This Is How You Can Enjoy Mooncakes Without Worrying About Putting On Weight

The Mid-Autumn Festival used to be a celebration of harvest for Chinese, or for the religious, it’s a day to pray for a spouse or for fertility. But today, for those who celebrate and enjoy our food, the highlight of Mid-Autumn Festival is on one sweet goodie: mooncakes. This is probably why it is better known as the Mooncake Festival these days.

As a festive food, mooncakes are tempting because of the variety of skin flavours, filling flavours, design, and beautiful packaging that some of us keep. It also doesn’t help that with more accessibility and variety during this festive season, we conveniently tell ourselves it’s okay to indulge since “we only eat it once a year”.

If you can’t resist the boxes of mooncakes your family, friends, and business associates have sent to you, read on to find out all you need to know about these sinful pastries, and how you can indulge in them in a guilt-free manner.

Calories in mooncakes

Based on mooncakes of 7cm in diameter. Calorie information from Raffles Medical Group and MyFitnessPal app.

It doesn’t mean you have to abstain from mooncakes

The calorie count may look scary, but it doesn’t mean you have to abstain from mooncakes totally. We spoke to Marie France Bodyline, slimming authority with a worldwide network of slimming centres in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and several other cities, for advice. These are the tips they have offered:

• Mooncakes taste best when shared. Instead of having all of them for yourself, cut the mooncakes up and share it with your friends and family. Restrict yourself to consuming no more than a quarter of a mooncake per day. This way, instead of consuming a baked mooncake that’s worth 716 kcal, you’ll only be consuming 179 kcal of calories.
• If you can’t forgo mooncakes, consider giving up starch foods like rice or noodles in your meals. Go for protein-rich foods such as lean meats and tofu, and plenty of vegetables for your main meals.
• Don’t keep them in sight as a snack option. The temptation to munch on mooncakes when you’re bored or hungry between meals is stronger if you leave them in your sight. Keep them out of sight and instead put healthier snacks such as unsalted nuts at your table instead. You’re more likely to reach out for healthier options should you feel hungry or peckish.
• Sometimes, the urge to snack may be due to dehydration. Drink a glass of water instead of reaching out for a piece of mooncake, and the craving may just dissipate.
• Consume mooncakes with plain water or tea instead of soft drinks. Water and tea has low to zero calories, whereas soft drinks add to the calorie input of the day. What’s more sugary drinks tend to make you crave more calories faster.
• Where possible, avoid the yolk. Each yolk carries 72 calories and a lot of fat content, which is more indulgent than the rest of the mooncake.

Professional help is at hand

But if weight loss is a key concern for you, simply avoiding mooncakes alone isn’t going to be sufficient. You’ll need a series of dietary adjustments, coupled with professional treatments, to see visible results. Work with a professional nutritionist to customise a diet programme especially for you.

If you’re committed to weight loss, consider seeking help from expert consultants from Marie France Bodyline. No two bodies are identical, so Marie France Bodyline believes in identifying problem areas after a thorough consultation, in order to tailor a slimming programme that addresses your problems. Using only advanced slimming equipment, Marie France Bodyline also offers personal supervision by its team of professional consultants, who will make sure that you successfully attain your weight loss goals.

This article is brought to you by Bella Marie France.