Special K Challenge...

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  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
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    What are your thought? I thought of doing this to help me get in the routine of small meals five times a day...

    If you must, do it with a low sugar wholegrain cereal and cereal bars made with whole oats, nuts and seeds (do you have Quaker or Jordans?) not refined rubbish like Special K. Make sure you still get your seven to nine servings of fruits and veggies a day.
  • vjohn04
    vjohn04 Posts: 2,276 Member
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    I actually like Special K cereal. However, I just eat it as part of my daily calorie goal.... not 5 meals a day. Even two meals per day is overkill.
  • TrailRunner61
    TrailRunner61 Posts: 2,505 Member
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    All it does is control the amount of food you're eating in one serving. Measure out your food with a scale and have 5 smalls meals of food you'd rather eat. Yes, it's more work, but you're worth the effort. Add protein to it and you'll feel full longer too.
  • jennfranklin
    jennfranklin Posts: 434 Member
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    It gets old really quick.. instead op for small meals like greek yogurt and healthy nuts, some veggies and hummus, if you don't like veggies, you can use some crackers, laughing cow cheese and a piece of fruit! Just make sure you have some protein in every meal, no matter the size!
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,269 Member
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    What are your thought? I thought of doing this to help me get in the routine of small meals five times a day...
    Why? Eating 5 small meals has no advantage over 1 big meal or 3 normal sized meals.

    I really think this depends on the person. There are conflicting articles arguing both sides. For me, eating 3 larger meals didn't work out at all because I would get hungry and want to snack anyways before lunch and dinner. I started eating smaller meals throughout the day which not only kept me full but also gave me a lot more energy.

    That sort of is the point...

    When it comes to straight up weight loss or metabolic rate, meal timing and frequency have no impact. There is no reason that one has to eat X number of meals or has to eat breakfast or has to stop eating after whatever time is popular now.

    HOWEVER, there might be a personal preference due to how an individual feels.
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
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    There's no real food in special K..it's all sugary cereal and sugary shakes and chocolatey bars and salty chips. I think I'd get tired of living off of junk snacks like that

    No real food? What? Rice and wheat aren't food?

    The rice products and wheat products in most cereal bars are as close to being real nutritious food as sugar is to being a vegetables (comes from beet or cane right?) or white wine is to being a fruit. Adding back a few vitamins and minerals that you stripped out of the grain in the first place and being deemed edible doesn't make something food in any real sense of the word.

    Ingredients list for UK version of the bar, might be some differences in the US?
    "Kellogg's Special K Cereal (51%) (Rice, Wheat {Wholewheat, Wheat Flour}, Sugar, Wheat Gluten, Skimmed Milk Powder,Defatted Wheatgerm, Salt, Barley Malt Flavouring, Vitamin C, Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1) ,Folic Acid, Vitamin B12) ,Glucose Syrup ,Chocolate Pieces (11%) (Cocoa Mass, Sugar, Emulsifier {Soy Lecithin}) ,Fructose ,Dextrose ,Sugar ,Humectant (Sorbitol, Glycerol) ,Vegetable Oil ,Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin) ,Antioxidant (E320)"

    How many of those look like when they came off the plant or animal OR have the same nutrients as when they came off the plant or animal? Only the little bit of wholewheat I think, for that one wholegrain there are multiple grain products/ extracts. How many forms of sugar? Seven making the finished product 33% sugars (7g per bar)! How much fibre? About 1.5% (0.3g per bar). Take you a while to hit your ~25g a day target at that rate, you'd have to eat eighty three bars! Of course if you did that you'd have also eaten 583 (five hundred and eighty three) grams of sugar.
  • I'm doing this right now, I'm on my 4th day. It's hard for me to stay on track, and this is helping me learn portion control again. Also, the plan allows you unlimited fruits and veggies so that really helps. Obviously too much fruit will give you too much sugar but if you eat 3 fuit, 6 veggies during the day it's not so bad. It's not enjoyable but it's working. I know it's temporary but at least my stomach will be used to eating less than I have been giving it. I'm just trying to recharge my weightloss, I love cereal and snack bars and crackers so I thought I should give it a shot for the two weeks. I've already lost 3 lbs and I'm not even done with the first week!

    I'm not saying this is for everyone, but for someone like me that was conditioning their body to eating 2200 calories a day and only lightly exercising, it's a good way to train myself.

    And to the people who are saying it's "sugary" cereal. It's really not. All of the products with the exception of the shakes are around 10 grams of sugar or less. In the grand scheme of things that isn't that bad.
  • funhouse77
    funhouse77 Posts: 179 Member
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    Oh Man, don't do it. I tried this once, years ago, I lasted 2 and a half days, I was STARVING!

