Quaker Oat oatmeal

300 calories for breakfast is fine. I try and shoot for 450-500. Bananas add up fast too. I prefer my oatmeal with some yogurt and dried fruit, but that's me.

I would (personally) add in some protein with a shake or some milk, or hard boiled egg, and probably only have about 1/3 or 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal.

Dry? Cooked? How do you know it's really 300 calories and not 400 if you don't weigh it?

1 cup of oatmeal (just plain, not instant or flavoured) is 300 calories. I eat this daily, and just put some flax meal in it (for the omega 3). It's not a lot of calories for one meal, and it should be pretty filling. I find it lasts a long time, so it's definitely not too many calories, plus oatmeal has decent amount of protein, and the fiber helps scrub your intestines. It's a pretty healthy choice.

I don't know why instant would be so calorie heavy, jgnatca; does it have sugar in it? That's really excessive for oatmeal, more like junk food at that point.

Doesn't it say on the packet how many calories are in a serving? Don't worry about carbs. As long as you are sticking to your daily calorie allotment, that is all that matters.

jgnatca wrote: »

Quaker instant oatmeal is 110 cals for a packet of instant (28g or 1/8 cup). One cup of dry would be eight times that. And don't forget the banana.

I think the issue comes down to the way the oatmeal is cut. Quaker tends to chop the oatmeal they sell in "packets" down pretty fine, so it takes up less space and is more calorific by volume (but the same calories by weight). 28 g dry is more than 1/8 of a cup if you're using Quaker quick rolled oats from the bulk cannisters.

It's confusing, I know. Honestly, this is why it's worthwhile to weigh. I eat plain quaker rolled oats for breakfast most days and always weigh. Food scales are cheap and don't take up much space. You could always keep a spare scale in your desk at the office, if you're keeping oatmeal there too. But if you're using a packet, I'd be inclined to either trust that the packet itself was mostly weighed properly, or just add 20% to be conservative (they're allowed to mislabel by that much).

300 calories is correct for 80g (about 1 cup) of uncooked quaker instant but the banana will run you another 100-160 calories. If you're not weighing you could be off by quite a few calories on that breakfast. If you leave enough calorie head room at the end of the day it's not that important but if you are keeping your intake tight to the limit or you are eating back exercise calories you may want to invest in a small food scale. If I misunderstood your question, flush all this nonsense down the gurgler.