Regarding Cereal and Milk

binarw30
binarw30 Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
If you wanted to eat cereal for breakfast, does the milk count towards your calorie intake when you log it into your food diary?

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,845 Member
    I'm not sure I understand your question. Milk contains calories, so you should log it in your diary. If you only enter the cereal into your diary, only the calories of the cereal will be counted.
  • placeboBL
    placeboBL Posts: 62 Member
    When you log cereal, it’s for the dry cereal itself. Log the milk separately, depending on what kind you use.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    edited July 2020
    binarw30 wrote: »
    If you wanted to eat cereal for breakfast, does the milk count towards your calorie intake when you log it into your food diary?

    There may be entries in the MFP database that has cereal and milk combined but unless they were quite descriptive you would not know the quantities or type and percentage of milk. The MFP database is user driven so there are all kinds of entries in there you should think twice before using.

    The "proper" cereal entries though should not contain the calories from milk so, as you may be realizing, cereal with normal cow milk carries a fairly hefty calorie price tag. It is one of the reasons I seldom eat it. Since I am going to eat yogurt most days anyway I will sometimes add cereal to my yogurt as a compromise.
  • binarw30
    binarw30 Posts: 3 Member
    Thank you so much.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    binarw30 wrote: »
    If you wanted to eat cereal for breakfast, does the milk count towards your calorie intake when you log it into your food diary?

    Find an entry in the database that matches the nutrition info on your box for just the cereal. Weigh out your portion and log that.

    Then find an entry in the database for the type of milk you are using that matches the nutrition info on the milk container. Measure how much you are using and log that.

    Avoid entries in the database that seem to include multiple items in one entry, like "cereal & milk" or "Mac & cheese". These were entered by other users and you have no idea what proportions of each ingredient they used
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,744 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    binarw30 wrote: »
    If you wanted to eat cereal for breakfast, does the milk count towards your calorie intake when you log it into your food diary?

    Find an entry in the database that matches the nutrition info on your box for just the cereal. Weigh out your portion and log that.

    Then find an entry in the database for the type of milk you are using that matches the nutrition info on the milk container. Measure how much you are using and log that.

    Avoid entries in the database that seem to include multiple items in one entry, like "cereal & milk" or "Mac & cheese". These were entered by other users and you have no idea what proportions of each ingredient they used

    You're dissing the mac and cheese entries?????? Maybe homemade but give kraft and velveta their due. 😀
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    Basic rule: any calories you consume count as calories you consumed. Whether and how you log them is up to you. You can fudge on the log but your body will know the truth.

    Cereal and milk can be quite difficult to log accurately without using a kitchen scale. What you think of as a serving of cereal may be 2 or 3 or more times what a serving size is on the nutrition label. You may think you are eating an 80 calorie serving when in truth there may be 240 calories in your bowl.
  • thelastnightingale
    thelastnightingale Posts: 725 Member
    HeidiCooksSupper wrote: »
    Cereal and milk can be quite difficult to log accurately without using a kitchen scale. What you think of as a serving of cereal may be 2 or 3 or more times what a serving size is on the nutrition label. You may think you are eating an 80 calorie serving when in truth there may be 240 calories in your bowl.

    This is so true. It took me a lot of work to retrain my brain to accept what a 'normal' portion was supposed to look like. 30g is nothing!
  • fitpal4242
    fitpal4242 Posts: 109 Member
    I love eating cereal as a snack or for dinner! I use unsweetened almond milk- that’s usually 30 calories per cup. It’s not the most well-rounded or nutritious meal, but great on days I overdid it at lunch and want a low calorie dinner.
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
    I agree it's best to enter the cereal and the milk separate, and that's what I usually do. But the joint entries in the database are not all user-generated and faulty.

    I just checked the 5 different cereals in our house at the moment and all except one had two entries in the Nutrition Facts. A list for cereal only, and another list for cereal with a specific amount of milk added.

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