Oatmeal over cereal

keenest37

It's very interesting learning what's really not worth eating. I've been doing this for about a month now. Yesterday after lunch for some reason I wanted a bowl of cereal. A cup and a half of cereal and 1/2 a cup of milk. It fit in a tiny little bowl. It was almost 400 calories!! And not worth it. I ended up not having many calories left for dinner & went over for the first time. I just had a bowl of oatmeal with strawberries, a pat of butter and a littlr brown sugar. I feel very satisfied. Was under 300 calories and I have plenty of them left for dinner. I made brownies last night from a lo cal cookbook. There were 25 servings at 110 calories each - for one tiny liitle piece! I had one piece at breakfast time and I'm done. Just not worth the calories for what you're getting!

RelCanonical

Same here. I don't limit the foods I eat but I generally gravitate towards certain foods because they help keep me full.

quiksylver296

I satisfy my sweet tooth with diet soda.

psuLemon

I like to incorporate both in my diet. But i found if i preplan i can focus on a leaner dinner or a low cal volume dinner.

Also, how much is a pat of peanut butter? I ask because its extremely caloric and easily can make your oatmeal over 300 calories.

NovusDies

keenest37 wrote: »

It's very interesting learning what's really not worth eating. I've been doing this for about a month now. Yesterday after lunch for some reason I wanted a bowl of cereal. A cup and a half of cereal and 1/2 a cup of milk. It fit in a tiny little bowl. It was almost 400 calories!! And not worth it. I ended up not having many calories left for dinner & went over for the first time. I just had a bowl of oatmeal with strawberries, a pat of butter and a littlr brown sugar. I feel very satisfied. Was under 300 calories and I have plenty of them left for dinner. I made brownies last night from a lo cal cookbook. There were 25 servings at 110 calories each - for one tiny liitle piece! I had one piece at breakfast time and I'm done. Just not worth the calories for what you're getting!

I think this is one of the things that helps turn the corner. There seems to be a bit of brain rewiring that some people go through. I even like things I didn't before because they provide a good amount of substance for relatively low calorie.

Oh and you might want to consider weighing that butter on a food scale. Butter is high calorie and a pat is usually an eyeballed portion which can be pretty iffy on logging accuracy.

keenest37

I said a pat but was actually a teaspoon's worth. 😊

aokoye

If only oatmeal was satiating for me. I love it and I have at least two different kinds at home, but it is far from satiating.

nocgirl72

I find cereal like Kashi go Lean and Oatmeal trigger massive cravings. I am no longer going to eat them while trying to lose. The serving of oatmeal is only 1/2 c hardly satisfying. I am better off loading up on protein and eating more food.

I agree on diet soda I do drink -2 a day big deal along with a ton of water. I am drinking a diet Sunkist right now with my lunch. I also drink sparkling water.

hesn92

Yeah. Cereal is usually pretty disappointing. I actually love oatmeal though and find it to be satisfying. I only like old fashioned though, cooked in milk if having it sweet and cooked in water if I'm having it savory. I hate those little packets of oatmeal.

estherdragonbat

I like to snack on dry cereal, but I agree that a bowlful for breakfast is a bit much

Cahgetsfit

oatmeal satisfies me. Cereal is a trigger - I just can't with the 40g they say you should eat - that's like 2 bites. So cereal for me is half a box in one sitting. SAme as granola. So I opt for oatmeal.

psychod787

Try adding pbfit instead of regular peanut butter......

plbassriel4

hungry girl has a recipe for pumped-up growing oatmeal 224 cals. uses 1 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, 1/8 tsp. of cinnamon, dash of salt, 2 tbsp vanilla protein powder. combine first 5 ingredients, stir in 1 cup of water, boil then to simmer 12-15 min. stir protein powder in 3 tbsp of water, add to oatmeal let cool...5-10 min. I haven't tried it yet but sounds like a winner.

aokoye

psychod787 wrote: »

Try adding pbfit instead of regular peanut butter......

Given that I don't like peanuts or PB I haven't and won't try that, but I have added various nuts and I've tried adding almond butter. I was still ravenous after the fact. I mean I do prefer oatmeal with hazelnuts in it, but I can't count on it keeping me satiated. It sucks because I love oatmeal.

vnylin

I love overnight oats. 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk, 1 spoon of honey or maple syrup, 1 spoon of chia seeds. The rest is up to up. Toasted coconut, pb fit, some chopped nuts, fresh fruit, your pick. You can mix up the flavors of almond milk as well.

I make it in the evening and eat for breakfast. Piece of cake.

kimny72

Oatmeal is one of those weird foods - some people find it really filling and satisfying and others feel like they have to eat a ton and are still hungry soon after!

I find it quite filling, especially with a little PB in it. Cold cereal I eat as a treat rather than breakfast, so I'm not looking for it to fill me up (and it doesn't).

lorrpb

psuLemon wrote: »

I like to incorporate both in my diet. But i found if i preplan i can focus on a leaner dinner or a low cal volume dinner.

Also, how much is a pat of peanut butter? I ask because its extremely caloric and easily can make your oatmeal over 300 calories.

They said butter, not peanut butter.

whmscll

I love my Heritage Flakes cereal, mixed with Greek yogurt. A cup of this crunchy, fiber-rich cereal is 160 calories. Mixed with the yogurt it is a super-satisfying protein and fiber rich breakfast of 270 calories. Not sure what cereal you’re eating that is almost 400.

