Porridge

LegacyUser

Silly question maybe but can anyone tell me the calorific value of eating:

50g porridge oats made with water with 1 small banana sliced and a sml handful of raisins and nuts mixed in. I only ask as I have become addicted to it. Today i had it for breakfast, lunch and now for dinner followed by a low fat yogurt.

Is this bad? I couldn't eat it all the time but I definitely did not to snack today.

Any advise please.

fits

Its pretty much a whole food, so its not the worst food to be addicted to..
Try and get some green veggies and vitamin c in and you're sorted...

LegacyUser

Great I may try mixing broccoli in to it and wash it down with a glass of oj.
Seriously I cannot afford to binge on fattening food. Is a couple of bowls a day ok providing I am using it as a meal?

davyjose

Eh ... it might be tastier if you had the brocolli seperately.
TBH a varied diet is important - that way you ensure you're getting everything you need. If you're going to stick to this, make sure you get a good mulit-vitamin.
OJ is full of sugar (even the unsweetened stuff) so therefore it's quite a calorific drink. And not as healthy as eating an Orange.

ali.c

davyjose wrote:

Eh ... it might be tastier if you had the brocolli seperately.

QFT, i think you would find it easier to stick with a more varied diet tbh.

LegacyUser

TBH its nothing I don't already know. I was just interested in how many calories it was. I am going on hols in just 2 weeks and thought it may help towards the leaner holiday bod. I am exercising regularly too and am not over weight just a few areas needing toning.

I'm sure it wont do any harm to cut down now in order to combat the holiday indulgence?:eek:

ali.c

you can use www.fitday.com or www.nutrionaldata.com to check the calorific value and nutrional information of foods

hunnymonster

oats have aprox 360 kcal per 100g dry weight. I doubt anyone with any lvel of activity could eat too many calories from porridge. The constant trips to the loo would put a stop to biinge-porridging. Having said that, if you're adding a "handful" of nuts every time, that is going to seriously up the calorie content.

Nuts are good in your diet but they are hig calorie so only use them in small amounts. Dried fruit is also highish calorie without the good stuff in nuts so why not try some fresh fruit. Strawberries and apple are particularly good in porridge.

LegacyUser

hunnymonster wrote:

oats have aprox 360 kcal per 100g dry weight. I doubt anyone with any lvel of activity could eat too many calories from porridge. The constant trips to the loo would put a stop to biinge-porridging. Having said that, if you're adding a "handful" of nuts every time, that is going to seriously up the calorie content.

Nuts are good in your diet but they are hig calorie so only use them in small amounts. Dried fruit is also highish calorie without the good stuff in nuts so why not try some fresh fruit. Strawberries and apple are particularly good in porridge.

Thanks Hunnymonster
I have fruit prepared for tomorrows ration as I type.

siochain

have to say i love the oats but one portion a day does the job for me.

As you consuming a lot of fiber be sure to drink lots of water...

rubadub

Most products have all the info on the packet, if you are going to the bother to weigh out 50g I would have thought you know to look at the pack and half the value given.

If you have a digital scales then you can keep zeroing it, add the bowl, zero, add oats, then milk and tot all the calories up. Learning to count calories is very worthwhile. If there is fresh produce in the supermarkets it might have no info, so just go to a prepackaged similar product and get the info there, e.g. potatoes

LegacyUser

rubadub wrote:

Most products have all the info on the packet, if you are going to the bother to weigh out 50g I would have thought you know to look at the pack and half the value given.

If you have a digital scales then you can keep zeroing it, add the bowl, zero, add oats, then milk and tot all the calories up. Learning to count calories is very worthwhile. If there is fresh produce in the supermarkets it might have no info, so just go to a prepackaged similar product and get the info there, e.g. potatoes

Hi there, don't get me wrong I am well capable of reading and understanding the calorific value on the back of the packet. My question is more the fact that I am adding in extra bits with no listings on the packet. eg. the nuts and raisins or the banana.
My scales......mmmm I'd hazard a guess that it was used in the war to weigh rations. There is no option to go to zero unfortunately.
Today i decided that while 3 bowls of porrigde is yummy it's not too good on the tummy. By the time I went for my walk last night I felt like I had eaten a cavity block. The best option I suppose is to limit to 1 bowl per day. I've just finished the bag so I will go cold turkey for the rest of the day.

Thanks for the advice anyway.

rubadub

On some packs there might be info, I have seen calorific values on bananas before on packs. What I do not know is if it includes the skin. That is a thing to watch for, and dry info or cooked info. There are plenty of sites with the info on them.

I was looking at oven chips yesterday, one low fat option had about the same values as as normal one before cooking, "per 100g as frozen", think normal was 4% fat, the other was 2%. The "cooked serving" kcal figure was much higher on the normal one, but then when you look at the figures in there it just appeared like the low fat ones were thicker so retained lots of water when cooked.

It might be an idea to get scoops for portion control. You can cut little bottles down to size, just weigh it once and calculate once. Should be able to eyeball stuff when you get used to it.

I would say from your first description it is about 400kcal all in. Depends how big your hands are though!

LegacyUser

Thanks Rubadub, I'm getting the idea now. The porridge is not as low fat as I originally thought. All in all my diet is not bad and I have just made up a pot of veg soup made on water to do for a day or two. Similar to the weight watchers no point soup.

I could probably do with getting more disaplined in my work out as well. I am not timing myself and I should push myself a little harder. I suppose I need to do the crunches and curls if I want to gain that toned tum!

rubadub

jungdreamer wrote:

The porridge is not as low fat as I originally thought.

I am guessing you meant not as low in calories. Many talk of "fat" as though it is the only thing that makes you fat. Porridge is about 7% fat, so 3.5g in your 50g, while the peanuts are where the calories and fat really come in, 50% fat.

Marketers throw around figures and prey on peoples ignorance and misconceptions. You will see milk ads saying "only 4% fat", but you could be pouring 250g on your 50g of oats. And you see these cakes and bars with "only 5% fat"- you can expect them to be 70% sugar though!, and vice versa, "only 5% sugar" is probably loaded with fat, cleverly marketed junk.

My breakfast is usually the most calorific meal of the day. Since it is a decent breakfast it fills me well and is the main reason that my other meals do not have to be so big (and so it looks large in comparison).

Dont be too put off by high calorie foods, many are perfectly fine, it is high calorie junk with no nutrition that you want to give a miss.