Is Jin Ramen Healthy? (5 Tips For Weight Loss)
Jin Ramen is definitely one of the most popular Korean instant ramen available.
There’s something so special about the rich flavors and chewy textures that you get from this dish which makes it a delicacy.
Although Jin Ramen is delicious, is it healthy?
Jin Ramen - like many other packaged ramen - have a poor ratio of macronutrients. Most of the calories come from carbs and fats while neglecting the protein, which translates to a high potential for weight gain and fat retention.
However, with any food, you are allowed to have a cup once in a while, as long as you are aware of how many calories you consume on a daily basis.
In order to eat Jin Ramen and still stay within a healthy range, we’ve come up with a list of five tips to help you stay in shape while eating this delicious cup of ramen.
1. Find out What The Ingredients Are in Jin Ramen
2. Find out How Many Calories Are in One Cup of Jin Ramen
3. Understand How Many Calories You Need to Consume in a Day
4. Make Sure To Consistently Workout & Build Muscle
5. Make Sure To Increase Your Activity Level When Eating Jin Ramen
Now that you know the five steps, let’s get into the details that will help you stay in shape while enjoying some delicious cup of Jin Ramen.
Tip 1: Find out What The Ingredients Are in Jin Ramen
There are many ingredients that make Jin Ramen what it is.
What you put into your body is very important in understanding how to control how you look and feel. So, we are going to explain a few of those weird ingredients listen on a package of Jin Ramen.
Also, keep in mind, the shorter the ingredient list, the better the product is for you.
Let’s take a look.
PALM OIL
There’s a lot of controversies involving palm oil and although they might be some benefits to consuming palm oil, it is high in saturated fats which may increase the risk of chronic health conditions and heart disease.
SOYBEAN LECITHIN
Soybean Lecithin is known to be a food additive mostly coming from soy and often used as an emulsifier in packaged foods. It is said to possibly be causing some health issues but these claims haven’t been proved to be true.
GUAR GUM
Guar Guam is derived from legumes, called guar beans, and is often used as a food additive in various condiments and packaged foods. It’s said to cause allergic reactions in some people, as well digestive issues.
RIBOFLAVIN
Riboflavin is technically vitamin B and safe to consume in small quantities. It is often used in packaged food to make it more nutritious, such as instant ramen noodles.
The biggest issue of a cup of Jin Ramen is the high sodium amount that can cause water retention and bloat. It could increase blood pressure and have a negative effect on heart- and kidney health.
Now that you know about some of those weird ingredients in Jin Ramen, let’s take a look at its caloric content and macronutrient ratios.
Tip 2: Find out How Many Calories Are in One Cup of Jin Ramen
If you live an active and healthy 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 cup of Jin Ramen has 500 calories with a macronutrient ratio of 79 grams of carbs, 12 grams of protein, and 15 grams of fat.
As expected from a packaged ramen dish, most of the calories come from carbs and fats.
One cup of Jin Ramen is not necessarily filling although the carbs are high. However, it lacks fiber, and protein, and is also high in fat.
The goal when dieting is to add as much protein as you can to your meals so you can maintain muscle.
A good way to make this cup of Jin Ramen healthier is by adding an egg, bok choy, mushrooms, carrots, and some type of meat to boost the protein intake.
Now that we have a grasp of how many calories are in a cup of Jin Ramen, 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.
You can easily over-eat unhealthy, processed foods that are high in fats and carbs, especially when something is as delicious as Jin Ramen. Overeating is usually the quickest way to get out of shape.
As we have mentioned in section two of this article, it’s important to understand how many calories you need to eat in order to lose weight 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.
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.
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.
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 the activity is the key to a balanced lifestyle that allows you to eat whatever you like, such as a cup of Jin Ramen, 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.
It is suggested, however, to not decrease the calorie intake below 1,200 per day for women, or below 1,500 calories per day for men.
The calories are actually not too bad in this dish and can be easily incorporated into your daily calorie intake, as long as you are not over-eating and are working out.
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 women and men, where you can get started if you are someone who is not familiar with a resistance training regimen.
Definitely check it out and learn the workouts online or through a trainer.
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
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
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.
It’s crucial to understand the importance of diet and workout, to enjoy foods like Jin Ramen.
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 a cup of Jin Ramen quite often, 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: Make Sure To Increase Your Activity Level When Eating Jin Ramen
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.
If you put calorie tracking, muscle building, and actively moving more together, dishes such as a cup of Jin Ramen won’t get you off track because the formula provides so much leniency for you to shed some fat.
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.
These foods are typically your proteins and green vegetables, which are the best tools for shedding those extra pounds.
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.
Regardless of your workout routine, a cup of Jin Ramen is a meal that you should eat in moderation or even rarely, as there is little to no benefit to your health.
THERE IT IS!
The Asian Weight Loss Cookbook
The 15 Fat Burning Meals Cookbook features our favorite recipes that you can use to get closer to your fitness goals.
Become your own personal trainer with the guidance of this book and make this the year you achieve your insurmountable fitness goals
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PHILLIP PAK
Phillip Pak is a fitness expert who has been training clients for 6 years. Throughout his fitness journey, Phill has done it all when it comes to diet and nutrition. He is now the owner of Aspire Fitness Walnut where his main goal is to help those who are seeking to find the best version of themselves. Phillip is also a NASM Certified Nutrition Coach (CNC) and a NASM Certified Personal Trainer (CPT).