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It's dinnertime, and you give yourself a high five for making something healthy. Stir-fry [3] is on the menu, and you're about to dig into chicken, veg, and brown rice — what could be wrong? It's not the food on the plate that's the issue, it's the amount [4].
These two dinners look pretty similar, but the one on the left has almost double the calories [6]! Here's the breakdown of the meal on the left:
- 2 teaspoons oil for cooking
- 1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
- 280 grams chicken (1 medium breast)
- 195 grams brown rice
- Half the amount of veg (1/4 red pepper, 1/2 small carrot, 1 medium mushroom, 2 pieces broccolini)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons oyster sauce, 2 teaspoons lime juice
If you just scoop mounds of food onto your plate, you could be unknowingly consuming hundreds of extra calories. If you eat like the plate on the left at every meal, that can add up to thousands of extra calories each week! No wonder the scale numbers aren't moving. The next time you sit down to eat, keep these healthy swaps in mind that cut almost 300 calories from the plate on the right:
- No oil for cooking (you can use water [7] or the sauce instead)
- 1 teaspoon sriracha instead of sweet chilli (its stronger flavour means you need less)
- 150 grams chicken
- 97 grams brown rice
- Double the veg (1/2 red pepper, 1 medium carrot, 2 medium mushrooms, 1/2 bunch broccolini)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons oyster sauce, 2 teaspoons lime juice
Using less oil, less sauce, less rice and chicken, and more veg [8] helped keep the calories in check. If you're trying to lose weight [9] or concerned about recent weight gain, these comparison photos [10] will remind you that portion size is so important [11] — small tweaks can make a huge difference!