Issue with calories of instant oatmeal

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ShowKindness
ShowKindness Posts: 6 Member
edited May 2020 in Food and Nutrition
Hey,guys! So basically I've been obsessed with Dr. Oetker's instant porridge, but the calories on the package confuse me a lot.
The package's raw content is 60grams. The instructions say to be combined with 150ml of hot water.
It says that 100gr of cooked product is 114ckal, and one portion of 210gr is 238ckal. Now, why one portion has so many calories? Don't we count the raw content? Where am I counting wrong, could anyone explain it to me,please? 🤔

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  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,349 Member
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    60 grams of raw oats with 150ml of water gives one portion of 210gr containing 238 calories. That makes 114kcal per 100gr prepared product.

    The information missing is how many calories the raw oats contain. But that should be around 400kcal per 100gr of oats, so 238kcal per 60gr raw oats seems logical.
  • ShowKindness
    ShowKindness Posts: 6 Member
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    The thing is, only 50% of these 60grams are actually oats. 😕
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,349 Member
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    No, the package contains 60gr of raw oats, that's what you said yourself?
  • ShowKindness
    ShowKindness Posts: 6 Member
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    I found on the internet the ingedients:
    Ingredients: 47% whole grain oatmeal, whole milk powder, sugar, corn starch, 4.8% chocolate (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier (E 322)), glucose syrup, low-fat cocoa powder, 1.6% crushed cocoa beans, 1.6% chia seeds (SALVIA HISPANICA), salt. May contain: (EGG, SOY, NUTS).
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,119 Member
    edited May 2020
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    Just plain raw oats are 375 calories per 100g.

    A serving of plain raw oats is 40g or 150 calories.

    Add in sugar and milk powder, corn starch and all that other stuff and then let it all absorb water, and you get 210g and 238 calories.

    Don't overthink it. Use the package label and keep logging it.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited May 2020
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    Doesn't the package itself have the ingredients?

    Anyway, I'm not understanding what's confusing -- prepared according to the instructions, 100 g of cooked porridge has 114 cals, and 210 g cooked has 238 cals (which is what is identified as a serving). Of course, the amount you eat is going to depend on what else you are eating, what you find sufficiently filling, etc. If you prefer to measure it dry, 60 g dry will have 238 cals when cooked (whatever it actually weighs, as water has no cals).

    If the breakfast is just porridge, 238 cal doesn't seem high at all, although for me it probably wouldn't be all that filling.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,349 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    Just plain raw oats are 375 calories per 100g.

    A serving of plain raw oats is 40g or 150 calories.

    Add in sugar and milk powder, corn starch and all that other stuff and then let it all absorb water, and you get 210g and 238 calories.

    And calculating back from the prepared product, the oat-milk-sugar-... raw mix is apparently 397kcal per 100gr, slightly higher than pure oats, but not surprising (the other ingredients also contain calories).
    Use that number if you want to get creative with your portions, otherwise just follow the package, it seems perfectly reasonable.
  • ShowKindness
    ShowKindness Posts: 6 Member
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    Thanks a lot!
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,114 Member
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    food scientists tend to compute based on 100g portions to allow comparability between foodstuffs. food manufacturers make what they consider to be economical or traditional selling portions.

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