Is Focaccia Bread Healthy? (5 Tips For Weight Loss)
If you’re a fan of bread, you might have heard of Focaccia, and if that’s the case this article is right for you. Find out what goes into making this popular Italian bread and see whether, or not Focaccia can fit into your lifestyle.
Focaccia is a soft, doughy bread - similar to pizza - that has originated in Italy, and dates back to Ancient Rome. It is also said that one of the first Focaccia recipes was found in the “Etruscan civilization,” what is now known as Tuscany, northern Lazio, and western Umbria. It can be served as a side dish in the company of a salad, or as and appetizer with a side of olive oil and parmesan cheese, as well as the base for sandwiches.
Although Focaccia is delicious, is it actually good for your waistline, or even healthy?
Like with many high-carb dishes, it’s better to eat them in moderation and with a salad to avoid weight-gain or bloat.
Here are five steps that explain the ingredients that go into making Focaccia the traditional way, the calorie amount of one piece of Focaccia Bread, how many calories to consume within a day, and how to stay in shape while eating this classic Italian dish.
What Goes Into Making Focaccia?
How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Focaccia?
Understand How Many Calories You Need to Consume in a Day
Make Sure To Consistently Workout & Build Muscle
How to Increase Your Activity Level While Eating Focaccia
Now that we know our five steps, let’s get into the details that will help you stay in shape while enjoying some delicious Focaccia.
Tip 1. What Goes Into Making Focaccia?
Focaccia is easy to make, is budget-friendly, and doesn’t require many ingredients.
Traditionally, Focaccia is made with fresh rosemary, olive oil, warm water, active dry yeast, all-purpose flour, a sweetener - such as honey or sugar - and flaky sea salt. The first step is to dissolve the active yeast in warm water with the sweetener and then slowly add the flour, olive oil, and sea salt. Make sure you knead the dough and let it rise two times. When it’s ready to be baked, transfer the dough to a baking sheet and poke holes into the dough until it’s covered. Drizzle some olive oil, rosemary, and flaky sea salt and let it bake for 20 minutes until it’s golden brown at 400 degrees F.
It is also versatile and easy to be customized to your likings, such as topped with cheese, or fresh minced garlic. Instead of a savory version, you can also make a sweet version of Focaccia, with raisins, honey, and sprinkled sugar.
Since it’s a classic staple in Italian cuisine, you can find it in many Italian or American restaurants all over Los Angeles, and the rest of the country.
Now that we know what Focaccia is, let’s take a look at the nutritional facts and see how many calories go inside one serving of Focaccia bread.
Tip 2.How Many Calories Are in One Serving of Focaccia?
Whether you live a sedentary lifestyle or an active lifestyle, it’s important to understand how many calories you need to consume daily.
Let’s take a look at the nutrition facts. As you can see, one piece of Focaccia bread has 140 calories with a macronutrient ratio of 20 grams of carbs, 5 grams of protein, and 4.5 grams of fat.
This is not all too bad, if you stick to one or two pieces of Focaccia bread, or if you eat it with a salad.
A good rule of thumb for dieting is keeping a nice balance of macronutrients. A great ratio is sticking to 30% carbs, 40% protein, and 30% fats.
In this dish, the ratio is more like 50% carbs, which can still be incorporated into your daily carb intake.
The key aspect is to understand how many calories you need to eat in a day and to make sure not to overeat on your total accounted calories for the day.
This is why we recommend you try to make Focaccia at home and customize it to your liking. Oftentimes ordering Focaccia at restaurants could contain a high amount of sodium, fat, and not to mention carbs.
Now that we have an idea of how many calories are in one piece of Focaccia, let’s learn about the importance of calories and how many you should be consuming in a day.
Tip 3. Understand How Many Calories You Need to Consume in a Day
Staying healthy and fit is all about calorie or energy balance, which means that you can still eat your fats and carbs, and stay in shape.
If you burn more calories than you consume, then you will find yourself in a “caloric deficit” which is the only way fat loss can occur.
