These delicious ginger teriyaki burgers take less than 30 minutes to prepare – 200 calories per burger including teriyaki sauce, with 24g protein.Fast and flavorful.
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This recipe was designed as a simple and tasty dinner taking under 30 minutes from start to finish! This dish pairs great with jasmine rice, or a combo of rice and chopped broccoli.
Protein Choices for the Ginger Teriyaki Burgers
For the meat, 93/7 lean beef or turkey both work great – go with whatever you have available. They’re cooked on the stovetop versus baking or grilling to save time. The key to maximize burger flavor and texture is to not squish the meat too much when forming the burgers, and cook them at the start and finish on high heat to lock in moisture and bring out some caramelized flavors to the surface. The pan should look something like this when the burgers are complete.
Tofu is an excellent alternative. To prepare, remove water from regular (or frozen and then thawed) extra firm tofu and cut into cubes. Sprinkle the outside with garlic powder, ginger powder, and a bit of black pepper. Brown the sides of the cubes in a non-stick pan with a small amount of oil. Then, pour the teriyaki sauce into the pan and heat until the tofu has absorbed some of the sauce.
Teriyaki Sauce
The sauce recipe is very flexible depending on sweet/tangy preference. Rice vinegar provides the tang and pancake syrup provides the sweetness. This recipe lean more to the tangy side.
The first step in preparation is the most critical – heat the garlic, ginger, and scallion in sesame oil until it sizzles BEFORE adding any of the other liquid ingredients. This helps extract flavorful oil-soluble compounds.
If you need to avoid soy, the low-sodium soy sauce can be substituted with coconut aminos.
The purpose of the arrowroot powder/flour is to add thickness to the sauce. I selected this thickener because it does not impart opacity. Corn starch will also do the trick, but your sauce will be a bit cloudy.
No-sugar pancake syrup is used provide sweetness without adding calories. Personally, I don’t care for the taste of these products stand-alone as a pancake syrup, but found them handy in cooking and baking. The one I selected uses sucralose; there are multiple brands on the market that use other sweeteners, such as monkfruit. It’s likely you’ll need to adjust the quantity considering all of the products have different sweetening power. In the quantity shown in the recipe, the salty soy and tangy rice vinegar negate the maple flavor to ensure that your teriyaki doesn’t taste like pancakes. đ Brown sugar or honey also work in this recipe if you prefer not to use artificial sweeteners (adds calories from carbohydrates).
If you have extra teriyaki or want to make a bigger batch, store in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to a few weeks.
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Low-fat vs. low-carb diets….is one better than the other? You’ve likely come across stories about going low-carb or keto for more effective weight loss. These stories create confusion more than they help, so let’s clear the air by reviewing a few concepts.
1. Eating carbohydrates does not make you inherently gain fat.
Carbohydrates raise blood glucose (and therefore insulin) which suppresses burning fat for energy, but this is not the same thing as fat gain.Burning fat (the breakdown of fat for energy) is NOT the same thing as body fat loss. The fuel that your body burns day to day for energy is a matter of what fuel you are giving it:
If you eat a higher fat diet, you burn more fat AND store excess fat if you are in calorie surplus
If you eat a diet higher in carbohydrates, you burn more carbohydrates AND store more carbohydrates as glycogen, and then surplus converted and stored as fat
2. “Calories in < calories out” is an oversimplification of how weight loss works. Equally incorrect is “calories don’t matter, hormones control weight loss”.
Both matter to varying degrees. Food quantity and composition influences our hunger and satiety hormones (among others), and vice versa. These hormones are released from different locations in our bodies and send signals to our brains which in turn drive feeding cues, energy expenditure, and release of other hormones.
While a net calorie deficit is required, calorie intake and expenditure influence your particular hormone levels to a different degree than someone else, and likewise your hormone levels have a varying degree of influence over your calorie intake and expenditure. This recognizes that it can be more challenging for some than others to create a calorie deficit.
