Alpen
I like Alpen. It’s tasty and it’s got raisins in it which must mean it’s healthy. It’s also got added sugar (as evidenced by the no added sugar version) which may or may not outweigh any raisin based health benefits. Since I’m on a pretty extreme diet (which is going swimmingly, thank you 
) I looked at perhaps making my breakfast lower in calories by replacing my Alpen with something else.
First thought was toast. Good old marmite on toast. No, my diet app informs me that this is 300 calories (really?!) and not enough fibre to start my day meaning I’ll be hungry.
Fine, let’s go with no added sugar Alpen. I discovered very quickly that while it looks like normal Alpen it is in fact constructed from little flakes of cardboard cut out and coloured to resemble Alpen but with none of the flavour, save what little taste the raisins can add. Not wishing to be put off I decided to work out what sacrificing taste really gained me. Got to be worth 50 calories at least?
A quick check of the box and we find a portion of Alpen is 146 calories. Compare that to no added sugar which only comes to 141… hang on a minute… 5 calories? I can burn that just smiling about the fact I don’t have to eat the no added sugar crap.
Next up, time to check my portion size compared to the official portion size. According to the box 1 portion is 40 grams. According to my scales 40 grams of Alpen would leave a mouse hungry. Come 10am you’re going to be starving which leads to snacking and before you know it you’ve eaten a whole packet of chocolate biscuits. No, 80 plus grams is much more like a real serving (120 would be better) and that pushes the calorie count up somewhat.
OK, so let’s go the full hog, let’s accept it’s going to taste of cardboard and leave you miserable all day. Let’s eat Special K. Except its diminutive 117 calories comes from a 30g portion. For comparison that’s about the weight of one raisin in my Alpen1 and if we scale that up to the [now comparatively massive] default Alpen portion it’s nearly 152 calories! For the slow among you: that’s more than my added sugar Alpen.
So what have we learned? Well for starters we’ll be sticking with Alpen for breakfast, and double portions at that ( even occasional forays into Coco Pops won’t hurt provided I don’t do the whole megaportion thing) and when they say “can help slimming as part of a calorie controlled diet” we need to remember that anything (even lard) will make you lose weight as part of the calorie controlled diet. It’s the calorie controlled bit that’s key.
Meanwhile I look for other areas to save on calories. It’s got to be one of the: amount of carrots I eat; the amount of fruit I eat; or all the kebabs. I suspect it’s the carrots.
1OK, maybe not, but you get the idea.
I used to control portions/lose weight by following the simple rule:
Eat slowly and stop when you’ve had enough (need to eat slowly so you can tell).
However this got corrupted somehow in to:
Shovel it in and stop when you’ve finished. And finished your wife’s.
Willpower. I have none.
The best way to lose weight, however, is for the NHS to fuck up and tell you you have some sort of gastritis. Lost 15kg in 25 days.
Porridge. Tasty, no salt (yes, check the salt content of Alpen) and only as much sugar as you care to put on – or use honey. Gorgeous.
Not as tasty as Alpen, not as quick to make either. Plus I need to add lots of sugar in order to make it edible. My diet App tracks salt intake and I’m well below the RDA most days.
2 Stone in 25 days sounds a little too extreme. I’m aiming for 1-2lbs per week
@Dom
Yes, it was a bit, but fortunately I put it all back on over a period of about 14 months – much healthier