Is Sikyhe Healthy? (3 Tips For Weight Loss) 

If you love Korean food, then you’ve definitely had Sikyhe in your encounter with Korean cuisine. 

This past weekend I was out drinking with some friends in Koreatown and enjoyed some of this sweet rice drink, and couldn’t help but wonder if it would be considered healthy towards my fitness goals. 

Sikyhe is a drink made from rice, sugar, cinnamon, and is very traditional to drink with many of Korea’s staple dishes. 

Although Sikyhe is delicious, is it healthy? 

Sikyhe is not healthy because it is 85 calories per serving, with most of its calories coming from 17g of sugar with no protein and fats. Therefore, Sikyhe has a high potential to put us over our daily allotted sugar intake, which can lead to excess weight gain. 

Although Sikyhe is mostly sugar, this does not mean that we have to completely cut it out of our diet. 

In this article, we will be talking about three tips that will help you stick to your fitness goals while enjoying your favorite Korean beverage. 

Here are the three tips for you to enjoy Sikyhe while staying fit: 

Tip 1: Understanding The Nutrition Behind Sikyhe 

Tip 2: Understand What Sikye Made Out Of

Tip 3: Make Sure To Stay Active When Drinking Sikyhe 

Now that we know the three steps, let’s get started! 

How to Lose Weight When Drinking Sikyhe 

The key to long-term weight loss is not so much about having to cut out a bunch of your favorite food or drinks, but primarily understanding the right amount of calories your body needs in a day. 

Stop for a minute and ask yourself, am I intaking more calories than I am burning? 

If you find yourself hesitating at this question, then it is important to figure this out before taking the first step in building your ideal longtime fitness goals. 

While there are a lot of fad diets on the market that promise quick results, the best way to maintain your dream body is to create a long-term plan that will actually work for you. 

This may look different for every person, but understanding how many calories you need to intake daily to help you feel satiated is key. 

If you are curious about learning more about the proper target caloric intake that best suits you, or need help on learning about the type of workouts that you need to get in shape, check out this article below. 

How To Actually Get a Six Pack After 30 

When it comes to Sikye, we want to make sure that we are mindful of how many carbs we are getting in the day since Sikye has so many carbs (coming from sugar) in it. 

It is not essentially a “bad” food to eat but, rather, a food that is simply high in sugar. 

The reason it gets labeled as a bad food is because it is very easy to get an excessive amount of sugar within our diets. 

As long as we control our carb intake and be mindful of our sugar, Sikye is totally fine to drink! 

There are three macronutrients that comprise our entire diets.

These macronutrients are called protein, carbs, and fats. 

In order to stay healthy and within a good range of calories, we need to make sure that we have a great balance of macronutrients and not just skewing them to be simply made up of just carbs and fats. 

We need to make sure our protein is not lagging behind as many diets really tend to do so. 

If you want to know your exact macronutrient intake, then make sure to check out this article below! 

How To Actually Get a Six Pack After 30 

Now that we know how to lose weight and stay healthy while drinking Sikye, let’s get into the specific steps that will help us get to our fitness goals! 

Tip 1: Understanding the Nutrition Label of Sikye 

In one can of Sikyhe, there are 85 calories, 21 grams of carbs, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of protein, and 17g of sugar. 

For most people, drinking this one can of Sikyhe will have them near their maximum daily sugar intake of the day if they are trying to stay with their health fitness goals. 

As you can see from the nutrition facts above, Sikyhe does not offer many nutritional benefits as it is mainly composed of added sugars and carbohydrates, with no protein at all. 

Thus, should I completely cut Sikyhe out of my diet to stay on top of my fitness journey? 

The answer is no because there are small modifications that can easily be made to your daily life that will allow you to enjoy your favorite Korean beverage such as staying active and being in the know about the amount of calories you consume. 

If you are aware of the calories that you are consuming on a daily basis, as well as the adequate amount of carbs, fats, and protein necessary, then you are really in the clear on most things.

On the other hand, if you are clueless about the amount of macronutrients needed for you, then it is especially important to watch out for things that are high in carbs and sugar. 

It is important that a balanced diet is being consumed when you are getting in your carbs, sugar, AND protein. 

For those who are new on their fitness journeys and do not know the adequate amount of macronutrients needed in a day, try putting in your stats into an online calculator that can give you a rough estimate. 

The numbers given from the online calculator is just a rough estimate, but it will give a good general idea if you are new to tracking your macros. 

Since it is not 100% personalized to you, you might have to adjust the numbers a little until you either lose or gain the ideal weight that you want. 

It is recommended to have something like Sikyhe on a cheat day, or limit it for the weekends/special occasions. 

Sikye is a sweet beverage and is typically enjoyed in a group of friends/family in social gatherings. 

It is known to be a staple at Korean holidays, which is another reason as to why it is so important to so many people including myself who grew up drinking this at various celebrations.

