How Can Men Use The Oatmeal Diet To Lose Fat Fast?

I recently had some success with a diet centered around oatmeal. You may have heard of the oatmeal diet, which some tout to have produced results. I cannot agree with any diet that consists of just one food, even for a week or two. I also wouldn’t be able to deal with the monotony of it, to say nothing of the importance of a varied diet. But oatmeal does have some really useful qualities and benefits that can help men achieve fat loss and have a healthier diet. So, how can men use oatmeal to lose fat fast?

Oatmeal satiates better than nearly any other food. Not only does it provide a ton of fiber and some protein and micronutrients, but oatmeal acts as a powerful appetite suppressant by making you feel full for a long time, all while only containing a fraction of the calories of many other foods. Other versions of the oatmeal diet call for eating only oatmeal 3 meals a day, for the first week. I would not do this, and couldn’t handle that for even 1 week. Instead I would instead eat oatmeal for breakfast, lunch (if needed), and for dessert after a balanced dinner if you’re craving something sweet. So, eat 1 serving of oatmeal upon waking, then again as needed for lunch and after dinner. Dinner should consist of 2 cups of (preferably green, orange, or red) vegetables, a large serving of lean protein (e.g. 12-16 oz fish or chicken) and another carbohydrate if desired (rice, potatoes, or bread). This formula will make it easy to eat a low calorie diet while not also feeling like you’re starving. It will give you enough flexibility to satisfy most of your tastes and the oatmeal will keep you feeling full while providing all the heart and digestive benefits that oatmeal offers. Keep track of all your calories, and keep them under a maintenance level, and the weight will come off.

How exactly should you implement the oatmeal diet if you’re a guy that wants to lose weight fast? Let’s discuss why you could choose to use oatmeal to achieve your fat loss goals and how to lay out your meal plans.

The benefits of oatmeal.

Regularly including oatmeal in your diet has a long list of benefits both to your health, and relatedly, to your weight.

Oatmeal has plenty of fiber, the soluble kind, which forms a gel in your digestive system and helps keep bowel movements regular and smooth.

Rich in antioxidants, oatmeal also contains a long list of minerals and other micronutrients including copper, iron, and manganese among others.

Oatmeal contains slow-burning complex carbohydrates. These not only provide long-lasting energy, but actually require your body to use up more energy to process it.

Oats are often recommended for heart health and have a positive effect on blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

The protein content of oatmeal is quite high compared to other grains and cereals. This will help prevent muscle tissue breakdown and maintain healthy lean mass. It will also aid in the satiety that oatmeal provides. 1 cup of oats contains about 10 grams of protein.

The most important benefit, as it relates to weight loss, is the fact that oatmeal makes you feel full for a longer time than most foods, due to its slow digestion and macro make-up.

Some of the benefits of oatmeal relate to other areas besides nutrition. Oatmeal is very easy to prepare, only needs water added, and is also very inexpensive. Oatmeal is one of the least expensive, highly nutritious foods that you can buy. If you get the basic stuff, you could eat oatmeal for 2 meals a day for a whole month for about the price of a single meal at a fast food restaurant.

The oatmeal plan for weight loss.

The oatmeal diet is one of the easiest diets to remember and plan. First off, let’s define what a serving of oatmeal is.

A single serving of oatmeal will be ½ cup prepared, or about 1 oz (30 g) of dried oats. Prepare your oatmeal with water as opposed to milk in order to keep the calories as low as possible. Use trial error to determine whether you need 2 servings for one or both of your oatmeal-only meals. If you are fairly active during the day at work, or the gym, you may find you need 2 servings to keep your appetite under control.

Meal 1: Oatmeal 1-2 servings

Meal 2: Oatmeal 1-2 servings

Meal 3: Protein, vegetables, starch (optional)

Eat as many vegetables as you like. Green, red, orange, or purple vegetables are all great, and even white and yellow are fine in moderation.

Avoid fried foods, fatty meats, or anything with a lot of added oil.

Starches burn slower than simple carbohydrates, and take more energy to digest. For the starch, you can have pasta, rice, other grains, potatoes, sweet potatoes, or bread. Including these comfort foods will help keep you feeling full and may satisfy some of your cravings.

Avoid all sweets and simple carbs. A piece of fruit now and then is fine, but don’t go too crazy.

Keep your dinner portions reasonable and keep track of all your calories. If you’re worried about the impulse to overeat, have another serving of oatmeal 15-30 mins before dinner to lower your appetite.

If you like you can throw in a few days per week of just oatmeal, this will ensure some very low calorie days to really speed those results up.

What if you don’t like to eat in the morning?

You can skip breakfast and have oatmeal for lunch if you don’t like to eat upon waking. Your first meal of the day should be oatmeal, regardless of the time. If you skip breakfast and wait until lunch, or mid-afternoon to break your fast, be sure to have oatmeal for your first meal. If you focus on eating oatmeal for your first meal, your appetite will be lower for the rest of the day.

In order for the oatmeal diet to work, your calorie count for the day needs to remain below a maintenance level. Simply adding oatmeal to your diet with no other modification is not going to produce results.