You can easily overeat on unhealthy, processed foods that are high in fats and carbs, especially when something is as delicious as Focaccia. Overeating is usually the quickest way to get out of shape.
To stay healthy and in shape, we need to first go over your daily caloric needs and figure out how many calories you need in a day, as well as figure out how much of each macronutrient you should be consuming.
There are a few factors that determine your daily calorie intake. Such as weight management, weight loss, or weight gain. Other factors that play a big role, are your gender and your height.
So, how do you know how many calories you should be eating in a day?
The answer is through trial and error and finding a calorie range that allows you to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week.
However, a good place to start is to multiply your body weight by 12 or to use an online TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculator.
Your TDEE relies heavily on how active you are and how much movement you see in your day.
Within your TDEE lies a subsection, which is called TEPA (Thermic Effect of Physical Activity) which accounts for 15-30% of your entire day’s worth of calories.
This means, you are in control of 15-30% of how much you can eat, which is a huge portion of calories.
If you’re someone who loves to eat a lot while staying fit, then being active is the key to a balanced lifestyle that allows you to eat whatever you like, such as Focaccia, and stay in shape.
Once you know your calorie intake based on your weight and height, you can then decide how much you want to decrease it. If you want to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, we suggest you start with 100 calories less than what you are currently consuming and see if you notice a difference within a week.
If you don’t see any changes in your weight, decrease your calorie intake by another 100 calories and see how that works.
However, it is suggested, to not decrease the calorie intake below 1,200 per day for women, or below 1,500 calories per day for men.
The key here is to find foods that keep you full longer and still deliver a balanced amount of macronutrients.
You don’t want all of your calories simply coming from carbs or fats, you want there to be a balance coming from carbs, protein, and fats.
So, just calculate whatever calorie range you find, and split up your calories by following those macro guidelines.
Tip 4. Make Sure To Consistently Workout & Build Muscle
After you’ve figured out how many calories you need to consume daily, you need to make sure that you exercise regularly and build muscle throughout every week.
Building muscle allows you to burn calories at rest, which means you can eat more and still lose fat.
This is really the goal of working out and is what keeps you healthy as your metabolism increases.
The fastest and most efficient way to build muscle is to learn how to do some resistance training.
As stated in Tip #3, you need to be able to burn calories throughout your day in order to put yourself at a caloric deficit.
Keep in mind that weight loss is really the concept of calories in vs. calories out.
Although working out and building muscle takes priority, having a consistent cardio schedule can help with expediting the fat loss process as it raises the energy expended throughout your week.
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.
Although it can be intimidating to get in shape, as it will be hard to learn and might be discouraging at the beginning, it’s definitely worth it in the long run for both your health and fitness.
All you need are a set of dumbbells, such as these adjustable dumbbells, and a reliable treadmill such as the Bluefin Fitness Treadmill that tracks your calories and you’re on your way to controlling the number of calories you burn.
Regarding working out with dumbbells, it’s important not to add too much weight too soon because that could result in injury if you are unfamiliar with the correct body positions. It is better to start small and then increase the weight level.
Here is a workout plan we’ve created for men and women, where you can get started if you are someone who hasn’t ever done a resistance training regimen.
So, definitely make sure to check it out and learn the workouts online or through a trainer.
