Is Xiao Long Bao Healthy? (5 Tips For Weight Loss) 

Xiao Long Bao is a unique dish that you can’t really get from any other culture or cuisine.

It’s essentially a dumpling filled with soup and ground pork.

Although Xiao Long Bao is delicious, is it good to eat when dieting? 

Xiao Long Bao is not the best option when it comes to a healthy diet as most of the calories come from carbs and fats; however, you can still eat them in moderation and stay within your fitness goals if the portions are properly controlled. The key is to supplement the dish with lean proteins as protein is what is lacking in the dish.

A healthy diet revolves around a balance of macronutrients (carbs, fats, and proteins) and, when you diet is more skewed towards higher carbs and fats, many complications can occur which can lead to weight gain and unhealthy eating habits. 

In this article we’re going to go over some facts and tips on how you can eat Xiao Long Bao and still stay within a healthy range.

Here are the five facts and tips on how you can eat your favorite Taiwanese dumpling and still stay in shape. 

1. Understand What Goes Into Xiao Long Bao

2. Know How Many Calories Go Into Xiao Long Bao 

3. Eat Higher Protein Meals Throughout The Day 

4. Understand How Many Calories You Need To Consume

5. Make Sure To Workout Regularly & Build Muscle 

Now that we know the five facts and tips that will help us get to our goals, let’s take a look at each section. 

1. Understand What Goes Into Xiao Long Bao 

Xiao Long Bao is a dumpling that’s made from flour, hot water, and vegetable oil.

It’s a very chewy dough once cooked and is thicker than it seems.

Many places like Din Tai Fung only use around 1 oz. of dough for each dumpling which is actually a very small amount. 

The hot water allows the dough to be stretchy and allows it to withstand more fillings without breaking.

This is good because a thinner layer of dough means that there is less calories coming from carbs.

Lot’s of dumplings can be more dough than filling but that is not the case with Xiao Long Bao. 

The filling of Xiao Long Bao is what really makes the dish so special in my opinion.

It’s a filling of gelatinized soup that goes into a minced ground pork and shrimp mixture.

The pork and shrimp mixture contain a lot of herbs and spices such as white pepper, grated ginger, scallions, garlic, rice wine, sesame oil, soy sauce, and salt. 

The soup on the other hand contains gelatin along with a chicken broth that is seasoned with salt, garlic, sesame oil and rice wine.

It’s a delicious combination and, when cooked, the soup stays within the dumpling coating the pork and shrimp filling.

Here is a recipe if you want to try it out for yourself. (1) 

What’s important to know about Xiao Long Bao, however, is that these little dumplings are packed with calories.

Let’s go over what goes inside a typical Xia Long Bao dish and look inside its calorie contents. 

2. Know How Many Calories Go Into Xiao Long Bao

After doing some research, most places serve Xia Long Bao in either 40 gram portions or 2 oz. portions.

Let’s take a look at the 40 gram option as this is really the standard of Xiao Long Bao. 

For every 3 grams of fat, there are 7 grams of carbs and 4 grams of protein.

This equates to around 80 calories which is not bad at all.

The issue when eating Xiao Long Bao, however, is that they are not really filling which means there is a high possibility to overeat. 

Overeating is what causes energy storage (fat storage) which is a concept called energy balance which we will discuss in the later sections of this article.

There is actually a good balance of macronutrients in this dish as the fats are low and the protein is moderate. 

With 7 grams of carbs, however, it is very likely to be getting a ton of carbs from this meal.

Xiao Long Bao usually comes in a serving of 10 dumplings which means you should definitely be sharing this meal with friends and family. 

You can easily get over 1,000 kcals from a single meal as Xiao Long Bao is often paired with other traditional Taiwanese dishes as well.

The point here is to just make sure not to overeat and stay within your calorie range. 

There are many dishes in a dim sum or Xiao Long Bao restaurant that offers many fibrous greens that offer amazing flavors without offering too many calories.

Make sure that all of your calories aren’t just coming from the delicious dumplings and add some variety. 

This way, you can definitely save on the calories and avoid overeating which will cause weight gain.

It’s a bit of a sacrifice to not eat so many dumplings but you can still have your cheats once in a while where you can go all out.. 

3. Eat Higher Protein Meals Throughout The Day 

As we mentioned above, Xiao Long Bao offers a lot of carbs per serving.

Each dumpling has 7 grams of carbs which can definitely add up since they’re very easy to eat a ton of.

When you know that you’re going to eat dumplings, you must be strategic with where your calories are coming from as well. 

There are three different macronutrients that make up your calories which are protein, carbs, and fats.

Each one has a very specific function that is necessary for us to function properly.

You’ve probably heard that carbs are extremely bad for you; however, this is really not the case. 

Carbs are actually our direct source of energy that will fuel our workouts and activity for the day.

Carbs, however, get a bad rep due to its water retention and its ability to be overeaten.

They’re delicious which is why it can be hard to eat the correct amount that your body needs. 

The American diet really promotes a diet that is high in fats and carbs while neglecting protein.

