Cereal is EVIL!

Okay, maybe not evil... but definitely not that great for you! I never realized just how bad it was until today...

I'm not feeling that great, so I decided to take a bit of a break from being too careful. But for curiousity's sake, I decided to weigh my cereal and milk just for kicks. I figured my bowlful was around 400 calories, which is doable.

So I'm munching down while entering it in on the computer... and I look at it in disgust. this bowl, this bowl of which I used to eat two of for breakfast before... IS OVER 700 CALORIES! I feel so gross. How could I have eaten 1500 calories at ONE MEAL just a few months ago?

Needless to say, I threw out a good portion of the bowl. I'd rather have oatmeal, which is so much more filling. Not to mention the kind I get (with raisins, dates, and walnuts) is more nutritious.

Ugh. I'm not sure I'll ever eat cold cereal again.

It really is an eye opener to measure your food.

According to most cereal boxes, a serving is one cup of cereal and 1/2 cup of milk. It's usually much less than a bowl (well, depending on the size of the bowl).

I still eat cereal but I don't free pour.

Yeah, but one cup of cereal and half a cup of milk... it hardly fills you up at all! I've never been satisfied with just one or even two servings of cereal. Two servings of oatmeal keeps me satisfied for 4-8 hours! I feel so grossed out about it haha

The only cereal I eat is Fiber One and the only way i use it is to add it to a meal or snack. For instance I put it in my oatmeal, in my cottage cheese or in my yogurt. I hate eating cold cereal.

I eat cereal dry.  Fiber One or the Kashi.  I used to eat Fruit Loops with cream...bleah!!!

Well, maybe it's not "evil", but you DO have to be careful.  I now weigh ALL my cereal.  I learned the hard way that it all settles and breaks before it gets to you, so what may have been a cup at the mfg, is now 3/4 cup at home.  So it's much safer to go by the grams.   I was eating a "cup" of Raisin Bran, which was supposed to be 59 grams. When I weighed it was actually 72 - which made a 40 calorie difference!  

Also, FYI, I find a LOT of inaccuracies in CC's nutritional info, and never for the good, so I've been double checking all my labels vs the CC labels, and been having to manually add a lot.

i don't get it.  doesn't it label the nutritional facts on the box?

Really it depends entirely on the kind of cold cereal you eat.

I use to eat cereal all day everyday bowl after bowl, thinking it was good for me.  HA, boy was I wrong!  Now I measure out 3/4 of a cup of Special K protein plus into my containers (100 calories a piece) and eat them as snacks through out the day.  I eat a nice big old bowl of cereal on the weekends after my 10 mile jog.  That's it, boy was it hard putting that habit to rest!!!  I still crave my cereal, but now I just look forward to Saturdays around 10:30. :-P

I'm pretty happy with my store-brand Grape Nuts (Nutty Nuggets, lol!).  They have all the important pre-workout nutrition.  I get bored by them though and the past days I have been eating other stuff. 

I have mentioned this before, I won't eat empty cereals before working out again.  Rice Crispies are completely worthless. 

I got some Nutty Flax, which is similar to Grape Nuts, I wasn't impressed but it's another high-nutrient food so I will try and eat it on work out days. 

I had oatmeal today with almonds but I just don't like eating it in the summer. 

Well, jeez how much are you filling your bowl up though? I try to get the smallest bowl that's clean so it looks more full and I can eyeball it better. Then I usually just fill a 'layer' across the bottom. I am guessing it's between 3/4 of a cup and a cup. Anyhow, when I have used a measuring cup  that's about how much it filled up my bowl!

I've been eating Kashi Golean this summer (I eat oatmeal in the cold months). Although it feels as light as the cold cereals I ate as a child, and tastes as sweet, it does keep me full for hours. And that's just one measured serving, with a measured 1/2 cup of skim milk. I eat it in a 10 oz pyrex bowl, which is the same bowl I use for my oatmeal in the winter. Both fill it up comfortably, and I get the feeling of eating "a whole bowl" of cereal.

I measure EVERYTHING these days.

I've never had a problem having one cup of cereal at a time... use a bowl that holds one cup of cereal and one cup of milk and NO MORE - my cereal and milk is always 250-300 depending on the brand. There's nothing evil about cereal... just the size portions you were eating.

High Fiber cereals are much much more filling than low fiber ones. If I want to have cheerios or something else low-fiber I add 1/4 cup fiber one buds to the bowl and it makes it much healthier. (you could add flax seed or bran or something but fiber one is simpler.) A bowl of cornflakes or rice bubbles is NOT a satisfying meal for anyone even though it tastes good...

Okay yes, I know my portions were horrible (this is Life cereal, btw). But I've never had a single cereal that a single serving was enough. Not even the high-fiber kinds! I just couldn't believe it.

Someone asked how big my bowl was? Well, it's about 4 inches in diameter, probably 3 1/2 inches deep. It's all we have other than the bowls I bought for oatmeal... which would probably hold about a serving of cereal :P

Ah well, live and learn!

I almost always have a bowl of cheerios and skim milk with my egg whites and toast.  Cheerios is actually pretty good for you and you don't have to be that anal about measuring it out.  Of course sugar cereals aren't that great.  Anywho, I like cheerios so it's not like I have to make a sacrifice for healthy eating.

I can totally sympathasize with frustrating cereal portions especially since its not super filling.

I add 1 cup of Kashi Puffs (the ones with 0 grams sugar) and dump it into a 1/2 cup of another cereal, it makes the bowl grow like 3X and the 1 cup of Kashi puffs is only 70 calories and no sugar, so your adding alot of bulk for low calories.

I don't have a scale to weigh my foods, but I have always wondered about cereal.

I do have a measuring cup though!

Are the cup measurements pretty accurate by weight? (ie. 1 cup = 55g = 200 calories)

Anyone want to check for me / have checked before? ;)

I'm such an oddball here. I used to just pour in some cereal in my bowl and free pour milk. Then I measured and I realized I was used to eating less than 1/2 cup of cereal and being satisfied.

I am always so shocked that people eat so much cereal! I can't even eat a full cup without feeling sick.

How does a cup of cereal make you feel sick? That's ridiculous. The problem, quite on the contrary, is that cereal is not very filling at all, whilst being highly caloric.

Anyway, cereal is indeed evil. I hate it so. Most servings of cereal are not a cup either by the way. Often, a serving is 3/4 cup. Today I munched on cereal throughout the day; turns out it was probably close to 400 calories all told. If I had just eaten 2 apples or a buttload of strawberries, I would have saved myself a ton of empty calories.

Original Post by c_jamie:

I don't have a scale to weigh my foods, but I have always wondered about cereal.

I do have a measuring cup though!

Are the cup measurements pretty accurate by weight? (ie. 1 cup = 55g = 200 calories)

Anyone want to check for me / have checked before? ;)

Unfortunately, cereal settles by the time it reaches you. I'd been using the measuring cup... today, I had 3 cups of Life (96 grams according to the packaging) but because it had settled, it turned out to be 150 grams when I weighed it out. That's an extra serving and a half that I wouldn't have known about if I hadn't weighed it.

special K protein plus...  yum...  fits nicely into my days calories keeps me feeling fuller longer than oatmeal...  and I'm an oatmeal fan...    I have one cup of skim milk in the AM which I split between my coffee and my one cup of cereal...