MEN:
Day One: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs (Push Day) :
Cable Crunches: 4 sets 15 reps
Triceps Rope Push Down: 3 sets 15 reps
Lateral Raises: 3 sets 15 reps
Shoulder Press: 3 sets 10 reps
Dumbbell Press: 4 sets 12 reps
Bench Press: 3 sets 10 reps
Day Two (Legs & Abs):
Weighted Toe Touches: 4 sets 25 reps
Weighted Sit-Ups: 4 sets 25 reps
Jumping Squats With Resistance Bands: 5 sets 20 reps
Glute Bridges With Weight: 4 sets 20 reps
Stiff Leg Deadlift (Romanian Deadlift): 4 sets 15 reps
Weighted Walking Lunges: 2 sets 20 steps
Goblet Squats: 4 sets 20 reps
Day Three: Back & Biceps (Pull Day):
Hammer Curls: 3 sets 10 reps
Bicep Curls: 3 sets 10 reps
Seated Cable Rows: 4 sets 15 reps
Dumbbell Rows: 4 sets 10 reps (Each Side)
Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets 12 reps
Assisted Pull-Ups: 3 sets 10 reps
WOMEN
Day One (Full Upper):
Weighted Crunches: 3x35
Lateral Raises: 4x15
Lat Pulldowns: 4x12
Knee Push-Ups: 4x20
Seated Shoulder Press: 4x20
Dumbbell Row: 3x10
Dumbbell Fly: 3x10
Day Two (Back/Hamstrings/Biceps):
Hammer Curls: 3x10
Bicep Curls: 3x10
Hamstring Curl: 4x15
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 4x15
Cable Row: 4x15
Lat Pulldowns: 4x12
Assisted Pull-Ups: 3x10
Day Three (Legs/Butt/Abs):
Leg Lifts: 3x35
Weighted Crunches: 3x35
Jump Squats: 4x20
Glute Kickbacks: 4x20 each leg
Glute Bridge: 4x20
Goblet Squats: 4x20
Squats: 5x5
We recommend working out at least three times per week in the beginning, since the resting days in between are important to build muscle.
You can also do a combination of resistance training and LISS (Low-Intensity Steady State) cardio or HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) cardio, to improve your heart health and maximize fat burn.
LISS is cardio that comes from walking or a brisk walk, you should be able to have a conversation while still building up a sweat.
HIIT cardio is intervals of a very high-intensity movement, such as sprints, battle ropes, or kickboxing movements aiming to quickly raise the heart rate.
The benefit of HIIT is allowing yourself to burn calories in a shorter amount of time.
We recommend having 80% of cardio coming from LISS while 20% comes from HIIT for optimal fat loss throughout the week.
LISS is a much more reliable source of consistent movement and does not require rest as it does not shock the Central Nervous System the way HIIT can.
If you are new to working out, building muscle will happen relatively fast, so this is great news for anyone looking to get in shape.
That’s why it’s important to increase your activity level at least 3 - 4 times a week if your goal is to get lean.
So if you love eating more than one piece of Focaccia Bread, you have to make sure your activity level is higher than usual, especially if you want to lose weight.
In the next section of this article, we discuss how to increase your activity level.
Tip 5. How to Increase Your Activity Level While Eating Focaccia
Calories are direct sources of energy that fuel your everyday life, so you need to make sure that you utilize them efficiently throughout your day.
The best way to do this is to build muscle and to also move more throughout your day.
60-75% of energy expenditure comes from your basal metabolic rate (BMR) which is how much your body burns if it did nothing all day. (NASM)
10% of energy expenditure comes from the thermic effect of feeding (TEF) which is the calories you burn from digesting different foods. (NASM)
15-30% of energy expenditure comes from the Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA) which is movement such as working out and aerobics. Source (NASM)
To sum it up, up to 30% of our energy expenditure can come from movement and activity so this is a huge portion of our weight loss journey that you can actively control.
The more movement the better and, to utilize and burn those calories, you should be moving all you can.
It’s important to understand the importance of diet and workout, to enjoy dishes like Focaccia.
You don’t want all of your calories simply coming from carbs or fats, you want there to be a balance coming from carbs, protein, and fats.
Therefore, the key here is to find foods that keep you full longer and still deliver a balanced amount of macronutrients.
If you put calorie tracking, muscle building, and actively moving more together, things such as a piece of Focaccia won’t get you off track because the formula provides so much leniency for you to shed some fat.
Make sure to stick with it for a long time and understand that fitness is a lifelong journey that takes time to cultivate.
Calories are direct sources of energy that fuel your everyday life, so you need to make sure that you utilize them efficiently throughout your days.
Working out allows you to be more flexible in your diet and lifestyle, which is so important if you want to sustain a lean body and stay healthy.
So, next time you’re wondering how you can lose some weight, remember that you need to build some muscle and track your calories to your specified amount.
THERE IT IS!
Our five tips will help you stay fit while eating Focaccia.