How to Lose Weight Eating Thai Food Everyday

After spending over a year in Thailand, I put on a few pounds during that time. As a fitness and nutrition coach, I had to figure out how to lose weight by eating Thai food every day. You may not like the answer….

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You can’t lose weight eating Thai food every day.

If you eat an omelet and rice for breakfast, Pad Thai for lunch, and Pad See Ew for dinner, there is no way you will lose weight. If anything, you will gain weight.

Then why write a post about how to lose weight?

Well, it’s possible IF you follow the following steps, but you need to actually DO the steps. Not just say you will do them, and then do them for a week, and then quit.

You are probably asking yourself, “Thai people in their home country eat Thai food every day and most of them do not need to lose weight, so why can’t I eat it every day?”

Well for starters locals in any country eat at home for most of their meals, and you are probably ordering takeout or eating in Thai restaurants. The portion sizes will be larger when dining out. And when cooking at home, less sugar and oil are used in each dish.

But maybe you are traveling through Thailand and you need to save money so that is why you need to eat Pad Kra Pao every day.

Or quite possibly you are just addicted to the fried rice from the Thai takeout place in your neighborhood.

Either way, these are the seven steps to follow if you legitimately want to lose weight eating Thai food every day.

Step 1: Don’t Eat Pad Thai For Every Meal

An average order of Pad Thai from anywhere in the world contains 700-970 calories per portion. That’s nearly half of what you need to eat in calories for the entire day.

Unless you are training to be the next strongman, no one needs to eat a 970-calorie meal, that’s just ludicrous.

Plus, it’s high in fat and sugar.

If you still insist on eating Pad Thai every day, ask for the vegetable or tofu option. That version of the dish will at least be lower in calories.

Step 2: Eat Your Veggies

If you are serious about trying to lose weight eating Thai food every day, then channel your inner mom and eat your vegetables. There will always be a vegetarian dish on the menu that you can order.

But don’t choose the one where the vegetables are smothered in the thick gravy sauce (you know better than that).

The sauce is full of MSG and salt, which will just bloat you, making you feel fatter and sad in the end.

Step 3: Avoid Piling on the Sugar

Ever notice when you eat at a Thai restaurant, they offer a little display of condiments? And one of the items is a cute little jar of sugar?

At first glance you notice that it’s brown sugar, so you think, “Oh it must be organic and better than the white stuff, so it must be good for me!”

WRONG.

It’s sugar, it’s still crack, don’t touch the cute baby spoon (aka crack shovel) they provide and pile it on your dish.

The dish most likely already has a couple of tablespoons of sugar in there, so steer clear if you know what is good for you.

Step 4: Exercise intensely

Now when I say, “intensely”, I don’t mean swinging weights around at the gym like an animal. Or try to go for your first run in 15 years without warming up first.

You need to increase the number of calories that you burn throughout the day. Shoveling down Thai food at your work desk and then sitting for 8 hours is not going to do you any good.

Open a gym membership (and use it), or join a group workout with your other Thai food-addicted friends.  If you are traveling use this guide to help you as well.

Just do something to get you moving.  

And FYI for those who hate working out: The more muscle you have on your body the more calories you will burn at night while you are sleeping.

Who doesn’t like to lose weight while lying horizontally?

Step 5: Drink Water

Yeah, yeah, I know you’ve heard this one before. Avoid sugary drinks and juices, you know the drill.

But if you are following Thai diet every day you are probably super dehydrated anyway from the MSG so do yourself a favor and buy a water bottle that keeps the water cold throughout the day so there are no excuses not to drink it.

My favorite is the Hydro Flask Water Bottle. It comes in different sizes and colors.

And my favorite tip: Drink water during your meals. Don’t just shovel the Pad Thai down like you haven’t eaten in days. Drinking while eating helps with digestion and tricks your brain into thinking you are full.

I am starting to sound like your mother, so let’s move on.

Step 6: Count your calories

Want to know the real secret to how to lose weight by eating Thai food every day?

Drum roll, please.

You need to count your calories. And I can assure you that after one day of plugging in the numbers, you will quickly put that fork down for the second piece of fried chicken.

Each person will have a different calorie goal if they are trying to lose weight.  It all depends on your personal goal, current weight, age, and a bunch of other things that I won’t bore you with.

However, a very broad answer is to take your goal weight and multiply it by 12. That is the total number of calories to consume to lose .5 to 1 pound of fat a day.

Increase your protein intake as well. Take your goal weight and multiply it by .6 to get how many grams of protein to eat in a day.

Use a calorie-tracking website like Lose It or My Fitness Pal to log your calories. That way you can see how many calories you are shoving in your mouth with each bite of noodles.

And finally, the last step if you want to lose weight eating Thai food every day….

Step 7: If You Refuse to Exercise, the Least You Can Do is Walk Everywhere

Need to go on two flights to visit a coworker? Take the stairs, not the elevator.

Need to go to the supermarket to buy toilet paper and it’s 5 blocks away? Walk, don’t take your motorcycle.

These steps seem obvious but there are plenty of people who are lazy and move as little as possible. But if you want to lose weight Thailand style, then get moving.

Final Thoughts

At the very least, the next time you pick up your phone or tap your fingers on your keyboard to order some Thai takeout in Bangkok or any other Thai city, get off your butt and pick it up from the place instead of getting it delivered.

Baby steps, right? Not sure if this is the perfect Thai method for weight loss, but it’s what worked for me after I found myself fat after Thailand.

Good luck!

Did you try to follow the Thai method weight loss plan above? Send me a message and let me know!

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