Is Yakisoba Healthy? (5 Tips For Weight Loss) 

If you are interested in the world of Japanese food, Yakisoba is an iconic dish that you can’t miss.

Yakisoba is a very popular Japanese stir-fried noodle dish that is commonly eaten as a weeknight meal in Japanese households. 

People often get confused on what exactly “soba” is. 

To explain it in short, “soba” in general refers to noodles made of buckwheat but in this case, the “soba” in Yakisoba refers to Chinese-style noodles made of wheat flour.

The sauce used for Yakisoba is an explosion of flavors including a sweet, tangy, and savory experience all in one dish. 

Yakisoba gained its popularity as a street food and gradually grew into a dish that you can find in many Japanese restaurants across the globe. 

Although Yakisoba is delicious, is it healthy?

Yakisoba is not healthy because it has a poor balance of macronutrients. Per 200 grams of Yakisoba, there are 33 grams of carbs, 6.8 grams of fat, and 14 grams of protein which means that most of the calories will be coming from carbs and fats. This ratio is not ideal for maintaining a healthy weight and leads to a high potential of overeating your daily allotted calories. 

Even though Yakisoba doesn’t exactly have the ideal balance of macronutrients for a meal which does not mean you have to completely rule it out as an option when deciding what to eat. 

If you are looking for ways to lose weight while still enjoying Yakisoba, then join us as we guide you through 5 ways in which you can do so. 

Here are 5 tips that’ll help you stay fit while incorporating Yakisoba into your diet:

Tip 1: Understand the Nutritional Value Behind Yakisoba

Tip 2: Learn How To Portion Control When Eating Yakisoba

Tip 3: Understand the Importance Behind Daily Calories While Eating Yakisoba

Tip 4: Keep Your Activity Levels High When Eating Yakisoba

Tip 5: Add Plenty of Veggies Into Your Yakisoba 

Now that we’ve outlined 5 different ways in which you can lose weight while eating Yakisoba, let’s look into the details of each tip!

How To Lose Weight When Eating Yakisoba

First and foremost, it is important to understand the concept of calories in vs calories out when eating a dish such as Yakisoba. 

The calories in vs calories out model will help measure if you are expending more calories than you are consuming on a daily basis. 

If you are burning more calories than you are consuming then this puts you at a calorie deficit. 

A calorie deficit is the only way you can experience fat loss. 

When eating Yakisoba, you should be mindful of its nutritional value because this is what will break down its nutritional content as well as how many calories you are consuming. 

We will go over the nutritional facts about Yakisoba in our tips for weight loss because if you know how many calories you are consuming and where those calories are coming from, it will help you be more mindful while eating this dish. 

After you have figured out how many calories you should be consuming on a daily basis, you need to make sure that you are staying active and building muscle when you work out. 

In order to build muscle, you will need to do what is called resistance training. 

Don’t worry, it isn’t as intimidating as it sounds!

Resistance training builds muscle which means that it allows us to burn calories at rest. 

Muscle has the ability to allow us to lose fat while we are indulging. 

Building muscle is our main goal with working out. It will keep us healthy while our metabolism increases.  

I don’t know about you but eating more while still staying fit sounds like a dream to me!

Now that we’ve briefly gone over a few ways to lose weight and stay fit while eating Yakisoba, let’s go more into depth about the details so that you are more informed about making healthy choices!

Tip 1: Understand the Nutritional Value Behind Yakisoba

For one serving of Yakisoba, you can expect it to be around 250 calories depending on how you portion everything that goes into it. 

A traditional serving of Yakisoba includes noodles, vegetables, pork belly, and Yakisoba sauce.

This would give you around 14 grams of protein, 33 grams of carbs, and 7 grams of fat. 

This is actually not bad for a food so delicious. 

It is a little high on carbs but, if you incorporate exercise into your daily routine as well as balance out the macronutrients for your other meals, this is a perfect food to include into your diet. 

There is a large stigma around carbs and how it can cause a lot of weight gain. 

Carbs are actually necessary as an energy source for you to function throughout the day so it is perfectly fine to enjoy Yakisoba as your source of carbs, in moderation of course!

Carbs themselves aren’t bad for you but it has a bad reputation because it is so easy to overeat them.

This dish contains 7 grams of fat per serving. 

It is also very easy to overeat fats, so you just need to be mindful that you are consuming fats in a healthy way for your body to operate.

There are 14 grams of protein in this meal. 

Protein is important for muscle growth and it is the least likely macronutrient to turn into fat if you overeat it. 

Overall, we can see that Yakisoba is a little high on carbs but, if eaten in moderation you will still be able to enjoy this dish while still maintaining your weight loss goals!

Tip 2: Learn How To Portion Control When Eating Yakisoba

Yakisoba is a delicious and flavorful dish that can be hard to resist when thinking about going in for a second serving sometimes. 

When cooking at home on an empty stomach, it can be hard to follow your mind and instead, lead you to follow your stomach. 

This is what we need to avoid though. 

Portion control is part of what will help you with clean eating in your diet. 

In order to portion control, it is important to be aware of a suitable serving size for your lifestyle as well as what is considered a specific serving size. 

Portioning based on lifestyle and individual bodies will be discussed further in the next tip. 

When portioning, it is important to balance all of your other meals throughout the day in order to make sure that you are consuming each macronutrient at respectable levels. 

As long as you stick to one serving of Yakisoba, it should be easy to plan your other meals around it. 

Yakisoba is a great way to satisfy your cravings as long as you eat it in moderation. 

