Is Galbi (Kalbi) Healthy? (3 Tips For Weight Loss) 

There is no debate that Galbi (or Kalbi, whichever one you prefer) is one of, if not the best, meat served at Korean BBQs or Tofu Houses.

I mean, Galbi in English is essentially “Korean BBQ” so you definitely have to get these ribs whenever you eat at a Korean restaurant right?

I love eating Galbi, but when I was trying to lose weight, I always wondered if Galbi is healthy food to eat.

So I asked myself, Is Galbi (Kalbi) healthy?

Galbi (Kalbi) is a dish that is made by marinating short ribs into a brown sugar and soy sauce solution. This means that many calories will be coming from carbs (sugar) and fats as the brown sugar and short ribs are very high in these two macronutrients. By using a different kind of beef and substituting the brown sugar for honey, a better balance of macronutrients can be achieved.

In this article we will answer your questions on whether or not Galbi is healthy as well as some tips on how you can incorporate Galbi into your diet! Here are the topics we will be discussing today: 

1. How Much Galbi You Should Eat

2. Side Dishes are Your Best Friend

3. Understanding The Calories In Galbi 

Now that we know the three steps to eating Galbi while staying in shape, let’s get into the details.

Tip 1: How Much Galbi You Should Eat

So as we previously mentioned, Galbi is not really healthy food and for many reasons.

Mainly because Galbi is made of beef ribs which is one of the fattiest parts of a cow and contains much higher contents of fat and lower amounts of protein per cut.

This is what makes the meat so tender and chewy compared to leaner cuts of steak that tend to be much more stiff and firm. 

Not only is Galbi made of fattier cuts of beef, but this dish is usually marinated overnight in a special home made sweet and tangy sauce.

Since the meat is so fatty, it easily soaks up a bunch of sauce, especially if it is marinated overnight, which is why Galbi is so rich in flavor!

This sauce usually contains both soy sauce and brown sugar or honey to give it that sweet flavor.

That’s not all though! A lot of recipes or ways to prepare Galbi call for some sort of fruit to add in such as pears, kiwis, pineapples, and others so we can see that Galbi is actually filled with sugar.

Let’s take a look at the calories and see why Galbi is not an ideal health food.

For every 26 grams of fat, there are 33 grams of carbs and 22 grams of protein.

There is a total of around 450 calories for every 6 ounces of Galbi. That’s a lot of calories just for one serving of meat!

Ideally, healthy foods that we eat should be less than the carbohydrates and protein by a third.

We can see that Galbi is extremely high in fat and actually has more fat than protein!

This is where all the extra calories are coming from because for every gram of fat there are 9 calories whereas carbohydrates and proteins only have 4 calories per gram. 

The carbohydrates of this dish mainly comes from the heavy sauce and the ingredients we saw in it earlier that contains a bunch of sugar which is essentially carbohydrates. 

This doesn’t mean you can not eat Galbi though!

If you are having a craving, it is important to satisfy this craving to build a healthier relationship with food.

If you keep on suppressing your cravings, this can lead to unhealthy habits, so eat the Galbi but in moderation.

I recommend eating half a serving or at most one serving of Galbi, and pair the rest of your meal with several healthy veggies and some lean source of protein like fish!

Stay away from the rice or eat less to keep your carbohydrate and calorie intake low. 

Tip 2: Side Dishes Are Your Best Friend

It is very likely that whenever you encounter Galbi it is either at a typical Korean BBQ restaurant or maybe your neighborhood Tofu House.

This means that these Korean restaurants will usually have their famous side dishes that are served out in the very beginning of your meal!

These low calorie side dishes are great healthy options to pair with your Galbi and will keep you from overeating on other high carbohydrate or high fat foods on the table. 

Some of my favorite side dishes to eat with my Galbi meat is kimchi or the spicy cucumber salad.

These are two super flavorful and low calorie dishes that are both perfect pairs for your meat!

Other low calorie side dishes you can eat include soybean sprouts, spinach, cabbages, broccoli, or stir fried radish. Stock up on these low calorie vegetables to keep you full when eating out at a Korean BBQ or Tofu House. 

As previously mentioned, Galbi isn’t necessarily the best thing to eat in abundance when you are trying to lose weight because of its abundance in calories.

So why is it so important to eat less calories when you are trying to lose fat?

We will go into further detail in the next section to tell you the most crucial information about weight loss.

Tip 3: Understanding The Calories In Galbi 

You are probably wondering why in this article we talk about why Galbi is not healthy but we still say that you can incorporate it into your weight loss journey.

The truth is, weight loss does not need to be a complicated process that sorts foods into “good” or “bad” categories because the answer is very simple.

To lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit, but what does that mean exactly?

Essentially, you need to be burning more calories than you are consuming to shed fat.

This is why understanding the caloric values of food is such an important thing to look for when you want to have the most successful results.

You may be wondering, well how am I supposed to know how many calories I burn everyday and how much less am I supposed to be eating?

Online there are several TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calculators that can help you figure out your daily calorie expenditure based on your gender, weight, and height. (1) 

From this information you can then figure out how many calories you should be eating to be in a deficit.

(For example: My TDEE is 1800 calories, so to put myself in a deficit I will eat 1500 calories)

Keep in mind that every individual is different, so these numbers may not be exact, but that is when you figure out what works best for you.

If you are not making any progress and you have not lost any weight in days, you might want to drop your calories a bit more.

Quite often we tend to overestimate our activity level and underestimate our food intake. 

However, I don’t recommend cutting down on your calories too much too fast because these can lead to lack of energy throughout the day and insane hungry cravings.

Our goal is to lose weight and make sure it stays lost.

Without sustainability, there is no point in going on a diet in the first place!

Now you know more about Galbi and the importance of eating it in moderation, you can enjoy this delicious meat without worrying about not making progress! 

Conclusion 

Remember though, although nutrition is a huge factor that influences weight loss, it is important to pair this journey with exercise as well, especially strength training.

Several years of research on the benefits of weight training have shown that individuals that do some sort of consistent resistance training at least 3-5 times a week have shown not only a great amount of weight loss but are also able to keep the weight off! 

The secret to this phenomena is that strength training leads to a build-up of muscle.

Not only does your body recomposition into a more fitting and athletic-looking aesthetic, but having more muscle also increases your resting metabolic rate which essentially means you burn more calories at rest! 

We understand that not everyone has access to a gym membership or feel comfortable starting off in such an intimidating environment.

Although I would strongly recommend that everyone should get a gym membership, don’t worry we got your back!

Now that we know the importance of muscle we need to make sure we stay on track with our workouts.

Consistency and longevity are the two key factors when building muscle so there will be some commitment involved.

You can either go to the gym or build one for yourself.

It really just comes down to 3 pieces of equipment that you need to do most workouts.

These three are the workout bench, dumbbells, and gym flooring. Check out our recommended gear page to see our best picks for these pieces of equipment here. 

https://www.aspirefitnesswalnut.com/home-workout-equipment

If a home gym is not for you then getting a membership somewhere works too.

As long as you are starting your muscle building journey, we’re happy! 

Stick with it for the long run and you’ll see how amazing the results can be. 

RECENT POSTS

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING?

RECENT POSTS