The Full Time Worker's Guide to a Good Physique

The Full Time Worker's Guide to a Good Physique
How to keep fit despite a hectic lifestyle.

Dom Thorpe

Dom Thorpe
Managing Director and Principal Trainer

Monday 23 May 2011

The Truth About Breakfast for Weight Loss

Getting to know your food and drink

By trying out different weight control methods I have noticed a few things. One of which was that it’s very difficult to lose weight when having porridge for breakfast. This prompted me to take a closer look at cereals and I noticed some interesting things. The first thing that I noticed was that if you try and look on the box to see how many calories are in a bowl of your preferred cereal, it’s very difficult to get an accurate answer. This is because they specify the number of calories in a portion of a specific weight i.e. “a 30g serving contains 215 calories” or “a 50g bowl of this cereal contains 215 calories”. When I compared the weight of my standard bowl of cereal to the suggested weight on the box I was rather taken back. My portion was far larger than that of the recommended size. It also occurred to me that we don’t measure our cereal by weight, we do it by volume. A bowl full of granola may weigh up to 150 grams where as a bowl full of rice crispies is likely to weigh around 40 or 50 grams. So I carried out an experiment whereby I stuck to a specific portion size for a range of cereals and calculated how many calories each bowl of cereal contained. I did this by using a standard mug and measured out 1 mug full before weighing the cereal. This meant that throughout each of the different cereals the portion sizes remain constant and I recorded the weight, using it to calculate the amount of calories in the portion. Needless to say there were a lot of surprises. It is also worth mentioning that the portion size used was smaller than what I would typically serve myself. I tried to use a portion which represented what I thought to be an “average size”. The following table shows the results of my study:

Cereal

Calories per bowl

Portion weight

Jordan's Super Berry Granola

634

150g

Alpen

603

160g

Porridge Oats

498

140g

Curiously Cinnamon

300

63g

Shreddies

275

74g

Weetabix Crushed

257

76g

Crunchy Nut Cornflakes

242

60g

Special K

228

60g

Weetos

215

55g

Coco Pops

206

55g

Frosties

187

50g

Cheerios

183

50g

Corn Flakes

174

46g

Sugar Puffs

167

44g

Rice Crispies

154

40g

As you can see, oat based cereals are by far the most calorific, followed by wheat, corn, barley and finally at the bottom, rice. So every January when you start weighing up the benefits of going on the Special K diet, maybe you’ll consult this table and realize that if you go on the Frosties diet instead, you’ll lose even more weight, and remember, they’re Grrrrrrrreat! The ironic thing is that when most people commence a “healthy” eating programme in order to lose weight, they immediately go for the Royal Family of high calorie cereals, Porridge, Muesli or Granola (The King of Calories), all of which are the least likely cereals to help us lose weight. Those cereals are the right option if you’re going on a 5 hour bike ride or a day of walking in the Lake District but if you’re going to work to spend all day at the desk, you’re stocking up on a huge amount of calories which simply aren't going to get used.

So if you're trying to control your weight, go for one of the less calorific cereals which will help keep your overall calorie intake down thus encouraging successful weight loss.

No comments:

Post a Comment