"Low Fat" Muffins?

Hello everybody, I just had a quick question. I was never a muffin eater, ever. I know that muffins are basically giant balls of butter and the better tasting the muffin, the worse they are for you. I kind of made the mistake of having a Wawa muffin, and it's all snowballed from there lol.

The local bakery in the strip mall near my gym sells lowfat muffins though. All kinds. I love to grab a muscle milk and a lowfat muffin for lunch after working out for an hour or two. However, I'm kind of starting to worry that they're not that low cal even though they're low fat. Is an average bakery (more specifically: bagel shop) muffin that's labeled "low fat" good to eat?

I know that they're better than the Dunkin Donuts muffins across the streets, but I mean, I don't want to do something that'll ruin my hard work.

STAY AWAY FROM THE MUFFINS!!!

I would have to agree. Stay away from muffins in general. Even though its low fat it's most likely not low calorie. In fact, it may even be higher in calories than a regular muffin because they will need to substitute extra sugar and carbs in order to make up for the lack of fat.

I would like to point out though that the muffin in the link above is a "reduced" fat muffin. That's not the same as a "low" fat muffin. "Reduced" simply means it has lower fat than the regular. "Low" actually means it has under a certain # of fat grams (5 maybe?).

LOW FAT = 3g. fat or less per serving...

Reduced Fat = 25% less than the original...

I don't think eating a low fat muffin every now and then is going to kill you.

I know from experience that "low-fat" muffins have nearly as many calories as normal muffins.  The only difference is, with the low fat muffins, they have just replaced some of the calories from fat with calories from sugar.

400 calories? That didn't really even phase me. I was only off 100 anyways lol. But yeah, I guess I should keep it as more of a treat then if they're not the best for you. If they are 400 calories though it wouldn't surprise me, they're surprisingly filling lol. But thank you, I'll make sure to watch out!

i must say, i am guilty of eating the DND reduced fat blueberry muffin yesterday.. sooooo good... but then again i haven't had it in months so if its not like an everyday thing you should be okay.

try Vitamuffins!  They are delicious and so good for you...You can buy the premade kind at your local grocery store or you can order online...I buy the mix and bake them myself....you only add water and egg whites...actually just whipped up a batch of the no sugar banana nut...the mix makes 12 normal sized muffins, i even added some chocolate chips on top...so delicious and only 90-100 cals each depending on flavor..

I like making my own muffins. Lower in calories and higher in nutrients!

Original Post by skinnyogi:

I like making my own muffins. Lower in calories and higher in nutrients!

I make my own too, using skim milk as the base. It makes the muffins very tasty yet not as bad at the same time. (Still bad nevertheless)

I absolutely love VITAMUFFINS!!! I'm actually eating one right now! They even get a grade "A" from CC!

I too am a muffin-lover and used to fall for the whole "low fat" thing but as previously mentioned they are ridiculously high in sugar and calories.

I'll even transform the occasional vitamuffin into a cupcake with some fat free cool whip on top...mmmmmm delicious!

 

It is a must to remembert that most of the time the nutritional content for things like muffins is only for 1/2 because they are giantic, so sometimes the 400 cal is only 1/2 a muffin.

I work at Second Cup and our "lowest fat muffins" still have 10 grams of fat, and top out at 440-500 kcal.

Chocolate vitamuffins are like a BROWNIE!  Also fabulous are Trader Joes Power Muffins...they have extra protein in them and are a yummy banana muffin (so they are SUPER moist) and have large chocolate chunks in them.  They are small but only 110 calories of deliciousness.

ok i just noticed something interesting. I work in NYC and they are required to list the calorie count of every food item at restaurants, etc... Well this morning at dunkin donuts i noticed that the regular blueberry muffin was 260 calories versus a reduced fat blueberry muffin which was 400 calories... does this make sense? i thought reduced fat was supposed to be better!

Original Post by jenny8484:

i thought reduced fat was supposed to be better!

Reduced/lower (or even "non") fat does not mean lower calories.  One of the biggest food marketing scams perpetrated on the American public is the notion that "low fat" = healthy or diet friendly.  I'm reminded of seeing a package of Skittles with the words "a low fat food" in that fancy starburst graphic - as if 1) it was actually "food" in the first place and 2) that made it "healthy."

The only way to really get a healthy muffin is to make it yourself (or get it from a reputable company like Vitalicious - which I highly recommend).

Another option for a better muffin:  Take any cake mix (I like reduced sugar devils food or butter pecan), mix with one can of pumpkin, divide into muffin cups, bake as normal.

Original Post by jenny8484:

ok i just noticed something interesting. I work in NYC and they are required to list the calorie count of every food item at restaurants, etc... Well this morning at dunkin donuts i noticed that the regular blueberry muffin was 260 calories versus a reduced fat blueberry muffin which was 400 calories... does this make sense? i thought reduced fat was supposed to be better!

The 260 calories is for one serving, which is 1/2 the muffin.  According to the dunkin' donuts website (which lists all nutritional info) the regular blueberry muffin has 470 calorieshttps://www.dunkindonuts.com/aboutus/nutritio n/Product.aspx?Category=Bakery&id=DD-791

Muffins that you get at a bakery are usually rediculously large.  Look at the size of those muffins compared to the ones you make at home.  Therefore, even if they aren't loaded with fat and/or sugar, they are going to have pretty many calories.

I personally wasn't too thrilled with VitaMuffins.  However, I really love the sugar-free muffins from Chatila's sugar-free bakery.  They have a bunch of flavors that you can order on-line.  Supposedly the New Generation muffins have 80-90 calories each.  However, the nutrition facts are based on a 75 gram muffin.  When I weighed my muffins, they were actually around 90 grams.  However, this still comes out to about 110 calories per muffin...You could eat 4 of these for less calories than the Dunkin Donuts muffin.

they're probably not that much lower in calories, unfortunately.

if you want a lower-cal/fat muffin, you could always make your own.

there are TONS of awesome recipes on this website.