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

Nasi Lemak is a very unique dish that might look plain but has a ton of flavor within every dish served.

It’s essentially a rice and meat dish but the main difference in the flavors is the coconut milk that the rice soaks and cooks in.

The sweet and savory flavors of the rice really pair well with the different proteins on the dish and create a powerful combination. 

Although this dish is delicious, is it healthy? 

Nasi Lemak is a dish that has most of its calories coming from carbs and fats as there are usually 72 grams of carbs with 22 grams of fat per serving. While there is 16 grams of protein in a typical Nasi Lemak dish, there is definitely a poor balance of macronutrients for the individual who is seeking results from their fitness endeavors. 

It is possible, however, to fit this dish into your diet. You simply need to look into the nutrition label of foods you enjoy and see how it fits in with your overall daily allotted intake.

Here are three tips you can take in order to eat Nasi Lemak while staying healthy.

1. Understand What Goes Inside Nasi Lemak 

2. Understand How Many Calories Are In Nasi Lemak 

3. Understand The Importance of Energy Balance, Resistance Training, & High Activity Levels 

Now that we know the three steps to eat Nasi Lemak while staying healthy, let’s take a close look at what we can do to add in our favorite Malaysian dish. 

Tip 1: Understand What Goes Inside Nasi Lemak 

As mentioned above, Nasi Lemak is a dish that focuses heavily on the flavors you get from coconut milk.

This creates a very strong flavor within the rice which makes up most of the dish in volume.

There are really three components to this dish so let’s go over each one and see what we can find. 

The Toppings 

Toppings are an essential part of Nasi Lemak as they add an extra layer of flavor and texture to the dish.

Typical toppings you can find are hard boiled eggs, sardines, and peanuts.

These are all great options to eat, however, they do add lots of fat to the dish. 

All three of these toppings are high in fats and carry a moderate amount of protein per serving.

However, the grams of fat are going to be typically fatter than the grams of protein which is something we want to avoid in our meals. 

It’s important to get a substantial amount of protein in our diets as it allows us to build and retain muscle (and just function).

Fats are the highest caloric macronutrient ratio so you typically want these to be lower than your proteins.  

This doesn’t mean that you can’t eat your nuts, eggs, or sardines, it just means to be mindful of the fats that each ingredient carries and balance it with the amount of protein you get throughout your day.

The Rice 

This component is arguably the star of the dish.

There’s something so special about the sweet flavor that this rice gives to the very savory counterparts and is a trait in food that is unique to many Malysian or Southeast Asian dishes. 

The issue with this dish, however, is that there is usually a ton of rice that has the potential to take you over your carbs.

I’ve found that typical Nasi Lemak dishes can contain up to two cups of coconut milk which I find hard to complain about. 

It might be a sacrifice as this rice is so delicious, but it might be in your best interest to ease up on the rice a bit so you can save your carbs for later meals throughout the day.

This will ensure that you have room to eat your other favorite carb dishes instead of having them come from a single meal. 

Or, if you’re a coconut milk rice fanatic like me, just eat two cups worth! 

The Proteins 

The proteins you can typically find with Nasi Lemak is either a fried chicken leg (without batter) or a large fish such as mackerel or salmon.

These options are fine to eat as long as they are not eaten in too large of quantities. 

The issue, again, is that frying these foods rather than grilling them means that you’ll be adding a lot more fats to your meal.

This meal is already fatty enough with the toppings from the previous section so you’ll find that the fats can really add up in this dish. 

Our tip here is to try to make Nasi Lemak on your own or find a place that has fresh, lean cuts of meat that grills over charcoals rather than fries.

I live in Socal and have my own joint near my house and they use charcoal to grill their chicken leg.

It creates awesome smokey flavors while keeping it low on the fats. 

Now that we know a little bit about what goes inside your typical Nasi Lemak dish, let’s take a look at what we can find by looking inside the nutrition label. 

Tip 2: Understand How Many Calories Are In Nasi Lemak 

Let’s take a look at what goes inside a typical Nasi Lemak dish by looking at the nutrition label.

In a single serving of Nasi Lemak, there are 22 grams of fat, 82 grams of carbs, and 16 grams of protein.

This is a food that carries a poor macronutrient ratio but can be manageable by understanding macronutrient balance. 

We can see here that the majority of calories come from fat and carbs within this dish.

Protein is the lowest macronutrient out of the three which means that you’ll need to supplement the dish with a high protein meal. 

When we look at the calories of each macronutrient, we can find that fat is the highest out of the three as it has 9kcals per gram served.

Protein and carbs have 4 kcals per gram served which means that these two should be much higher than the grams of fat. 

So, when we compare the fats in this dish to the proteins we can see that 198 kcals come from fats while only 64 kcals come from protein.

There is a huge gap of calories in this dish and, for optimal balance, these two should be flipped around. 

The good news is that this is a simple solution as you just need to add a lean protein to the dish such as fish or chicken breast.

This adds both flavor and balance which will really aid in long term results. 

Now that we know what goes inside the nutrition label of Nasi Lemak, let’s go over the importance of energy balance and staying consistent with a workout schedule. 

Tip 3: Understand The Importance of Energy Balance, Resistance Training, & High Activity Levels 

When eating foods like Nasi Lemak, understanding how many calories you should be eating in a day is crucial when trying to stay healthy and control weight.

There’s a concept called Energy Balance that compares the calories you burn in a day to the calories you expend. 

If your body burns more calories than it consumes, then you will be in a deficit of calories which translates to weight loss with a large percentage coming from fats.

If your body consumes more calories than it burns, then you will be in a surplus of calories which translates to weight gain with a large percentage coming from fats. 

Understanding the calories for these two (or three) goals means understanding whether or not you are either gaining, maintaining, or losing weight throughout the months.

We see that Nasi Lemak is around 580 kcals per serving.

If you understand how many calories you need to eat in a day you can just fit that in and see what remains for your other meals. 

It’s essentially a numbers game that allows you to track your food and be aware of how much energy you get from your foods.

Failure to track calories means you won’t be able to control your physique so it can be very demoralizing  when results don’t come. 

If you want more information on this concept and how it relates to seeing your abs, then make sure to check out this article where we go over the 5 steps you need to take in order to see your abs. 

Now that we know the concept of energy balance, why is it important to be consistent with workouts and high activity levels?

Well, energy balance compares calories consumed to calories expended, so we need to add more movement to expend more energy. 

There is a concept called TDEE which stands for your Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

This is how many calories your body burns everyday from your typical movements and lifestyle.

Out of our TDEE, 15-30% of calories burned comes from TEPA which stands for the Thermic Effect of Physical Activity. 

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

It can be hard to add in movement as many of us are sitting down due to our studies, job, or lifestyle.

So, you must seek out movement by sticking to a consistent workout schedule. 

The other factor we can control is how much muscle we carry on our bodies.

Muscle burns around 4.5-7 kcals per pound we pack on our body which doesn’t sound like much but will really add up over time. 

Here is a workout schedule that we made that will show you the basics of each muscle group and teach you the functions of them as well.

It can be intimidating to start resistance training so make sure to learn these movements well by doing the research on each of the workouts. 

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

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 discussed what goes inside your typical Nasi Lemak dish and what you can expect to find inside the nutrition label.

You can see that Nasi Lemak is a dish high in carbs and fats so, in order to stay within a good balance of macronutrients, we want to supplement the dish with lean proteins such as fish or chicken breast. 

We also discussed the importance of controlling calories and how Nasi Lemak can fit into those calories.

If you want to know more about your favorite foods, then make sure to check out our other articles! 

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