When it comes to weight loss, the first thing that always come to our mind is to start avoiding rice in our daily diet. We always keep lingering over the same question – Is rice fattening? Well the answer to that question depends upon the kind of rice you opt for in your daily diet.

There are different types of rice which have different nutritional functionalities, but the rice that is essentially the most helpful in weight loss and has numerous health benefits is brown rice.But to actually understand why we say that we need to understand some basics like-

  • Nutritional difference of the various types of rice available
  • More facts about rice
  • Rice and its fattening reality.

Nutritional Value and Facts

A. White long grained rice
  • Calories (one cup of cooked rice, 158 gm)= 206 kcal.
  • Type of cooking=When boiled or steamed, white rice contains less than 0.5g fat.
  • Proteins content=4.3g
    Most important: but unlike proteins from animal products or meat, the protein of rice lacks a wholesome amount of amino acids and hence for full nutritional benefit should be eaten in combination with an animal or a plant derived protein.
  • Carbohydrates=53 g, which is actually 18% of our recommended* daily carbohydrate intake.
  • The dietary fibre =is < 1g per serving.Full of vitamins and minerals such as folate, thiamine, niacin, iron and selenium. These play a highly important role in maintaining a healthy body.

Did You know?

  1. White rice is a sodium-free food hence consuming white rice will be good if you want to work on regulating your blood pressure.

  1. White rice has a high glycemic index .i.e. it is easily broken down into simple sugars in the body and raises the blood sugar level of the body, so if you are diabetic then try to avoid taking too much white rice in your diet.


B. Brown long grained rice    

  • Calories (one cup of cooked rice, 158 gm) = 216 kcal
  • Type of cooking = When boiled or steamed, brown rice contains 1.75g fat.
  • Protein content = 5.03g
  • Again this protein cannot fulfil our body’s total protein requirement and hence should be had in combination with plant or animal derived protein.
  • The carbohydrate content= 45g (6% of our daily requirement*).
  • Dietary fibre = 3.51g which helps in increasing metabolic processes and regulating bowel movements, this is the main reason why brown rice is the preferred choice for pro-weight loss diets.
  • It contains mostly all the vitamins B, choline, folate, vitamin A, D, E, K, magnesium, chloride, calcium, iron, phosphorous, selenium., etc. In short whatever nutrients white rice contains, brown contains the same and more.

Did you know?

  1. Thus brown rice apart from helping in weight loss also provides a plenitude of other health benefits like regulating blood pressure,avoiding the risk of colon and breast cancer, helps in preventing gall stones, strengthening of bones, reduces risk of heart diseases.

  1. It also helps people avoid or help with type 2 diabetes as brown rice has a really low glycemic index and does not add to the rise of blood sugar levels in the body.


C. Glutinous/Sticky rice

  • Calories(one cup of cooked rice, 158 gm)=169 kcal
  • One cup cooked sticky rice contains 37g of carbohydrates (5% of our daily requirement*).
  • It contains 3.5g of protein same as brown rice.
  • The amount of dietary fibre in sticky rice is 1g.
  • It also contains vitamins and minerals like zinc which builds immunity of the body and helps in catalysing various enzymatic reactions of the body and iron which increases the oxygen carrying capacity on the blood.
  • Its fat content is 0.2g.

    Note: all percentage requirements are based on a diet of 2000 calories.

Did you know?

  1. It also contains selenium which helps in providing anti-oxidative action to the body and Manganese which helps in lowering cholesterol and carrying out different metabolic reactions in the body. It is usually eaten as an East Asian preparation.
  2. This rice is extremely light on the stomach and gets digested very easily

Right about now, you might be thinking to yourself. Is white rice fattening or is brown rice fattening? Which is healthier, Rice or Chapati? Could boiled rice be fattening? Here is the answer to all your questions:

  • Rice is rich in carbohydrates and is good for instant energy. It has advantages and disadvantages along, but it can be made healthy with a few variations.

  • Rice is not fattening if you eat it in a small portion. In fact it is a good source of vitamins and minerals.

  • The not so healthy side of white rice in particular, is its high glycemic index that increases the blood sugar level in the body therefore not recommended for people with sugar problems.

  • Besides rice when eaten as fried rice or with other fattening food is fattening and eating excess of it will add a few pounds.

  • So, it is not only the calories you should really worry about while consuming rice. There are numerous factors that matters such as glycemic index, its fiber content, type of cooking and of course its portions.


Few ideas to make rice healthier:

  • Wash the rice 2-3 times before cooking it.
  • Boil the rice with excess water and drain the water after the rice is cooked to keep the starch levels  low.
  • Eat steamed rice or boiled rice instead of fried rice.
  • Add a fibrous food along with it for faster digestion. Read more about high fibre foods.

Healthiest way to eat Rice:

  • The most popular nutritious food called Khichdi, has rice as one of its main ingredient.

  • Rice along with mixed vegetable curd.

  • Fish and Rice Soup, a complete meal in itself which is healthy for the body and is nutritious.


So don’t blacklist rice yet. Simply ensure that you eat smaller portions of rice which is generally true for all foods that we eat.