Type of calories have implications on your energy balance, body weight, and body composition. The way intake calories are partitioned between protein, carbohydrates, and fats AND specific foods selected within those categories have different capabilities to impact hunger and fullness. They also have different energy costs to digest, absorb, and metabolize. For example, appropriate protein intake supports lean mass retention and a small degree of additional spontaneous energy expenditure (energy cost of protein digestion).
3. Effective weight loss can be achieved with a higher carb, lower fat diet or a lower carb, higher fat diet.
Some people find that they are less hungry and itâs easier to stick to a lower carb diet, while others feel more satisfied eating more carbohydrates. If you are training hard and trying to lose fat at the same time, you may want to consider keeping your carbs relatively high at the expense of dietary fats to to fuel your performance.
The Carbohydrate Insulin Model posits that diets heavier in high glycemic load carbohydrates shift body homeostatic mechanisms towards fat gain and therefore a lower carbohydrate diet is more effective for weight loss. Specifically, a higher carbohydrate diet increases insulin levels to promote energy storage in fat cells. Increased adiposity creates hormone dysregulation leading to increased hunger and reduction in metabolic rate.[1] This model is not supported by well-conducted studies. In reality, effective weight loss can be achieved with a higher carbohydrate, lower fat diet OR lower carbohydrate, higher fat diet. A meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials (calories and protein held constant) indicates that differences in weight loss between a low-carb and low-fat diets are not statistically significant [2] or in one example may lean slightly in favor of low-fat diets as it specifically relates to fat loss.[3] In a population with abdominal obesity and metabolic syndrome risk, a one-year study indicated that a low-fat isocaloric diet is equally as effective as a very low-carb diet for weight loss.[4] Further, a 12-week crossover study[5] with overweight, postmenopausal women also concluded the same, in addition to no significant lipid, insulin, or glucose differences between the two diets.
4. Tracking food intake and calories is not a requirement for weight loss, but it can be a helpful tool for some.
For weight loss you must consume less calories than you expend, but you do not need to quantify it by measuring food and logging calories. Tracking is helpful for some, but a possible detriment to others. Consider your dieting history and potential for disordered eating behavior. Consistent and frequent self-monitoring has some association with weight loss and improved weight maintenance after weight loss.[6] Tracking food intake may improve awareness about what you’re eating.
As you consider the right diet plan, decision factors should include practical ability to adhere and satisfaction, activity level, and health considerations.
Elimination of specific foods or food groups can be challenging to stick with, and at worse could lead to all out binges on foods self-deemed as âbadâ. Labeling foods as âallowedâ and ânot allowedâ creates unnecessary rigidity and more likely a negative outcome in long-term weight management. While it may be easier to think of food in good/bad terms, it’s better to instead regard all foods on a spectrum from being âless aligned with my goals and healthâ to âmore aligned with my goals and healthâ. Seek professional advice if you have concerns and specific circumstances that need attention.
[1 Ludwig, D.S., Ebbeling, C.B., âThe Carbohydrate-Insulin Model of Obesity: Beyond Calories In, Calories Out., JAMA Intern Med. (2018), 178(8), 1098.
[2] Hall, K.D., Guo, J., Obesity Energetics: Body Weight Regulation and the Effects of Diet Compositionâ Gastroenterology (2017), 152(7), 1718.
[3] Schick, A.; Boring, J., et al., âEffects of Ad Libitum Low Carbohydrate Versus Low Fat Diets on Body Weight and Fat Massâ. Current Developments in Nutrition(2020), 4(2),658.
[4] Brinkworth, G.D.; Noakes, M., et al., âLong-term Effects of a Very-low-Carbohydrate Weight Loss Diet Compared with an isocaloric low-fat diet after 12 monthsâ. Am J Clin Nutr. (2009), 90, 23.
[5] Segal-Isaacson, C.J.; Johnson, S., âA Randomized Trial Comparing Low-Fat and Low-Carbohydrate Diets Matched for Energy and Proteinâ, Obesity Research, (2004), 12 130S.
[6] Peterson, N.D.; Middleton, K.R.; et al., “Dietary selfâmonitoring and longâterm success with weight management”, Obesity, (2014), 22, 1962.
