Oatmeal confusion...Help!

I do not think that is accurate. Adding water to oatmeal does not increase the calories - it only increases the water content of the oats. The calorie count is for dry oatmeal, since it is more accurate. After it's cooked (and expanded in volume), it's still 150 calories.

Great Value 100% Whole Grain Old Fashioned Oats - Oatmeal, 1/2 cup dry is 150kcal
These are the rolled kind

when you measure dry and then add water it still stays 150kcal (Same for yours)
only if you add sugar or milk will you have to add those calories.

1/4 cup dry means whatever amount comes out after cooking in WATER is the same cals.

It is not accurate. If you add 2 cups of water to 1/4 cup of oats do you get soup? My morning hot cereal is 1/4c cereal to 3/4c water. Eat it all to get the calories.

The water is irrelevant. The calories for the dry oatmeal stays the same even after cooking. If you are cooking 1 cup of dry oats, you count the calories for one cup of dry oats and that's the number of calories.

It is not accurate. If you add 2 cups of water to 1/4 cup of oats do you get soup? My morning hot cereal is 1/4c cereal to 3/4c water. Eat it all to get the calories.

She's using Steel Cut Oats, not regular oats you can cook up in the microwave really fast for breakfast. Its not soup...its DELISH! with a little dried fruit and milk, i love it in the crockpot

and they're right, 1/4 cup dry is the same calories as what it makes after you cook it. So put it in as a recipe, esp if you add dried fruit or fat free half and half like we do and then count out your servings.

It is not accurate. If you add 2 cups of water to 1/4 cup of oats do you get soup? My morning hot cereal is 1/4c cereal to 3/4c water. Eat it all to get the calories.

She's using Steel Cut Oats, not regular oats you can cook up in the microwave really fast for breakfast. Its not soup...its DELISH! with a little dried fruit and milk, i love it in the crockpot

I understand what she is eating. It just looked strange. Her further posts identified that she used a ratio that would equal 1/4c oats to 1c water, something closer the ratio of my really fast bob's red mill microwave deliciousness.

My steel cut oats says 1/4 cup DRY is 150 calories and 2 grams of fat.
1/4 cup is so tiny!
So when I cook it in my crock pot with 2 cups of water and nothing else..I just scoop out 1/4 cup and it's still 150 calories..right?
That means a whole cup would be 600 calories! ):

Nope, the 1/4 cup volume is before cooking.
I made Bob's Red mill steel cut in the crockpost last week, 1 cup oats and 4 cups water in the bowl. it looked like it made a lot more than 4 servings. In fact, I got about 6 servings out of it, of varying sizes. I didn't measure as I scooped it out to serve, but each serving would have been less than the 150 calories. I added a packet of Stevia to it, and a splash of 1% milk to loosen it up. I've been drinking almond milk lately but didn't like it mixed in as much as regular milk.

Ah! So confusing! Still doesn't make sense to me. Probably never will aha. Steal cut is my favorite but I can't figure out how to measure properly. At least it's healthy and if I do eat a little more then a serving it's not like it's a whole chocolate cake :laugh:

Because the amount of water/liquid you add cannot be accounted for by the manufacturer, the calories will always be in the dry amounts. If you are making more than one serving, you can figure out how many calories are in each by 1) knowing the number of calories in the dry ingredients, 2) knowing the volume of cooked product, 3) determining the percentage of the whole you are eating, and 4) calculating the consumed calories through the same precentage determined in step 3.

For example: if 1/4 cup of dry oats has 150 calories and you add 2 cups of water for cooking. After cooking, we'll assume you have 2 cups of oats. If you eat half of what is there, you have eaten 1/2 of the calories available (or in our example, 75 calories). If you had a 1/2 cup of oats with 4 cups of liquid, then eat half of the resulting oatmeal, you would have consumed 150 calories. Does that help?

1/2 cup dry is 150 calories according to Quaker Oats. I eat it all the time. Dry just means before you put anything on it. So if you use water, it's still 150 calories.

Cups are the devil's way of tricking us into inaccuracy. See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

I weigh oatmeal in grams. Then add water in grams. Simples.

If you don't have a digital scale, I recommend you get one even if you only use it occasionally for calorie dense foods like oatmeal.

i don't think that's accurate. 40g of dried oatmeal is about 140 calories with the brand I use. And 40 grams makes a nice moderate portion.

Ah! So confusing! Still doesn't make sense to me. Probably never will aha. Steal cut is my favorite but I can't figure out how to measure properly. At least it's healthy and if I do eat a little more then a serving it's not like it's a whole chocolate cake :laugh:

Don't be confused. Some people are talking about rolled oats and what their own personal brands that they use have as measurements and calories and they have nothing to do with your question, so just scroll past them.

What the first reply said was the answer you needed.

If you measure out 1/4 cup of your steel cut oats and the container that you have says that they are 150 calories for that 1/4 cup of dry oats, that calorie amount doesn't change no matter how much water you add. If you cooked them in 1 cup of water, the entire thing would be 150 calories. If you cooked them in 3 cups of water, it would still be 150 calories.

The only thing that would change the calories is if you add something other than water or increase the amount of dry oats you put in.

So when you put your 1/4 cup of oats and 2 cups of water in the crock pot, you get to eat that entire thing when it's done and it's still 150 calories. Enjoy!

Ah! So confusing! Still doesn't make sense to me. Probably never will aha. Steal cut is my favorite but I can't figure out how to measure properly. At least it's healthy and if I do eat a little more then a serving it's not like it's a whole chocolate cake :laugh:

An easier way to look at it is that if you use 1 cup of dry oats (600 cals) to make a whole batch - then the whole batch still has 600 cals when it is done (assuming you only add water).
When it is cooked, serve out the oats into four bowls. Each bowl will have 150 cals.
Easy!

The recipe tool is handy for this kind of stuff, but you need to have a minimum of 2 ingredients.

Thanks for this comparison. I was trying to figure out how much cooked to scoop out.