Special K Cereal: The Miracle Diet Food

If you mention diet and cereal together, the first thought you’ll probably have is Special K. The reason why is obvious… Special K is the only cereal that practically markets itself as a weight loss and diet product. Case in point:

I just saw a commercial for Special K. It took quite a while for me to realize they were behind the commercial because honestly, it could have been for a weight loss pill or ab machine by the way it sounded.

I don’t remember it word-for-word. If I did I’d recite the entire thing back to you so you too can experience this marketing miracle. I can however sum up the two messages this commercial was supposed to get across.

1. You’re more likely to lose weight if you eat breakfast.
2. You’re more likely to lose weight if that breakfast is Special K cereal.

First of all, you’re more likely to lose weight if you consume less calories, burn more calories, or do a combination of both. That’s it. End of discussion. (Full details are here: How To Lose Weight)

Second of all, Special K cereal does not cause weight loss in any way whatsoever. It’s just calories. There are no weight loss vitamins, minerals, ingredients or magic fairy dust in it that makes it any different than any other calories. Sure, it’s low fat, and that’s always nice. Sure, it’s low in calories too, but so is everything else that’s low in fat. It is calories and nothing more.

Do you know what that means? It means that if someone is going to claim Special K makes you lose weight, or even just slightly helps you lose weight, you can equally claim that it makes you gain weight. Why? BECAUSE IT’S CALORIES. They control what your weight does, not specific foods. Eat too much Special K and you’ll gain weight no different than if you ate too many potato chips.

They market it as this miracle diet food because, compared to eating a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast, it makes a much better choice. But, so does oatmeal, or fruit, or egg whites, or whole wheat bread, or another cereal like Cheerios. As long as you eat the same number of calories worth, they will all have an equal effect on your weight loss.

As a cereal, Special K is one of the good guys. It’s a much better choice than the other sugar-loaded junk cereals, and it actually tastes pretty good. But, as a diet food, it’s no different than any of the other garbage people try to sell you under the guise of a miracle product.

“Buy this product and you’ll be more likely to lose weight” actually means “We’re kind of lying here, or at least just not telling you the whole truth. We do this because we want you to buy OUR product. We like making money.” every single time.

So sure, if you are currently eating 750 calories worth of junk for breakfast every day, and you replace it with 250 calories worth of Special K cereal, you’ll end up losing weight. But just know that the Special K had nothing to do with it. It was the 500 calorie reduction to your diet that made this happen. You could have eaten 250 calories worth of any cereal you wanted (even the junky sugary ones) and it still would have caused weight loss.