Is Uni (Sea Urchin Roe) Healthy? (5 Tips For Weight Loss) 

Uni is one of the tastiest foods in the world and has an application for so many different types of food and cuisine.

Generally known for being eaten raw, Uni is usually served in sushi dishes as it’s sweet and savory flavors really compliment many of the awesome dishes that Japanese cuisine has to offer. 

Although Uni is delicious, is it good to eat while staying healthy?

Uni is a great option if you are looking to stay within a healthy diet as it offers many nutritional benefits such as a large amount of omega-3s and a variety of micronutrients. It’s also a great source of protein and does not have much fat which makes it a great option for cutting down in weight. 

In order to stay healthy while eating Uni, we summed it down to 5 simple steps that will let you know everything you need to know about Uni.

Here are the 5 simple steps to stay healthy while eating Uni.

1. Understand What Uni Is & What Its Nutritional Contents Provide 

2. Understand How Many Calories Goes Into Uni 

3. Make Sure To Avoid The Fattening Dishes Uni Can Be Used In 

4. Understand How Many Calories You Need To Consume In a Day

5. Stay Active & Build Muscle While Eating Uni 

Now that we know the 5 steps to stay healthy while eating Uni, let’s take a deeper look into each of these topics. 

Tip 1: Understand What Uni Is & What Its Nutritional Contents Provide 

Just like many seafood options, you can expect Uni to have a ton of health benefits that allow for major functions in the body.

Let’s take a look at the micronutrients and see what you can expect to receive from a serving of Uni. 

Omega-3s

Uni is packed with Omega-3 fatty acids which means it’s a great option if we want to get all the benefits of this fish oil.

The main benefits of Omega-3s are the brain function, reduction of inflammation, lower blood pressure, and reduction of triglycerides. 

It can be hard to eat enough seafood to get your Omega-3s for the week so you can rest assured when you eat Uni as it is loaded with them.

One of the main benefits that I take from Omega-3s is the improvement of joint health.

There are many studies that provide evidence to the statement that Omega 3s aid with keeping joints healthy and strong. (1) 

This is very important when training and keeping healthy as so much of your strength relies on keeping your joints healthy.

There are many other studies that provide solid evidence to the benefits of Uni, joint health is simply my favorite and the one I value as someone who consistently works out.

Here is a study that features all of the benefits as this single subsection of micronutrient could take a whole article to go over. (2) 

Vitamin Rich

Uni is rich in Vitamins A and C which are great as both of these vitamins offer many health benefits.

Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin which improves vision, immune functions and regulates major organs such as the heart, lungs and kidneys.

It’s important to get enough Vitamin A in our diets as it allows us to function at our full potentials. 

Vitamin C also boosts immunity and has a ton of health benefits that are also necessary for normal function. Studies show that Vitamin C can lower blood pressure and may prevent the risk of heart disease due to its antioxidant capabilities. (3) 

Great For Dieting

Generally, Uni is low calorie and has a high amount of protein per serving.

We will look into the details later but you can expect to get a lot of benefit out of the macronutrient ratio of a typical serving of Uni. 

Uni offers a great balance of carbs, protein, and fats which makes it a great option when you are trying to eat healthy while adding delicious food items. 

Now that we know what goes inside a typical Uni dish, let’s see the calories for a typical serving of Uni and discover how we can fit this dish into our diets. 

Tip 2: Understand How Many Calories Goes Into Uni

Let’s take a deeper look into how many calories goes into a single 25 gram serving of urchin served raw.

For every 1.3 grams of fat, there are 2 grams of carbs and 4.7 grams of protein (numbers are rounded up and down).

This is great because it offers a great balance of macronutrients which is crucial when eating healthy. 

Balance is crucial because each macronutrient has its own function that keeps us healthy.

It’s very typical to eat a diet that is rich in carbs and fats but we can see that a single serving of Uni actually has more protein than anything. 

It’s very easy to overeat on the carbs and fats so finding a food that is rich in protein with a low fat and carb ratio will be very beneficial towards a healthy diet.

Uni is great because it allows you to have a lot of protein while having some very delicious flavors that are both complex and unique. 

Let’s talk about the benefit of a high protein diet while making sure that carbs and fats are balanced as well.

Protein is what helps us build muscle and allows our body to function at optimal levels.

Oftentimes you can see that protein is neglected which is due to the American diet focusing on delicious foods that contain a ton of carbs and fats.

It’s definitely the hardest macronutrient to get out of the three as it is very limited to meats and certain grains and vegetables.

The trick is to find high protein foods like uni or sashimi which will provide you the nutrients you need and a ton of flavor so your taste buds don’t get too stale. 

The optimal level of protein that a healthy adult should have is around 0.8 grams per kg of body weight.

For any active individual who consistently works out, however, 1.4-2.0 grams per kg of body weight is more accurate. (4) 

Any less than that and you’ll find that too many calories are coming from carbs and fats which can quickly lead to weight gain.

There’s a lot of negative stigma behind these two macronutrients which is actually a view that is inaccurate.

