[Part 1] The Cereal Fatness Index — The 50 Most Fattening Cereals

The 50 Most Fattening Cereals is part 1 of 3 in our Lean It UP Cereal Fatness Index series, which scores and ranks 275 brands of cereal based on their propensity to MAKE YOU FAT!

Cereal is kiddy crack. Well, maybe adult crack also. Colorful rainbows, sugar, fun animals, sugar, mazes and puzzles, sugar…toys. DAMN YOU Kellogg’s!

It’s undeniably delicious, incredible, and nostalgic. Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, Lucky Charms — ahhhhh the good old days when our metabolisms ran at the speed of 28 Usain Bolts.

But somehow, someway, there’s a sweeping perception that cereal is actually a health food. Maybe it’s the fact that cereal is fortified with vitamins and minerals. Maybe it’s bran. Maybe it’s Kashi. In large, I disagree with this perception. Without doing any detailed analysis, I can tell you for a fact that the aforementioned CTC, Trix, and Lucky Charms ARE fattening and will plaster blubber over your midsection. They’re a sugar-oozing bogeyman. Finish a box of Fruity Pebbles and dump out the remnants — sugar crystals, Crayola colored particles, and god knows what else lace the bottom.

Given that over 250 different cereals exist — many of which SEEM healthy, but in fact are complete garbage — and the cereal-scape is crowded and confusing, I developed The Lean It UP Cereal Fatness Index; a ranking of 275 brands of cereal based on their propensity to MAKE YOU FAT (or, for that matter, get you lean and ripped)!

Using a proprietary, specifically designed formula, I entered the macronutritional information for every single cereal brand and arrived at a LeanFACTOR Score — ranging from 100 to -100, with lower numbers being incrementally more fattening — based on 3 main criteria:¹²

1. Calories — Cereals with higher calorie counts scored lower.
2. Protein — Cereals with more protein scored higher. Protein reduces hunger levels, promotes lean muscle growth, increases metabolism, and has a thermogenic effect, which burns upwards of 33% of its calories during digestion/metabolism. Cereals with less protein were penalized.
3. Fiber-to-Sugar Balance — Calculated by subtracting the sugar content from fiber content in a given cereal. Cereals with a high fiber-to-sugar balance scored higher. Sugar spikes blood sugar and insulin, which signals the body to store fat, and increases hunger levels. Fiber decreases hunger and helps control blood sugar and insulin, which prevents fat storage. Fiber is also indigestible, so in effect it counts as 0 calories.

*Note — all nutrition facts are based on 1 standard NLEA serving of cereal.

Taking all 275 LeanFACTOR Scores, cereals were then ranked from high-to-low to develop the full Lean It Up Cereal Fatness Index.

In order to make this as objective and evenly weighted as possible, all subjective factors, including my personal opinion, weren’t included as inputs. Things like HFCS, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, carbohydrate sources (e.g. corn, wheat, oats), etc. were excluded, as there a) isn’t conclusive evidence to suggest that any of these things directly contribute to weight-gain and obesity, and b) is no way to consistently measure these items across the board when labels don’t include measurements (e.g. Cereal X has 6 grams of HFCS).

The Lean It Up Cereal Fatness Index series will run in three parts over the next few days, kicking off the with The 50 Most Fattening Cereals  —

• [Part 1] The 50 Most Fattening Cereals

• [Part 2] The 50 Healthiest Cereals

• [Part 3] All 276, The Full Cereal Fatness Index

[Part 1] The Cereal Fatness Index — The 50 Most Fattening Cereals

50. Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, General Mills

49. Fruitangy Oh’s, Quaker

48. Treasure Hunt Instant Oatmeal, Quaker

47. Raisin Spice Instant Oatmeal, Quaker

47. Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp, General Mills

47. Peanut Butter Toast Crunch, General Mills

47. Tony’s Cinnamon Crunchers, Kellogg’s

47. Cap’n Crunch Crunch Berries, Quaker

47. Multigrain Raisin Spice Hot Oatmeal, Nature’s Path

41. Count Chocula, General Mills

Pages: 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1

References, Notes, Links

1. All nutritional information was pulled from NutritionData.com [↩]
2. Images sourced from Shopwell.com [↩]

• About
• Latest Posts

60

Bryan DiSanto

Owner & Editor-in-Chief at Lean It UP

Bryan DiSanto is the Owner & Editor-in-Chief of Lean It UP, ACE-CPT & CSN, NYU graduate, ex-fat kid, and all-around fitness/nutrition nutjob.

When he’s not working on his (or somebody else’s) abs, whipping up Eggocados, or running a Tough Mudder, he’s probably off yelling at a Carolina Panthers game somewhere.

60

Latest posts by Bryan DiSanto (see all)

• An Actual, Real Life Human Attempted The Rock’s 10-Pound-A-Day Diet, Here’s How It Went Down (Or Up) - May 8, 2015
• Spring Cleaning? Use These 5 Tactics To Clean Up Your Snack Habit This Spring - May 7, 2015
• The Elite Six — 6 Advanced Six-Pack Ab Exercises To Build An HD, Razor Sharp Core - May 6, 2015

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5