When most of your diet comes from fats and carbs, your body will most likely use the energy received from the foods and store it which, in simpler terms, will turn your food into fat. 

You can avoid this by providing a balance in your diet which means eating an adequate amount of proteins, carbs, and fats.

The only way to really do this is to be mindful of your food and which foods give what macronutrient. 

For example, dumplings are a great source of carbs as they can easily get you to eat 70-100 grams of carbs per serving.

To create balance, we want to get somewhere close to 60-80 grams coming from protein to match those carbs.

However, you only really receive 40 grams of protein for every 70 grams served. 

Our tip here would be to either supplement the missing protein from a protein shake or to just order a high protein meal alongside the Xiao Long Bao you’ve ordered.

This way you can eat a balanced meal and have a controlled day where you are still within the range of your calories and macronutrients. 

You want to aim for a ratio or 33% Protein 45% Carbs & 22% Fats, this is the estimated optimal range of macronutrients but will differ from person to person depending on your activity level.

If you want to know more about how you can find your macronutrient ratio, then check out this blog where we go in-depth on the details.

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

Make sure to balance out your carbs, fats, and proteins for every meal and you’ll be good to go.

The best way to do this is to track your calories and download an app called MyFitnessPal.

We go over how to track on the link above so make sure to check it out if you’re looking to see some real results. 

4. Understand How Many Calories You Need To Consume

So much of eating healthy comes from understanding how many calories you need to consume in a day.

Calories determine whether or not we gain weight which can be translated to excess fat or whether or not we stay lean and fit. 

There’s a concept called energy balance which determines whether or not your body is losing weight, gaining weight, or maintaining weight.

Simply put, you will be gaining weight if your energy burned is lower than your energy gained and will be losing weight if your energy burned is greater than your energy gained. 

Our goal is to either maintain weight or lose weight unless you are someone who is actively looking to put some more mass on.

This simply means that we have to eat less than the calories we burn.

In order to do that, we must figure out how many calories we need to eat in a day so that we can be in a caloric deficit. 

A good way to do this is to either use an online TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) Calculator or to simply multiply your bodyweight by 12.

These are both inaccurate measurements of allotted calories but it’s a good place to start. 

For example, If you weigh in at 130 pounds then you should be eating around 1,560 kcals a day.

You might be losing weight with these calories but you might also need some adjustments.

The trick here is to make small adjustments every week until you see some weight loss. 

If those calories you get from the calculation are wrong, then simply lower your calories by 100 and try again for the next week.

There’s some patience required here but it’ll be worth it once you can safely find the correct amount of calories you need to eat in a day. 

Once you find your daily allowance, you can see that you will be more in control of how much fat your body carries.

If you need to gain weight, then simply eat more than your maintenance calories.

If you need to lose weight, then simple less than your maintenance calories.

All it takes is some trial and error which will take some time but is easy to do.

 5. Make Sure To Workout Regularly & Build Muscle 

Now that we understand how many calories we need to eat on a daily basis, let’s talk about why exercise and activity is important in the process of staying fit.

Your body burns calories depending on the activity level of the individual. 

If you live a sedentary lifestyle, then it’ll be much more difficult to lose weight and you’ll start to see that the number of calories you need to eat in order to shed fat is very low.

This is why seeking out activity at least 3-4 times a week is crucial when your goal is to get lean. 

The other factor that you can control is how much muscle you currently carry.

Muscle allows us to burn calories at rest which means we can burn more calories by just living life.

This is amazing as it allows us to eat more and still stay in a deficit. 

The fastest and most efficient way to build muscle is to learn how to do some resistance training.

You need to use weights and build muscle by doing a variety of workouts that isolate each muscle group specifically. 

It can be intimidating to get in shape as it will be hard to learn and discouraging at the start but it’s definitely worth it in the long run for both your health and fitness.

A good place to start is in the safety of your own house or by just getting a gym membership. 

All you really need are some dumbbells, a workout bench, and gym flooring.

If you’re looking for the three pieces of equipment you need to get in shape, then here is a link with the products that we recommend for your home gym.

(Includes Affiliate Links) 

We wrote a simple workout plan for both men and women that will help you start getting into working out.

You can definitely look up the form of all of these workouts online and it won’t be too intimidating as these are the workouts that are easy to follow and master. 

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

For both men and women, we recommend a three day split to start off.

This workout plan will hit all your muscle groups and you can definitely learn all of them by just looking it up online. 

Now that we know our daily allotted calories and have a solid workout plan, let’s get into the best shape of our lives and work on our health and fitness! 

There It Is! 

Xiao Long Bao is a delicious and unique dish that you can’t really find anywhere.

Although it’s not the best for weight loss, you can still definitely eat some as long as you eat in moderation.

We went over how many calories you need to be eating on a daily basis so just fit in the calories you ate from your Xiao Long Bao meal into your range. 

We also went over the importance of balance and working out so make sure you get your protein and fats in while also making the effort to follow the workout plan listed above. 

If you liked the article, then feel free to check out our other blogs on healthy Asian foods and fitness tips.

Food is such an important aspect of our lives so let’s make sure we eat responsibly and with a goal in mind! 

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