It is not the presence of oatmeal in your diet that helps you lose weight, it is the use of oatmeal in order to help you consume less calories throughout the day. So if you have a hard time eating in the morning, that’s okay, but you still need to be sure to substitute oatmeal for 2 of your 3 daily meals.

How can I combine the oatmeal diet with intermittent fasting?

The oatmeal diet is a good way to enjoy some of the benefits of fasting while remaining on the less extreme end of the spectrum. Your appetite should be under control while this diet is working, so you’ll probably find it easier than normal to go without eating from dinner until breakfast. After all, you’ll be asleep for (hopefully) 8 hours of this time.

If you eat breakfast at 7am and dinner at 6pm, you’re already fasting for 12+ hours every night. This is long enough to allow your blood sugar to normalize, your body to kick into fat-burning mode, and your digestive system to have a little break (provided that your dinner wasn’t too large).

If you prefer a longer fast, like 16-18 hours, simply eat 0.5-1 cups of oatmeal at the beginning of your eating window. Wait at least an hour before your next meal.

If you are practicing OMAD, one meal a day, including oatmeal in your meal will be a great way to insure good fiber intake and keep your appetite at bay during your long fast.

Remember, one of the best ways to track your progress is your body fat percentage. Check out this post about how body composition is the best metric to track your progress.

Is there any flexibility on this oatmeal diet?

While it may feel somewhat restrictive, the oatmeal diet can provide some flexibility with a cheat meal. This is not some anything-goes conventional cheat meal. It just means that you can eat another single serving of oatmeal if you get hungry outside of your normal meal times. For example, if it’s a few hours after dinner And you’re craving something sweet, you can enjoy some oatmeal flavored with a calorie-free sweetener, or some honey, blueberries etc

If you’re craving junk, eat a ½ cup of oatmeal and wait half an hour, you’ll probably find you’ve beaten the craving and will not be hungry again for at least 4 more hours.

While I wouldn’t recommend a cheat day, we all slip up from time to time. Sometimes, I may overindulge and eat 2 cheesesteaks or a bag of candy or whatever it may be, and end up with a high caloric intake on a particular day. Of course, when you’re really trying to drop weight and get lean fast, this can be demoralizing. So, I will sometimes compensate when I have an undisciplined day, by having only oatmeal the following day. I allow myself to eat as much as I want, but this has never exceeded 6 x 0.5 cup servings. This is around 600 calories. So I will be following a day with a surplus of calories with a day with a large deficit. This is calorie cycling, although it is good to have one or two higher calorie days sprinkled in every week or so to keep your metabolism up, it’s better to have those calories come from healthy, whole foods, not junk.

If you want to lose fat the fastest way possible, eat only oatmeal one or two days per week in addition to the regular routine of oatmeal for all but one meal on all the remaining days. Be sure to eat a variety of foods for dinner on the other days, including plenty of different vegetables, as well as fish, eggs, and other protein sources.

Another need for flexibility may be related to your occupation. I used to unload package trucks, and doing that type of work, I couldn’t go to work without having eaten at least 500 calories beforehand without getting lightheaded and fatigued. If this is your situation, the good news is that the weight will come off easily burning that many calories at work. However, if you still want to use the oatmeal diet to accelerate your weight loss, or reprogram your eating habits, you could backload the oatmeal. That is, you’ll eat a large, protein-heavy breakfast before work, and have oatmeal for lunch and dinner. This way you’ll have plenty of calories to get through the workday, and you’ll control your post-work eating by having only oatmeal.

What if you get sick of oatmeal?

The best way to eat oatmeal, when trying to lose fat, is to have plain, slow cooked oats. This may get old pretty fast. However, there are many ways to add some flavor without adding many calories.

You can use the following to add some flavor:

Calorie-free sweeteners like Splenda or Equal.
Cinnamon

Honey
Brown sugar (keep it minimal)
Berries etc

Raisins or other dried fruit
Almonds or other nuts

Some of the above suggestions will add a significant number of calories and sugar. These should be used sparingly. Be sure to keep track of these additions in your daily food log so you’re not consuming more calories than you realize and hurting your results.

These modifications should be used as an emergency action if you’re craving sweets, and they should only be used when the alternative is a complete lapse in dietary discipline.

If you wake up one morning and just can’t handle any more oatmeal, you can substitute eggs instead. Poached, boiled, or scrambled, eggs also provide satiety and will reduce hunger for hours to come, and will provide a good dose of protein, healthy fats, and micronutrients.

Eggs are a good choice for substitution due to their high nutritional value and low calorie content. This is good for an occasional change, but try to stick to oatmeal as much as possible until you reach your goal weight.

Apples will also have a similar effect. The high fiber content and bulk will satiate you effectively and the calorie content of an average apple is around 100. The drawback is that apples, while nutritious, contain virtually no protein and do not have all the same benefits of oatmeal. But occasionally, you can have an apple instead.

How much weight will you lose if you eat oatmeal everyday?

