Special K Challenge

I was wondering what people thought of the Special K Challenge. For anyone that does not know what it is....your supposed to replace 2 meals a day with the cereal (1 serving which is a cup w/ 1/2 cup of skim milk) healthy snacks throuhougt the day and then a real dinner. It says you can lose an average of 5 lbs in 2 weeks! Of course this sounds appealing, anything that says you'll lose weight does. First...I have a problem staying within actual serving sizes, so this would be hard. I personally love the cereal but I dont see how replacing meals is getting you the proper nutrition not to mention eating mostly carbs. Any thoughts?

I just want you guys to know that most of you have this Special K thing all wrong.  First, it is 2 weeks, not 1.  Also, you guys speak of not being able to stick to serving sizes and such, and that a bowl of cereal is more like a snack.  Any diet you look in to specifically addresses serving sizes.  That is what is wrong with us as Americans, we are used to the serving sizes we get when we go to Olive Garden or Outback which are all EXREMELY ridiculous!!  A normal serving size should be no larger than what you could hold in the palm of your hand.  Yes, that is small, but we have to realize too that we should eat about 5 SMALL meals a day.  If you were to take the time to look at what the Special K challenge recommends online, you would note that it encourages snacks in between meals and it also offers a pretty mide variety of options so you don't feel like you are always eating the same things.  They have meal replacement protein bars (there is the protien that everyone has been talking about).  There are also protien snack bars, regular snack bars, snack bites, and protein water.  Notice it says 2 weeks...I use this as something to regulate my appetite and jumpstart my "diet".  If we get into the rut of out fast-paced society and eat out all the time, we need something like this to help us get back on track and put things back into perspective for us.  The bottom line: in order to lose weight, we muct burn more calories than we are taking in.  Just remember that and quit worrying so much about the rest of it.  Hope this helps.  E-mail me at lindsay_glyn@yahoo.com if you have any questions or comments!  Best of luck to you all!

If you replace two meals a day with small portions of low calorie, healthy alternatives and eat a sensible dinner, you're going to lose weight.  It doesn't matter if you use Special K, slim-fast, or a variety of low-cal healthy foods including cereals, fruits, salads, yogurts, etc.  And you can certainly, at least at the start, lose 5-6 pounds in two weeks doing that.

I think it's a great way to jump start a diet or to shed a few pounds to meet a short-term goal.  I, for one, would get terribly bored eating the same thing for two meals a day, every day!  And I like Special K -- it's recently become one of my favorite snacks.  But if you think it would work for you, I say go for it -- just don't forget that when and if you decide to stop that particular "diet", you can't just go back to the way you were eating before and expect to keep the weight off.

Good luck!

I just started the special K challenge. Im only on day two. It doesnt bother me that much. I think some people have a hard time because they dont do it right. For breakfast you have your serving of cereal but you can also eat some fruit. in between breakfast and lunch you can have a (special k brand) snack. You have another serving for cereal for lunch and between lunch and dinner you have your second special K snack. If you eat a healthy dinner meal (with protiens that help keep you full and help to burn fat) you shouldnt overeat or feel as though your starving...but anyone who thinks you can just be on a diet and not exercise is kidding themselves. Since Ive returned from Iraq, I've slacked off on my workouts but I am about to get back into it heavily. Im doing the special K thing to test me discipline and to see just how badly I want to lose the 20 pounds that I aspire to lose. With dedication and EXERCISE any diet can work. I dont normally do diets but I do believe in moderation and portion control when I was doing that I was 132lbs when I stopped i got up to 146. Now I have to bust my butt all over again to get back down but this time im trying to get to 120. I plan to challenge myself and push myself...all of the hollywood rock bodies you see dont come easy and are not maintained easy...if you arent willing to work hard then you really dont want to lose the weight that bad. There really is no miracle pill or diet plan...None of us NEED a special K challenge or any other diet...we just need to get off our butts and break a real sweat! But I love a challenge so I'm doing the special K thing just to test myself...to see how much self control I really have...