If you are indulging in this dish, make sure to incorporate exercise into your daily routine to build muscle. 

Tip 3: Understand the Importance Behind Daily Calories While Eating Yakisoba

A calorie is a measure of how many units of energy our body needs to function in our day-to-day lives. 

Even if you plan to sit in your bed all day, your body still needs the energy to keep your body going.

It needs the energy to maintain your muscles as well as keep your organs functioning. 

The general rule to follow when calorie counting is to consume 2,000 calories if you are a moderately active female and to consume 2,500 calories if you are a moderately active male. 

So, when we eat something like Yakisoba, we need to understand how many calories we need to consume on a daily basis. 

Although this is the standardized rule to follow, it does not work for every single body out there. 

Your necessary calorie intake is unique to you and only you because it changes based on your height, weight, age, gender, and daily activity levels. 

If you are planning to count calories to lose weight, it is crucial that you know how many calories your body needs. 

You need to know how many calories your body needs to maintain your current weight first. 

The calories that your body requires to maintain your current weight is something called TDEE or Total Daily Energy Expenditure. 

You can calculate this by figuring out your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and then multiplying that number by your activity measurement. 

BMR is what is used to inform you on how many calories you need for your body to regularly function. 

If you are still a little confused about the calculation process of the TDEE and BMR, there are great resources online that’ll help you calculate it with just pressing a few numbers. 

After you have concluded an estimate of what your TDEE is, you will be able to adjust your calorie intake to your weight journey!

If you wish to lose weight, your caloric intake should be lower than your TDEE. 

If you wish to gain weight, your caloric intake should be higher than your TDEE.

If you want to maintain your current weight, you should stick to your current TDEE. 

If your goal is to lose weight, make sure that you are eating less than your TDEE but not dropping below the 1,500 level if you are a male and 1,200 if you are a female. 

This is to ensure that you are not ruining your metabolism in the long run. 

If we want more freedom within our diets, we need to make sure we add foods that are both satiating and low in calories in order to achieve a caloric deficit. 

Something like Yakisoba would definitely be hard to eat while trying to eat at a deficit but, by being mindful of how many calories we eat in a day, we can successfully eat it while staying healthy. 

This is the guideline to follow when trying to figure out how many calories to consume in a day!

Now that we’ve discussed daily calorie intake, let’s take a look into how this comes to play with exercise and building muscle.

Tip 4: Keep Your Activity Levels High When Eating Yakisoba

We want to make sure that you are putting the calories consumed from the Yakisoba to use by building muscle off of it. 

Calories and muscle generally go hand in hand because muscle burns calories at rest. 

This means that the more muscle you build, the more calories you will burn off by not doing anything. 

This helps us build a calorie deficit while still continuing to eat throughout the day. 

So, when we want to eat a food that is high in calories and carbs such as Yakisoba, we need to give ourselves more leeway by increasing the amount of calories we burn in a day. 

This is why building muscle is so beneficial as we burn way more calories over time. 

If you are new to working out and would prefer to follow an already existing routine, check out this basic workout plan we have for beginners.

With a lot of practice and consistency, you will kill this workout sooner than you think!

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.

If you ever feel frustrated throughout your workout, keep in mind that consistency and time is really what will help you build your dream body!

Now that we’ve discussed a workout plan for you to follow, let's look into how we can make Yakisoba healthier.

Tip 5: Add Plenty of Veggies Into Your Yakisoba 

If you are making Yakisoba at home, you are very much in control about how much of each ingredient you are putting into your dish. 

You can change up the ingredients of your personal Yakisoba to cater to your tastes and dietary needs. 

Pork belly is the main choice of protein used when cooking this dish but you can substitute it for any other protein of your choice. 

Since protein is important for building muscle, you can portion your protein to fit your daily needs through this dish. 

Good choices here are either a lean cut of beef or some chicken breast to compliment the dish. 

Yakisoba is really missing protein mainly so adding some to the meal can really complete the nutritional value of this dish. 

Vegetables are also a big part of what makes Yakisoba, Yakisoba. 

Some of the vegetables you can see being incorporated into this dish are onions, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, green onions (or scallions), and cabbage leaves. 

In order to make this dish less carb-heavy, you can make a compromise by decreasing the portion of noodles and make up for it by adding more vegetables and protein to fill up your stomach. 

The vegetables in Yakisoba are very customizable and bring lots of different flavors into the meal in a healthy way. 

One ingredient you can add to your Yakisoba is bean sprout. 

Bean sprouts offer a variety of health benefits. They are refreshing and nutritious, adding to every bite you take. 

Bean sprouts offer Vitamin C, fiber, and folic acid while being a very low-calorie vegetable. 

They also improve heart health and while being a great source of potassium. 

You can add plenty of bean sprouts into Yakisoba because the fiber content they offer serves to lower LDL cholesterol levels, reduce blood sugar spikes, and aids in weight loss.

Making healthy choices while cooking this Japanese stir fry dish will satiate your cravings while improving your lifestyle. 

There You Have It!

Now that you are more informed about answering the main question of “Is Yakisoba Healthy?” it’s time for you to enjoy Yakisoba guilt-free!

To lose weight while eating Yakisoba, we went over 5 tips that’ll help you and guide you through your health and fitness journey. 

To sum it all up in short, make sure that you understand what exactly is being put into your body, how to enjoy this dish in a healthy way, and the importance of incorporating exercise into your daily routine. 

Never forget the importance of building muscle while enjoying any food in your diet. 

Now, go and treat yourself to this flavorful and appetizing Japanese stir-fried noodle dish!

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