goreng, you can use them to fuel your workouts which will aid in getting you stronger and to really get a hang of the movements. 

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.

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! (1)

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

There It Is! 

In this article, we went over what goes inside a typical Nasi Goreng dish and some steps you can take in order to stay healthy while eating this amazing Indonesian dish.

We hope that you learned the importance of looking into the nutrition labels of your favorite foods and the impact that this little step can make on your diet overall.

We also went over the importance of staying active and building muscle while eating foods such as Nasi Goreng and how that relates to getting closer to your fitness goals.

If you like this article and want to know more about your favorite foods, then make sure to check out our other blog posts! 

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