Breakfast and Energy and Potassium

Jumpingbeans

Oatmeal is good for slowly releasing energy, however it is not a main source of potassium (one cup is 3% of your RDA). Bananas and kiwis are known for their high potassium sources, but spinach, avocado, (some) yogurts, white beans and sweat potatoes are a better potassium source.

Potassium can help glucose up-take in the intestine, but as far as I know, plays little role in glycogen storage. Vitamin B6 is an essential part of the enzyme that will store glucose as glycogen so you should try to replace oats with something else high in vitamin b6 (although oatmeal is high certain B vitamins, it is only 3% of your RDA for B6). Foods high in B6 include nuts, prunes, spinach, avocado and bananas. Maybe a combination of cereals, nuts, yogurt and fruit might work?

Exercise is also a way to increase your energy (running or swimming where your muscles go into anaerobic respiration). This will increase your GLUT4 transporter expression (although the time and intensity this takes is debated). GLUT4 allows your glycogen storage to be converted back into glucose for you to use throughout the day (or during exercise).

Hope this helps!

Julia33

Thank you for info, I will start eat Oats.

JohnR41

You're getting the energy you need for highly demanding physical work but gaining fat around the middle. My thought is that you might be exceeding the amount of oatmeal that you need. I would advise sticking with one serving as stated on the package.

Also, include fruit and nuts. You might stir in a chopped banana and a tablespoon of chopped nuts.