Is Kare Kare Healthy? (3 Tips For Weight Loss) 

Kare Kare is an essential part of Filipino cuisine and is definitely defined as one of the best comfort foods that you can possibly find.

It’s creamy and warm with a ton of flavor coming from either chicken thighs or oxtail.

It’s hearty and packs a punch when it comes to flavor and texture.

Although Kare Kare is delicious, is it healthy? 

Due to the addition of many high fat ingredients, Kare Kare is a bad choice when it comes to sticking to a healthy diet. With 21 grams of fat per half cup served, Kare Kare is a very fatty dish that offers a poor balance of macronutrients. 

Although there is a lot of fat in a typical Kare Kare dish, it is still definitely possible to eat without gaining too much weight.

As long as portions are controlled, Kare Kare can still be a viable option when dieting.

Here are three steps you can take in order to stay healthy while eating Kare Kare. 

1. Understand What Goes Inside Kare Kare 

2. Understand How Many Calories Are In Kare Kare 

3. Understand How To Stay Healthy While Eating Kare Kare 

Now that we know the three steps to staying healthy while eating Kare Kare, let’s take a deeper look into what we can do to stick with our goals. 

Tip 1: Understand What Goes Inside Kare Kare 

Kare Kare is definitely a heavy dish as its creamy components come from some really delicious but dense ingredients.

The stew is a mixture of peanut butter, vegetable oil, beef stock, oxtail broth, brown sugar, water, shrimp paste, and other aromatics such as garlic and onions. 

You can see that many of the ingredients you can find in Kare Kare have either lots of carbs or fats which will make the overall dish higher in calories and harder to eat when sticking to a healthy diet. 

Fat is the heaviest macronutrient as there are 9 kcals per 1 gram served.

Compared to carbs and fats (which are 4 kcals per 1 gram served), fats need to be lower as each gram contains twice as many calories as protein and carbs. 

The good part about Kare Kare is that it offers lots of fibers as the addition of bok choy, egg plants, and string beans make up for a large portion of the dish.

You can also usually find Kare Kare to be paired with some rice as its heavy flavors goe very nicely with a neutral ingredient that can soak up its flavor. 

As long as Kare Kare is eaten in moderation, you can definitely find that it is totally possible to stay healthy while eating your favorite curry dish.

Portion control is necessary when you see a dish with that many fatty ingredients so make sure you understand how much fat a dish has before you eat it. 

This leads into our next tip which is understanding the importance of looking inside the nutrition labels of your favorite foods. 

Tip 2: Understand How Many Calories Are In Kare Kare 

Now that we know about the certain ingredients used in Kare Kare, let’s take a look at what makes up most of its calories.

In a single serving of Kare Kare, there are 21 grams of fat, 10 grams of carbs, and 7 grams of protein.

You can see that there is a poor balance of macronutrients in this dish as the fats are extremely high when compared to the other two macros. 

Fat is the highest caloric macronutrient out of the three so you should balance out your macronutrients by carefully limiting the amount in grams.

As mentioned above, fat has 9 kcals per 1 gram while carbs and proteins only have 4 kcals.

This means that our fats should never be higher than our protein or carbs within a dish. 

A good macronutrient ratio to have is somewhere along the lines of 30% Protein, 45% carbs, and 25% fats.

When you look at a food like Kare Kare, you can see that the percentage of fats are way higher than the percentage of both carbs and protein combined.

Therefore, this is a food that has high potential for overeating on fats. 

Each macronutrient has their own role and overeating on any of the three (especially carbs and fats) will result in excess energy or unnecessary weight gain.

Making sure your macros are right where they need to be ill ensure results and keep you fit and healthy. 

The American diet promotes a diet that is rich with fats and proteins so, if you are someone who is unaware of the amount in grams you are getting of each macronutrient, it will be difficult to pinpoint why fat loss is difficult. 

This is why tracking your food and looking into the nutrition labels of your favorite foods is so important.

They allow us to see what we are eating and how much of each nutrient we put into our bodies.

We get to understand whether or not we are staying within a good range of calories and can prevent weight gain by staying in a good range. 

We see that Kare Kare has 21 grams of fat which means that most of its calories come from fat.

By looking at the nutrition label, we can see that this meal needs more carbs and protein to create balance which will allow us to look and feel great. 

If you want a in-depth article on figuring out how many calories you need to eat in a day and which macronutrient ratio fits your body the best, then make sure to check out this article where we go over the 5 steps in order for you to see your abs. 

https://www.aspirefitnesswalnut.com/how-to-actually-get-a-six-pack-after-30

Now that we know the importance of looking into the nutrition labels of your favorite foods, let’s take a look at the importance of keeping active and working out while eating foods like Kare Kare. 