Ok, so this obviously depends on how much oatmeal and other foods you eat. For roughly every 3500 calories (you don’t eat) under maintenance intake level, that’s a pound of fat you’ll lose. So if you eat 7000 calories less than you burn (maintenance intake plus those used during exercise) in a single week, you can expect to lose 2 lbs.

The power of oatmeal doesn’t lie in some magical property of oats enabling them to burn fat, but in oatmeal’s ability to stop you from getting hungry for a longer time. Oatmeal is very filling and stays with you for a long time, so you’ll eat less over the course of the day.

Try to keep your total calories to about 1500 per day for maximum weight loss. You can have some days when you eat less than this number of calories, and a few when you eat more. A daily average of around 1500 calories will be low enough to pretty much guarantee fat loss for the average guy. If you work a very physical job you’ll need more calories than this to get through the day, but keep it as low as possible and lean heavily on oatmeal to fill you up and keep hunger at bay.

For a lightening-fast short term weight loss trick, eating only oatmeal for a week and you could easily lose 4-5 lbs in a single week, if you are active.

It is important to track your progress with other metrics besides just weight and what you look like in the mirror. The scales will not tell the full story of what’s going on with your body composition. I highly recommend you track your body fat using a body fat monitor, and use a retractable tape measure to keep track of the size of your waist, hips, arms, and legs. This will give you a more complete picture of your progress.

Can you lose weight with instant oatmeal?

Instant oatmeal gets a bad rap in my opinion. Is it as perfect a food as slow-cooked, or steel-cut oats? No, but it’s still better than many other foods that you could eat. Although it is somewhat refined and contains some additives, it is still low in calories, rich in fiber, protein, and micronutrients, and will keep your hunger under control really well. It is also extremely convenient.

Instant oatmeal is what I use 90% of the time. Plain, instant oatmeal has about 100 calories per serving, and by keeping the sugar added to a minimum, or using other sweeteners, it makes a great choice. Even sweetened pre-flavored packs of instant oatmeal aren’t really that bad for you. A typical packet of raisins and spice or apples and cinnamon flavored instant oatmeal will contain between 10-15 grams of added sugar. This is not ideal, but not a deal breaker either. Unless you are shoveling more than 3-4 servings a day down your throat, this amount of added sugar should fall within the FDA guidelines.

The FDA recommends that calories from added sugar should not exceed 10% of your daily caloric intake. So for a 2000 calorie diet, this equals about 50 grams of added sugar. So if you have a packet of instant oatmeal, twice a day, you’ll be well under this amount.

The bottom line is, if you have the time, money, and will to prep your oatmeal ahead of time and use the best organic oats, that’s great. But, if you can only afford to buy the inexpensive instant packets and only have time to pour some boiling water in it and go, you can still use instant oatmeal to lose weight dramatically fast.

Will the oatmeal diet make you poop a lot?

You will certainly be going to the bathroom regularly, but don’t worry it won’t give you diarrhea. The soluble fiber in oatmeal is great for your gut health and will help your bowels evacuate more efficiently. If you are still overeating at dinner, you will still defecate a lot, but if you’re controlling your intake properly, your bowel movements will probably be smaller since you’re processing less food.

Once you have been on the oatmeal diet for a few days, you shouldn’t notice an increase in trips to the bathroom, but the trips you do make may be easier and shorter.

How few calories can I eat on an oatmeal diet?

Guys, get your regular check-ups with your doctor and talk to them, or your nutritionist, about the oatmeal diet or any other calorie-restrictive plan. It’s super important to stay informed about your health, so pay attention to the results of your bloodwork.

It is important to remember to be responsible for your own health and to stay informed. A big part of this is the blood work that accompanies your yearly physical. If your cholesterol or blood sugar is too high, your doctor may recommend that you include foods like oats in your diet more often to combat these problems.

It is typically not recommended for anyone to average less than 1200 calories per day to remain healthy. For active individuals, this amount will be higher. For most men, going below 1500 can be risky when done over an extended period of time. Again, talk to your doctor or nutritionist to determine a safe low-calorie number for you.

When calorie cycling, you can alternate higher and lower calorie days for a low average intake without the risk of going very low on calories every day for a long time. The oatmeal diet is really geared more for people who have a hard time not overeating. It is an appetite control device. Use the oatmeal diet to control hunger and go longer with less calories, not to starve yourself.

How long should I do the oatmeal diet?

Since we are not talking about only eating oatmeal, it’s a safe diet to continue for a long time. No single-food diet can be healthy, so eating only oatmeal for months at a time can lead to problems. While it would inevitably lead to weight loss, this is not a sensible approach. Instead, substitute oatmeal for one or two meals a day, and have one regular, balanced meal with plenty of protein and vegetables.

Boredom will be the limiting factor for most people who attempt the oatmeal diet. After 3 months of oatmeal for breakfast and lunch everyday, you will probably be ready to take a break. But don’t completely discard oatmeal after you reach your goal weight, it will always have a ton of health and weight benefits.

The oatmeal diet can be great for a fast weight loss program over 1-3 months, and it can be modified to last indefinitely. Basically, once you’ve reached a healthy weight, use oatmeal as a substitute for meals as needed to keep your calorie count within range, or to get back on track if you start to regain a few pounds.