    Eat food.
  • avababy05
    avababy05 Posts: 930 Member
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    I did this several years ago,lost no weight and it made me feel a little violent
  • _Lori_Lynn_
    _Lori_Lynn_ Posts: 460
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    I agree this is an advertising strategy which only makes you lose due to it creating a calorie deficit. However, some people just need a plan to follow. I am that kind of girl. Just tell me what to eat and how much.

    I will say though that I was part of a site which trained competitors for the fitness competitions and had her entire three month prep meal plan and fitness routine and she ate Special K each morning. It made me buy it, I was trying to eat like she did. It either was just eaten bc she liked it and she was to have a cereal or Special K sponsored the shows or the website, etc.
  • Well like I said I've already shed some of the weight I gained from eating the wrong foods for the past month or two. It's going to be tough but I'm afraid if I don't give myself some structure my stomach will just get bigger and bigger and soon 3000 calories a day won't be enough.
  • juliekaiser1988
    juliekaiser1988 Posts: 604 Member
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    MY THOUGHTS: I would never do it, just because I think it's a carbohydrate overload, protein deficient dietary plan. I would definitely suggest eating 5-6 smaller meals a day (which is what I do), but not with the Special K plan. Eating all those carbs with so little protein and good fats, I'd be hangry all day. Again- THAT'S MY THOUGHTS.
  • juliekaiser1988
    juliekaiser1988 Posts: 604 Member
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    It's not enjoyable but it's working.


    *Smacks myself in the forehead*

    DOH!!!

    Why in the hell do you want to do something that's not enjoyable???????????
  • Celeigh12
    Celeigh12 Posts: 763 Member
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    Strikes me as something that would leave you hungry. Real food is not a bad thing!
  • transparentenigma
    transparentenigma Posts: 565 Member
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    I say give it a try if you need to learn portion size. I did the Special K quasi challenge before. I say 'quasi' because I did not replace 2 meals with their cereal, just one. I lost weight. It was hard in the beginning with the weighing and actually seeing what a serving of the cereal really was when I weighed correctly and not just by eye sight, but I did it and it worked. I bought about 5 different types of the cereal so as not to get bored or stalled of the cereal, hint fruit and yogurt was too sweet for me so I usually mixed it with bran flakes.

    I can tell you the pros, variety of flavours, taught me portion size and control.

    I can tell you the cons, well my major con and why I stopped, the amount of fibre in the cereals were ridiculously low, at least for me who was trying to attain at least the minimum recommended fibre. So I just kept the idea, but switched the brand. So I still do the quasi Special K challenge, only now I use Fibre One or Kelloggs Fibre Plus brand, tried the Kashi, could not be convinced that losing weight was worth eating that ......
  • It's not enjoyable but it's working.


    *Smacks myself in the forehead*

    DOH!!!

    Why in the hell do you want to do something that's not enjoyable???????????

    Because I've been enjoying eating way too much lately. I don't mean enjoying healthy meals most days and having a few slices of pizza on a friday,, or getting extra cheese on my greek salad. I'm talking about borderline bingeing. Eating for the sake of eating. I tried to eat less calories but my body is now used to the boat load portions I had been feeding it.

    That is why I would put myself through the slight discomfort of the Special K challenge. My exercise regimen consists of walking my dog and random sessions of Dance Central, nothing too crazy or intense. I'm a grad student so I don't really have time for much else. I know my body, I know that this is a good idea. Nothing that I've done to lose weight has ever been a walk in the park. I'm okay with that. As long as you don't restrict my fruit and veggie intake, I can bear it. I'm defending it from a personal perspective, i'm not saying its for everyone. But it seems to be doing the trick. That's all I can tell you at this point.

    Congratulations on losing 137 lbs by the way!
  • blu_meanie_ca
    blu_meanie_ca Posts: 352 Member
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    I like special K.. if I can load it down with about 1/2 cup of sugar. otherwise, it tastes like sandy bits of nothing.
  • leighann881
    leighann881 Posts: 371
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    Honestly, most cereals are crap. Including Special K.
  • MissKris14
    MissKris14 Posts: 65 Member
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    Special K products = sugar, sugar, and more sugar. You'd be starving because of all the carbs you'd be consuming in place of a balanced diet.
  • leighann881
    leighann881 Posts: 371
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    My exercise regimen consists of walking my dog and random sessions of Dance Central, nothing too crazy or intense. I'm a grad student so I don't really have time for much else.

    I hate to be the "reality police" and obnoxious... but if you have time to post to this forum then you have time to a 10 min body weight circuit.

    10 burpees
    10 push-ups (modified or whatever)
    10 air squats
    30 sec plank
    60 sec rest

    Do 5 times.

    No excuses.

    Do five times.