Tip 3: Understand How To Stay Healthy While Eating Kare Kare

Now that we know the importance of looking into the nutrition labels of your favorite foods, let’s talk about the importance of staying active and consistent with a proper workout schedule.

Staying fit means properly utilizing calories we get from our favorite foods such as Kare Kare. 

There’s something called TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) which is how many calories your body burns in a day with your specific lifestyle.

Out of your TDEE there is something called TEPA (Thermic Effect of Physical Activity) which accounts for 30% of the calories you burn in a day. 

This means that, by controlling our activity level, we can control up to 30% of the calories we burn in a day!

When we eat high calorie foods like Kare Kare, you can find that you will quickly exhaust your calories and will leave  you craving more and having a bad relationship with food. 

Instead of walking on eggshells and being extremely careful with the foods you eat, it’s a much better alternative to keep activite and fill your diet with foods from all around the world.

Activity level is the best way to keep your calories burned high which means there’s more room for the foods you actually enjoy. 

The second factor we can directly control is the amount of muscle mass we carry on our bodies.

Muscle burns calories at rest which means, the more muscle we have, the more calories we burn by just living life. 

I like to think of working out as leveling up in a video game.

The stronger you get and the better you are at your workouts, the more calories you get to consume overall.

Similarly, the more levels you complete, the more skills and looks you get in some of our favorite games. 

So, how do we essentially “level up” to get more calories in a day?

We level up by getting stronger with our workouts and putting in many months and years into sticking with a proper regimen. 

It can be intimidating, however, to start lifting weights so our solution is to provide an example workout that can guide you to more challenging regimens over time.

The goal with this workout plan is to learn about the functions of each muscle group and understand the movements that will help them grow. 

Here is the workout plan listed below. 

WOMEN 

Monday (Full Upper):  

• Seated Shoulder Press: 4x20 

• Lateral Raises: 4x15

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12

• Dumbbell Row: 3x10

• Dumbbell Fly: 3x10 

• Knee Push Ups: 4x20

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

Wednesday (Back/Hamstrings/Biceps) 

• Assisted Pull Ups: 3x10

• Lat Pulldowns: 4x12 

• Cable Row: 4x15

• Stiff Leg Deadlift: 4x15

• Hamstring Curl: 4x15

• Bicep Curls: 3x10

• Hammer Curls: 3x10

Friday: (Legs/Butt/Abs): 

• Squats: 5x5 

• Goblet Squats: 4x20

• Glute Bridge: 4x20

• Glute Kickbacks: 4x20 each leg

• Jump Squats: 4x20

• Weighted Crunches: 3x35 

• Leg Lifts: 3x35

MEN 

Mon: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs (Push Day) 

• Bench Press: 3 sets 10 reps

• Dumbbell Press: 4 sets 12 reps

• Shoulder Press: 3 sets 10 reps

• Lateral Raises: 3 sets 15 reps

• Triceps Rope Push Down: 3 sets 15 reps

• Cable Crunches: 4 sets 15 reps 

Wed: Legs & Abs

• Goblet Squats: 4 sets 20 reps

• Weighted Walking Lunges: 2 sets 20 steps

• Stiff Leg DeadLift (Romanian Deadlift): 4 sets 15 reps

• Glute Bridges With Weight: 4 sets 20 reps

• Jumping Squats With Resistance Bands: 5 sets 20 reps

• Weighted Sit Ups: 4 sets 25 reps

• Weighted Toe Touches: 4 sets 25 reps

Fri: Back & Biceps (Pull Day)

• Assisted Pull Ups: 3 sets 10 reps

• Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets 12 reps

• Dumbbell Rows: 4 sets 10 reps (Each Side)

• Seated Cable Rows: 4 sets 15 reps

• Bicep Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

• Hammer Curls: 3 sets 10 reps

Like we mentioned earlier, resistance training and lifting weights can be intimidating to get into.

However, once you get the hang of it, building muscle will be a breeze.

When you pair a tracked and controlled diet with resistance training, results will come and, best of all, they will come quickly. 

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

Hopefully this workout plan will give you the headstart you need in order to start consistently hitting the weights. 

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! (1)

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

There It Is! 

In this article, we went over what goes inside Kare Kare and looked inside its nutrition label to find that most of its calories come from fat.

In order to combat this, we must add foods rich in protein and carbs to create a good balance of the three macronutrients.

This will ensure that we are not overeating and will prevent excess weight gain. 

We also went over the importance of staying active and lifting weights when eating Kare Kare so make sure you take the time to learn the workouts listed above. 

If you want to know more about your favorite foods and steps you can take in order to see results, make sure to check out our other articles where we go over the details on getting to your goal. 

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