12 Nutrition Tips To Help You Stay Lean This Ramadan
As the holy month brings a time of reflection, fasting, and community, it also brings unique challenges and opportunities for maintaining our physique and healthy lifestyle! We understand the balance between fasting, feasting, and fitness can be tricky, but worry not!
We've compiled 12 simple, yet effective nutrition tips to help you stay lean and healthy during Ramadan.
So, let's dive in and discover simple tips to navigate the fasting period with ease, strength, and wellness!
Skip the juice, drink water! We know how delicious Jallab, Qamar Al Dine and Lemonade are, and we do not want you to completely cut them out. If you manage to fit them in to your daily macros and carbs for the day, then you are good! But do keep in mind they are extremely calorie and carb dense, meaning 1 cup of Jallab juice can contain up to 27g of sugar.
Replace Soda with Diet Soda. We advise to skip soda all together, other than it’s high sugar count that serves no nutrition value, most sodas are on the boycott list. 🍉
Replace Sugar Syrup with Sugar Free Syrup. We all love the sugar syrup on the delicious Ramadan desserts, however, by replacing 1 tbsp of sugar syrup with sugar free syrup, you are saving 15g of carbs, or more!
Go for 1 cup of lentil soup instead of 2. We LOVE lentil soup, in fact, lentil soup is our favorite part of the iftar meal. If lentil soup is all you’re having, then load up! But if you still have a bunch of other meals to eat, we suggest having 1 cup of lentil soup which will easily help you save 30-40g of carbs.
Limit the soup croutons and fried bread on salads. By limiting the croutons and fried bread in your soups and salad, you are saving up to 20g of carbs and 8g of fat! Most of the croutons and fried bread are fried with oil, or dipped in butter which increase the fat content of a plan carb source.
Minimize pastry consumption. Sambousik, Kebbe, Pizza, Fatayer, all delicious, but control the servings! You can save up to 200 calories per single pastry!
Replace vegetable/seed oil/butter/margarine/ghee with spray oil or olive oil. Olive oil is our go to option usually, as it has a higher nutritional value than the other options, and we recommend up to 2 tbsp for a whole dish. If you really want to save the fats, you can substitute the olive oil with spray oil, which can help you save up to 15g of fat per tablespoon.
Bake your pastries, don’t fry! Again, sambousik, kebbe, pizza, fatayer, all delicious, but most pastries are fried in oil. By baking your pastries, you can save up to 15g of fat per pastry.
Avoid using heavy cream in your meals. Okay, this one is huge! Heavy cream is heavily utilized in middle eastern dishes and recipes, but did you know that you can save up to 32g of fat in half a cup! Yes, 32 of FAT, that is equivalent to 288 calories from just half a cup of heavy cream!
Go easy on the salad dressing. This tip is a pretty generic tip when it comes to nutrition and diet altogether. Salad dressings can really spike up the fat or carb value in your meal. Keep in mind that one tablespoon of olive oil is equivalent to 15g of fat.
Track the “drizzles” of olive oil. A drizzle here, a drizzle there, some on the hummus, some on the baba ghanouj, and a little bit extra on the salad. The drizzles can really add up and increase your fat intake, so keep track of your drizzles!
Go easy on the fried nuts. In middle eastern cooking, nuts like almonds, pine nuts and cashews are usually fried in oil, butter or margarine. Nuts are already high in fat, and by frying them you are increasing the fat intake, possibly doubling! By adding raw nuts or toasted nuts, you can save up to 12g of fat per tablespoon.
And there you have it, 12 simple tips to help you stay lean this Ramadan!
We hope you're feeling inspired and equipped to embrace the fasting period with health and vitality. Remember, maintaining the physique you have worked hard for during Ramadan is not just about what you eat, but also how you approach your overall lifestyle during this holy month.
We encourage you to experiment with what works best for you and to listen to your body's needs throughout this spiritual month. If you’d like to learn more, check out our free in depth Ramadan Guide!
Thank you for reading this far! May this month bring you peace, health, and renewed energy.
Ramadan Kareem!
Nadine