I actually was skeptical about it. I'm currently on Weight Watchers. And while I'm happy with it, I've reached a bit of a plateu so I thought I'd try this for just the 2 weeks to jump start the weight loss. I have a wedding party to be in this month. And you know what? It's workiing!  I'm seeing results just in this first week! I started on Mon and weight was 131lbs. It's now Wed and I weigh 128 and a few ounces!  Of couse I'm incorporating exercise too. I've been doing Walk Away the Pounds - the 2 mile walk. I've done it Mon and Tues morning.  I've also noticed that this diet has also nudged me into eating more fruit. Since I need to feel full and don't want to rely on just the snack bars or the Proteiin water.  I try to include more fruit like apples and oranges and pears.  But I agree. The Special K Challenge is not something you should stay on. Just something to jump start the weight loss.  Weight Watchers has taught me about a lifestyle change in eating and not so much about being on a diet. And I feel I've been able to change my eating habits. I just consider this to be a 2 week weight loss booster.

i have a question, the one who lost 9lbs's ur first week, i think that's amazing, but what exactly are you doing, so you can loose so much in the first week, what ur eating? are you excercising? please that would be wonderful so i can do the same as you

I went on this diet back in 06, and it worked for me. For about 2 months! It's tastey, but special k is kinda expensive! I looked at the calories that I was eating, and I just realized that there is nothing "special" about the stupid cereal, your just cutting calories! Like what everyone is trying to do here anyways.

It is a bit easier when you don't have to worry about what to eat, but a bowl of Special K  cereal and 3/4 cup 2% milk is roughly 200-220 calories. You can have any sort of cereal or breakfast meal that is around that calorie intake and loose weight.

I'm sure that this diet would work to lose weight in the short term, as it means you're eating fewer calories (presumably). However, over the long run, we need variety in our diets. It might be a good way to structure yourself for two weeks, especially at the start of a diet, but I think over time you'd start to experience some deficiencies. 

I have a question...I work the night shift at my job.  I work from 10:30 pm to 8:30 am the next day.  My work consists of cleaning the residential house I work at and then after I'm done I just sit and watch a movie or sit and read, and do bed checks on my residents. 

They usually have food where I work, and we're allowed to get snacks if we want, or eat leftovers from meals they've had. 

As a result my eating schedule (not to mention sleeping schedule) is all messed up.  My question is, is anyone else here a night shift worker? 

If so, how do you maintain your food intake when you work all night and sleep a lot during the day?

-Amanda

Amanda, you might have better luck if you start a new thread - this one is very old and about Special K diets (which are silly, but more to the point, have nothing to do with your question).

Also, this was a recent thread that might help you:

http://caloriecount.about.com/weight-loss-nig ht-shift-ft19206

I had started the Special K diet in September and i at that time i weighed 184 lbs. My goal was to lose 15 lbs by my homecoming dance and in i miraculously did it in 2 weeks becuase i am bigger.  After that i tried to go back on a healthy diet and eat regular but i ended up gaining half my weight loss back but that was because it was around my birthday and all these other things goin on and my family always had sweets around the house. So i started it up again after the holidays and by that time i had 8 lbs to lose again to get back on to my 1st goal of the 15 lbs i lost the 8 lbs in one week and all together i have lost a total of 17.5 lbs. just by having a bowl of cereal for breakfast and supper and during lunch it is alot easier now because we have the salad bar at lunch so if i don't like to hot lunch i don't have to eat stuff i don't like and i have stopped eating sweets for the month of january and just since the beginning the year i have lost 10.5 lbs. my goal is to get to down to 130 by the time of my senior prom in may! a total of 50 lbs.

Hi everyone - I'm almost wondering if you could even do this diet with like rice chex or any of those chex cereals.  Not even pay attention to the fact that they want you to measure.  I would say have a nice bowl of cereal at breakfast time and then healthy snacks throughout the day and then a good dinner, a healthy one before 6pm.  Of course we all know you have to exercise.  Let me know what you guys think.

I am so far loving the special k challenge. I don't really pay attention to serving sizes for the cereal....I have one full bowl and I don't use skim milk...sorry I don't want to eat my cereal with water...I try and eat a peice of fruit with it if I can. I eat a protien snack bar between breakfast and lunch a meal bar at lunch and a protien water between lunch and dinner, I try to space everything out so it keeps me more full and I add fruits or vegetables as additional snacks if I get hungry. When I started the challenge last monday I didn't think I would be able to survive it...I absolutely love to eat and I like to eat very fatty things, i can't help it, which is why I need to lose weight. Once I started to add fruits and vegetables as additional snacks, I didn't feel like I was starving myself anymore and it so far as been perfect for me. I'm not great at keeping myself motivated, so a diet that tells me what to eat and when to eat is  perfect for me...and best of all it's easy. When I finish the challenge, I'm not sure If I'm going to stick to it as strictly, but I know I will be incorporating some aspects of the diet into my every day life. I have lost a few pounds so far, although its a bit hard to tell because at the current moment I only have access to a different scale then what I have been using when I started.