This beverage is something that should not be incorporated in your daily diet if you are trying to maintain your fitness goals, but is fine to enjoy once in a while if you have been staying active and tracking your macros throughout the week. 

Tip 2: Understand What Sikye Made Out Of

To start, we should understand what goes into a majority of the calories found in Sikye. 

Sikye, or sweet rice punch, is primarily composed of barley malt powder (same powder in beer and bread), sugar, and fermented rice. 

The rice used in Sikye starts to turn white and slightly spongy in texture as it ferments, and it slowly starts to release starch out into the liquid. 

This turns the drink into a nice amber color, and the rice/barley is not fermented long enough for it to become alcoholic, hence why it is mainly served as a dessert drink on the holidays. 

I personally love drinking Sikye because of the small grains of rice that float atop, which have a nice texture and chew to them. 

It also brings back a lot of good memories since it is a common dessert drink served at all the Korean celebrations that I attended ever since I was a child. 

Despite it’s delicious taste, a lot of starch is released after the rice starts to ferment, and a lot of this contributes to the high carbohydrate content that is found in this drink. 

Rice itself also contains a good amount of sugar, and on top of top, more sugar flavorings are typically added to this beverage to enhance the flavor. 

For example, it is common for people to add syrup or excess sugar into Sikyhe to produce an even sweeter taste. 

Excess sugar makes it easy for people to gain unwanted weight because it is extremely high in calories (1 cup of sugar= 773 calories) while offering little to no nutritional value. 

This is the reason why some people can eat a high volume of sugary foods/drinks, yet still have trouble feeling full afterwards, leading them to have the urge to consume even more calories. 

On the other hand, an abundance of carbohydrates in a person’s diet can also easily lead to weight gain because carbs make a person’s blood sugar rise. 

When your blood sugar spikes and rises, it causes your insulin to rise, which leads a lot of glucose rushing into the fat cells. 

These fat cells eventually sit in the body and slowly turn into fat over time if activity levels are low and the calories are not being utilized throughout your day. 

This information is important to know because it is the reason as to why it is so important to figure out the adequate amount of macros that best fit your fitness goals. 

If you are trying to bulk or gain weight, chances are you would want to consume more carbohydrates in your diet. 

However, if your fitness goals are to lose weight, then it is important that your diet is composed mainly of nutrient-rich foods such as protein, and that you limit the number of carbohydrates and sugar in your daily diet. 

We always want to be working towards a goal which means we will be needing to follow a workout regimen and utilize those calories to build some muscle! 

Let’s get into step 3 where we go over an example workout plan and some tips that will help you eat foods like Sikye while still losing weight! 

Tip 3: Make Sure To Stay Active When Drinking Sikye

The best way for your body to burn off the excess carbohydrates and sugar is to workout and remain active. 

For most people, the chances of them exceeding their daily recommended limit of carbohydrates and sugar is high if they are drinking Sikye and other delicious non-nutritionally dense foods on their cheat days. 

Since Sikye has no protein, it is unable to help you feel satiated, so there is a good chance that you will have to consume more calories to feel full at the end of your meal. 

This puts you at risk of exceeding the daily recommended macros. 

The main tip is to make sure you are eating other high protein and low carbohydrate/sugar foods while drinking Sikye to reach a more balanced diet. 

For example, if I am out drinking Sikye with friends, I might opt to get a plate of sashimi instead of a bowl of udon because sashimi is a lot lower in carbohydrates and much higher in protein. 

By doing this, I am able to get in a good healthy serving of protein, while cutting down on my carbohydrate/sugar intake on my main dish. 

This leaves me a bit more room to spare in the carbohydrate and sugar category, which enables me to still enjoy this delicious Sikye with my friends and not feel overly restricted. 

Staying active and incorporating a few extra workouts the day before/after you know you are having your cheat day can help combat the fact that extra calories, carbohydrates, and sugar were consumed. 

Here is a sample workout plan that you can use to maximize muscle gains and to stay active, which will keep us healthy especially while drinking beverages such as Sikye:

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.

We always want to be utilizing the calories we get from foods into a workout so we can constantly be building muscle. 

Muscle is really what keeps us healthy and what increases our metabolism by burning calories at rest. 

When we drink beverages such as Sikye, we want to make sure that our bodies are taking in the sugars and using them to fuel our movements and workouts. 

Staying sedentary is one of the worst things we can do to ourselves when consuming high amounts of sugar. 

So, go out there and build some muscle while eating or drinking your favorite foods or beverages! 

There you have it! 

Here are my three essential tips on how you can still enjoy a sweet dessert beverage like Sikye while staying on top of your fitness journey and goals. 

It really comes down to understanding your daily allotted calories and utilizing those calories for your workouts and daily movements. 

Especially with high sugar drinks such as Sikye, we want to make sure that we’re really working hard and getting far away from a sedentary lifestyle.

If you like this article and found it helpful, then don’t forget to check out our other articles that offer great fitness tips as well as nutrition facts on other favorite Asian drinks/dishes! 

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