MelanieCN77

I've been buying the unsugared puffed cereal (50-60 cals a cup) from whole foods and mixing that with berries and yoghurt. It makes a weirdly satisfying loose krispy treat sort of affair. If plain yoghurt, sprinkle on some sugar free pudding powder.

I did see a similar oatmeal recipe to the hungry girl one mentioned above, which has you whip up eggwhites and cook those in, for volume. Hoping my electric whisk is quiet enough not to wake my husband, who sleeps way later than me.

psuLemon

lorrpb wrote: »

psuLemon wrote: »

I like to incorporate both in my diet. But i found if i preplan i can focus on a leaner dinner or a low cal volume dinner.

Also, how much is a pat of peanut butter? I ask because its extremely caloric and easily can make your oatmeal over 300 calories.

They said butter, not peanut butter.

They certainly did. Whoops.

kshama2001

kimny72 wrote: »

Oatmeal is one of those weird foods - some people find it really filling and satisfying and others feel like they have to eat a ton and are still hungry soon after!

I find it quite filling, especially with a little PB in it. Cold cereal I eat as a treat rather than breakfast, so I'm not looking for it to fill me up (and it doesn't).

Ya, I tried all sorts of add ins to make it filling but in the end oatmeal just doesn't work for me as a breakfast. Sometimes I will have rolled oats "marinated" in yogurt with fruit for a bed time snack.

My winter breakfast this year has been rice and beans with cottage cheese or yogurt and a fried egg. I make a big batch of rice and beans on the weekend, keep 5 servings in the frig and freeze the rest.

Other years it's been scrambled eggs and veggies with a piece of sprouted grain bread from brands like Ezekial (bread from flour makes me sleepy.)

sardelsa

Hey you gotta find what works for you. I don't like oatmeal at all, and even if it fills me up I wouldn't eat it. I love cereal but I like the sugary kid's cereals so it's more of a treat/dessert vs. a filling breakfast.

lalalacroix

Lately I've been eating mainly overnight oats or cereal. I'm eating special k with red berries because I've been having trouble getting enough iron.

I add a lot of fruit to either oats or cereal which adds a lot of bulk with only a few calories. Both keep me full quite a while.

cwolfman13

I don't remember the last time I had cereal...not really a cereal guy. I eat oats pretty much every other day.

Ducks47

I feel you on the brownie. Today i had a very small brownie and coffee for “lunch” and I was quite hungry for dinner. I still do stuff like that sometimes. I guess I’m a masochist haha

KeithWhiteJr

keenest37 wrote: »

It's very interesting learning what's really not worth eating. I've been doing this for about a month now. Yesterday after lunch for some reason I wanted a bowl of cereal. A cup and a half of cereal and 1/2 a cup of milk. It fit in a tiny little bowl. It was almost 400 calories!! And not worth it. I ended up not having many calories left for dinner & went over for the first time. I just had a bowl of oatmeal with strawberries, a pat of butter and a littlr brown sugar. I feel very satisfied. Was under 300 calories and I have plenty of them left for dinner. I made brownies last night from a lo cal cookbook. There were 25 servings at 110 calories each - for one tiny liitle piece! I had one piece at breakfast time and I'm done. Just not worth the calories for what you're getting!

I have a bowl of cereal almost every morning. I had pretty decent sized bowl of Banana Nut Cheerios with unsweetened almond milk this morning. It was right around 300 calories. I think it's more about which cereal you choose, and what milk you use.

amusedmonkey

This "worth it/not worth it" revelation is a game changer. Without having to forcibly remove foods from your diet, you find yourself auto-regulating the kinds of foods you eat because some experiences are less pleasant than others. A far cry from what people think, that if everything is allowed you'd be eating nothing but Oreos and soda.

I didn't grow up on cold cereal so I don't have that breakfast habit. I bought it maybe a handful of times in my lifetime and it didn't stick, even when I wasn't dieting. I didn't grow up on oatmeal, either, but I loved it when I tried it and find it very filling, so it became a staple that I crave when I go too long without.

Brownies, not a big fan. I mean they're okay, I would eat them if I wasn't managing my calories, but it's been years since I had one because even though I don't explicitly cut them out, I just never seem to find them worth it and something tastier always wins out the calorie competition. I do eat some things that are very calorie dense occasionally when the pleasure of having them outweighs the calorie sacrifice, but not brownies.

lemurcat2

amusedmonkey wrote: »

This "worth it/not worth it" revelation is a game changer. Without having to forcibly remove foods from your diet, you find yourself auto-regulating the kinds of foods you eat because some experiences are less pleasant than others. A far cry from what people think, that if everything is allowed you'd be eating nothing but Oreos and soda.

Exactly this.

I didn't grow up on cold cereal so I don't have that breakfast habit. I bought it maybe a handful of times in my lifetime and it didn't stick, even when I wasn't dieting. I didn't grow up on oatmeal, either, but I loved it when I tried it and find it very filling, so it became a staple that I crave when I go too long without.

I grew up in an area where cold cereal for breakfast was quite common, even for kids, but never understood why anyone liked it. I basically would eat it when I had to (spending the night with a friend or the like), but otherwise never ate it. I liked oats okay (my parents did the plain Quaker rolled oats) and definitely preferred those to cold cereal, but didn't have those a lot either.

As an adult I discovered steel cut oats, which I like even better and find quite filling (at the typical serving size), especially with some fruit and milk or veg and an egg, but I don't have them that option just because there are other options I'm more often in the mood for. I would never voluntarily eat cold cereal, ick, just not my taste at all.