I did the special k diet for 2 weeks, I work for the subway corporate office so I eat subway for free at lunch. so I modified it slightly...I ate the cerial for breakfast and dinner, with a special k bar snack, and a piece of fruit snack, I did not eat after 7. I ate lunch rather than dinner, i find that come dinner time, the snack and cerial is enough if I have had a good lunch. I ate subway, any sandwich i wanted with chips and a dt soda (I didnt go crazy with the meatball or mbt or double meats, but I did use cheese and light mayo or ranch dressing). On the weekends, I ate out for lunch and followed the cerial snack regimine, I lost 7 lbs in 2 weeks. The only excersize I did, was walking my 2 dogs one mile 6 days a week. i am now on the start of my thir week, and hope to see continued weight loss.

Cereal K diet? what a farce... anything to get you unto their products... from a company funded by two brothers that maintained a sanitarium (Battle Creek) and believed in  women circumcision..to curb sexual practices, hurray for healthy cereals!

to quote Mr. Kellogg

" In females, the author [Mr. Kellog] has found the application of pure carbolic acid [phenol] to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement. "

What a great cereal!! ... what a farce

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvey_Kell ogg

 

So yes, the basis are the same... I fully support thin_girl when she says the secret is in *knowing* what you eat,  in respect to calorie values and nutritional breakdown (protein, carbs, fats).

If you take the easy way you'll lose the pound, hey I could make you lose pound by only telling you to eat flax seeds and tuna for a month... but you can't live on that... and when you stop, since you still have no idea what's going on... you'll pile on the weight again. habits changes. Knowledge of nutrion will help you change them. I ain't easy, if it was, everyone would have their dream bodies ; )

for breakfast, try:
original, non-sugared coated steel cut oatmeal? eggs whites some fruits?

I bought the chocolatey delight cereal the other day because... well, who can resist chocolate chunks in an otherwise plain cereal? I read the back of the box regarding the Special K challenge and it seems reasonable... it's advising that you replace two meals out of the day with a serving of the cereal, plus fruit to accompany said meal (which is what I typically do and would advise anyone to do, anyway). It also says to eat healthy snacks (could be fruit, cereal bars, etc) throughout the day, in addition to drinking plenty of water. I don't recommend JUST eating the cereals alone without fruit, because fruit is relatively fibrous and will help keep you full until dinner.

The above being said if you decide to take on the Special K Challenge. :)

it worked for me.I lost 3 pounds in the first 3 days it says you can lose up to a pant size in 2 weeks at my body weight  one pant size is about 10 pounds.its healthy and i am ok with the portion size.But i dont know ill tell you when my two weeks are done ok but it doesnt hurt to try its not killing you.

Well I started and although I get hungry quickly, I just have another small bowl. 1200 calories is not really enough for me. Happier at 1500. To me, a diet is just something to focus on while I swear off chocolate and booze :)

 

I am supposed to wear a corset and a tutu to play a charity football match on 10 October then at Halloween I am going to a sci-fi fantasy convention and my two costumes are Aunty Entity (Tina Turner) from Beyond Thunderdome.... I'm knitting the chainmail but the basic is a leotard so need to lose and Poison Ivy from Batman (Uma Thurman) which is a cat suit with a kind of corset over. Both need me not to be too gross.

So far, I seem to have lost 2lbs. Been eating the cereal and then a dinner which for me is mainly lean meat protein. I am a real carnivore.

I have checked out all the cereal packets and chosen two I like, Honey Nut Wheats and Shreddies. Most cereals seem to be of a similar make-up and calorific value. (ish). This has the advantage of being really easy (I'm lazy and live alone so I can please myself) and if I am feeling extra lazy or forget to shop, I can just have another bowl of cereal.

I'll report back after a bit longer. But I'm pretty sure I am eating less calories than I was.