All macronutrients are necessary for a healthy diet and neglecting a single one of them can cause problems down the line. 

Carbs are often seen as the source of weight gain but it is simply the act of overeating carbs that causes weight gain.

Actually, overeating any of the three macronutrients causes weight gain so it’s best to eat the correct amount throughout most of your days. 

We have a whole article dedicated to balancing macronutrients so make sure to check it out if you’re looking to find how much of each you need to eat on a daily basis.

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

Now that we know how many calories Uni is, let’s take a look at some of the foods that Uni can be placed in. 

Tip 3: Make Sure To Avoid The Fattening Dishes Uni Can Be Used In 

There are many forms that Uni can take in the world of food which means that some of them can be really delicious, and sadly, really fattening.

When eaten raw, Uni is a healthy food that has a ton of health benefits and diet friendly macronutrients. 

However, when made into certain dishes, it can cause a lot of imbalances in a daily macronutrient range.

Let’s take a look at some foods that Uni can be placed in which can be fattening and unhealthy.

Uni Pasta 

Uni Pasta is definitely the most popular dish out of the three and has been featured all throughout the world of cuisine.

Although it might sound healthy as Uni seems to be the main ingredient, Uni Pasta is actually mostly cream based with the addition of a couple ounces of Uni. 

Let’s take a look at the calories and see what a typical bowl of Uni Pasta gives us.

For every 30 grams of fat, there are 88 grams of carbs and 16 grams of protein.

We mentioned above the importance of balancing macronutrients and this is a perfect example of a strong skew towards fats and carbs. 

Fats and carbs are fine when moderated; however, when they are the main components of a dish, you can find that it will be very fattening.

Let’s look at the fats and compare them to the proteins in this dish. 

A gram of fat equates to 9 kcals while a gram of protein equates to 4 kcals.

This means our fats should be way lower but, instead, we find that the fats are almost double that of protein.

This means that we receive 270 kcals coming from fat and a measly 64 kcals from protein.

This should really be flipped if you ask me so you can expect Uni Pasta to be pretty fattening. 

Another thing to look at are the saturated fats in this dish.

Saturated fats are fine in moderation but too much can cause many complications down the line. 5.2 does not seem like a lot but it is when you compare it to the amount of fat present in the dish. 

What’s worse is that you can expect 88 grams of carbs from this dish. That is way too high in terms of how much protein there is in this dish.

Carbs should only be slightly higher than protein not double or triple its amount. A healthy diet usually consists of 33% proteins, 45% carbs, and 22% fats. 

You can see that this dish drastically skews the macros to one side and can take out your carbs and fats in one sitting if you’re not careful.

Our tip here is to be mindful of how many calories you get from each of the macronutrients. 

For example, we know that there are 88 grams of carbs and 30 grams of fats coming from this dish alone.

Our next meals or our previous meals should be filled with high protein foods with low fats and carbs to keep it balanced.

This way, we can create a balance in our entire day even if a certain food might have put us off track. 

Being aware of the nutrition facts of a certain food can give us this freedom.

It’s really a numbers game and you have to fit the food you eat into the numbers you have.

We’ll get into the details in section 4 of this article. 

Let’s take a look at some other foods that features Uni 

Uni Rice Bowl 

Uni Rice Bowls are an extremely delicious dish that is usually served in higher end restaurants.

Many places use the sea urchin as the bowl and add rice and uni within a decorative plating technique. T

he rice is usually a form of sushi rice so you can expect a sweeter flavor mixed in with the Uni.

It’s a really amazing dish and not too bad to eat. Let’s take a look at the calories and see what goes inside a typical Uni Rice Bowl.

For every 4 grams of fat, there are 42 grams of carbs and 12 grams of protein. So, it’s a lot better than the Uni Pasta as not much fat is added to the dish. 

However, you can expect a lot of carbs coming from this dish as there are more than 4 times the amount when compared to protein.

This dish is totally manageable when you want to eat healthy as you just need to eat a meal that’s low in carbs for the next meal you have. 

42 grams of carbs is really not a lot so just make sure you’re just not going over by the end of your day.

You can usually find this dish at a sushi restaurant so our tip here is to make sure to eat this dish with some fresh sashimi.

This way you can add some fats and protein into your diet and really get a nice balance of macronutrients. 

Japanese food is usually really healthy and delicious so you’ll find that it's easier to fit into a good diet.

Let’s take a look at another food that could potentially put you over on your calories for the day. 

Uni Toast 

We couldn’t find a decent picture of this dish but it’s actually one of my favorite dishes and is served at many different restaurants in LA.

It’s really elegant and carries a ton of Uni flavor into each bit you take. It’s more of a french cuisine and strays away from the norm of what you expect Uni to be. 

It’s an interesting take and is gaining popularity all around food culture. Although it tastes delicious, is it good to eat?

Let’s take a look at its calories and see what we can find.

For every 12 grams of fat, there are 28 grams of carbs and 6 grams of protein. Not bad for how delicious this food is but not good either. 

I don’t ever like a food where my fats double my protein.

