Rich in nutrients, affordable and endlessly customizable, oats are staple breakfast for many. Rich in healthy carbs and fibre, oats make a perfect breakfast for weight watchers.
Whether you eat them raw or cooked, oats make for an ideal weight loss boosting food. But how you serve oats can actually have a big impact on the benefits that they provide.
One should avoid fatty and sugary toppings at all costs if one wants to lose weight. Here we tell you some things you should keep in mind when you eat oats to promote weight loss.
1. Avoid sugary and instant oats
Always prefer plain oats with no added flavours. Packaged and flavoured oats are usually loaded with sugar, which adds unwanted calories and decreases the nutritional value. A cup of flavoured oats has approximately 70 more calories than a cup of plain oats. So, if you switch to plain oats then you are eating approximately 25,000 less calories in a year (if you eat oats every day). 25,000 less calories are enough to make you lose 2.5 kilos in a year without making any other changes!
2. As a snack
Oats has high fibre content, which takes a long time to digest and hence, work by keeping you fuller for longer. It’s not just a simple breakfast food. Oats can make for a good snack option as well. Mixing up roasted oats with other filling ingredients like chivda, flattened rice, nuts and seeds can make for a healthy snack and definitely better than eating other fried, preservative-laden snacks and namkeens.
3. Add fibre-rich toppings
The key nutrient for losing weight is fibre. According to a research by University of Massachusetts Medical School, fibre helps you lose weight by keeping you fuller for longer and thus, stopping you from bingeing. Still, if you like your oats sweet, then you can add raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries to your oats. Berries will help you satisfy your sweet tooth and the fibre content in it will make the oats healthy for you.
4. By drinking oat milk
Did you know? Oat grains have a high calcium content in them. For those who don’t like the taste of milk, or are averse to dairy, oat milk can be a healthy replacement. It’s a plant-based protein and low in calories. If getting in shape in on your mind, you can consume oat milk as well. However, since it’s comparatively high in sugar, moderating your consumption works best
5. Do not add fatty toppings
Adding honey and maple syrup offer only a little nutritional value and more calories. You can add a banana or a drop of stevia (natural calorie-free sweetener) to satisfy your sweet tooth. Avoid adding peanut butter (market bought) to your oats. 2 tbsp of peanut butter has 188 calories with little nutritional value. Swap milk with water to prepare oats in order to make them healthier for your weight loss programme.
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