This most likely means that I’ll have to supplement with a shake or eat something very lean for my next or previous meal.

It’s a pretty bad situation to be in when you look at nutrition strategically but it’s definitely manageable. 

This is another food where the carbs and fats are the two highest macronutrients in the nutrition facts.

It’s essentially garlic bread with a slice of Uni on top which means you won’t be getting too much protein. 

You can expect a lot of calories coming from this dish as this is only the calorie count for one piece of Uni Toast.

Having four or five of these means you can get a thousand calories which comes mostly from carbs and fats. 

Our tip here is to eat this dish with moderation and focus on higher protein meals throughout the day or within the meal.

This is usually served as an appetizer or a tapas dish so you can really control how much you eat anyway. 

A good rule of thumb for when a food looks suspect of high carbs and fats is to look up its nutrition contents and be aware of how much of each macronutrient you’re getting.

It’s a little bit of work but it’ll definitely keep you from gaining those unwanted extra pounds. 

There are many more Uni dishes you can find out there but these are the ones that are the most popular and highest in calories.

Our tip here says to avoid these foods but you can definitely have them as long as you’re responsibly tracking your calories and macronutrients for the day. 

Uni on its own is a very healthy dish and, when eaten as sashimi or sushi, can offer a delicious flavor along with many benefits.

However, not all Uni dishes are created equal so make sure you’re just cautious. 

I love my Uni Pasta but I’ll always make sure my lunch and breakfast are packed with protein and some salads. (I actually do this) 

Let’s get onto tip number 4 and see the importance of getting our daily allotted calories. 

Tip 4: Understand How Many Calories You Need To Consume In a Day

I always like to stress the importance of understanding your daily allotted calories because understanding this concept really allows you to determine how you look and feel.

There’s a certain concept called energy balance which dictates how many calories you either store or burn in a day. 

Simply put, if your body burns more calories than it consumes then you will be losing weight or will be in a caloric deficit.

If your body consumes more calories than it burns then you will be gaining weight or will be in a caloric surplus.

Lastly, if your body burns the same amount of calories it consumes then you will maintain your weight. 

If you are someone who wants to shed fat, then a caloric deficit is the choice for you.

The opposite is true for someone who wants to gain weight.

In order to understand how many calories you need to eat in order to lose weight is the first step in your shredding journey. 

There are two methods to find out your daily allotted calories but both are very inaccurate.

It will take some trial and error for everyone to find out daily calories specific to your goal as it depends on so many different factors. These two methods, however, are not a bad place to start. 

The first method is to use an online calculator (5) that will give you your number after answering a few questions.

The second is to simply multiply your bodyweight by 12 and see what that number gives you.

After finding these numbers, some adjustment will be required as they are not specific to you or your lifestyle. 

Let’s take a 150 pound female for example. The calculation should yield 1,800 kcals for the day in order to shed some fat.

However, this might be too little or too much for her as she may or may not live an active lifestyle. 

If the calories are too little (she loses more than 2 pounds a week) then she must increase her calories little by little until she finds a good range to be in (1900-2000).

If the calories are too much (she does not lose weight or even gains weight), then she needs to drop her calories little by little (1600-1700) until she starts seeing some results. 

It’s crucial to go at a steady pace as this ensures that you are not starving yourself and will avoid hitting a weight plateau too early.

We talk about this in depth in our other article so make sure to check it out in this link right here. 

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

It’s all really a numbers game so make sure you don’t go over your number.

Find out your number through either of the calculations and adjust till you find a comfortable range that works for you! 

Tip 5: Stay Active & Build Muscle While Eating Uni

Understanding daily allotted calories is the first step of the puzzle.

The second is definitely controlling activity level and building a good base of muscle onto our bodies.

In the section above we mentioned dropping calories and how weight loss is achieved.

However, there will come a time where your body will plateau which means weight loss will be halted. 

The answer to this solution is to add some activity and consistently workout as this will allow us to eat more calories while still losing weight.

Muscle burns calories at rest which means the more muscle we have, the more we can eat and still look great. 

This means that you need to be working out consistently and going through a routine that isolates all of your body parts.

It can be a little intimidating which I understand because I’ve been there. Here is a workout plan that is pretty basic and will help get you started which is the best thing to do if you have no clue as to where to begin. 

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 great place to start for both men and women as it goes through all of the body parts through each individual movement.

After mastering this workout, we suggest you do a more comprehensive one where you can hit every body part at least twice a week. 

Whether that’s at home or at the gym, this plan will get you to build some awesome muscle and keep you active.

If you’re not too fond of the gym and want to build a gym of your own, then here are our recommended pieces of equipment that we use here at Aspire Fitness. 

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

Let’s go out there, keep active, and build some quality muscle! 

There It is! 

In this article we discussed the health benefits of Uni and looked into some dishes that implement Uni within their ingredients.

We also discussed the benefits of understanding calories and how much you should be eating within a day. 

If you’re looking for more information on healthy Asian foods, then make sure to check out our other articles where we go in depth on each type of dish. 

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