Overnight oats for weight loss

Whether low-calorie overnight oats for weight loss or a tasty porridge for more energy – oatmeal has become a daily must at the breakfast table for many. There are now countless videos and recipes on social media on how to prepare your oatmeal according to your taste. We have taken a closer look at why the popular overnight oats made from flakes are an important part of a healthy diet and with which delicious healthy breakfast recipes you can provide more variety at the breakfast table for this post.

Losing weight with overnight oats – how does it work?

Losing weight with overnight oats may sound like wishful thinking at first glance, but it is by no means. Because there are actually some reasons for integrating overnight oats into your daily diet, which are based not only on experience, but also on scientific knowledge.

If you want to lose weight, sooner or later you will come into contact with different forms of nutrition and diet. Low carb diets , keto diets and co. all promise to keep the kilos tumbling.

However, the decisive factor is less whether you save on fats or carbohydrates, but how many calories you eat ^​1​ . The bottom line is that the energy balance in combination with the quality of the food counts if you want to lose weight effectively.

In any case, you should aim for a so-called calorie deficit, i.e. a calorie intake below the calories required to maintain body mass. Incidentally, you can calculate your personal needs using a calorie calculator.

The big advantage of overnight oats is that you can prepare them the day before, so you can have a healthy breakfast in the morning. Considering some studies that show that skipping breakfast is associated with being overweight ^​2 , the overnight oats have a big advantage – they hardly require any preparation time.

In addition, the oatmeal is considered a healthy source of carbohydrates, as it only increases your blood sugar level moderately ^​3​ and thus ensures a long satiety and the avoidance of food cravings.

That's why overnight oats are so healthy

To prepare overnight oats, simply soak oatmeal overnight in milk or a plant-based drink of your choice. Depending on what other foods you include in your breakfast, you will get a healthy and complete meal with all the important nutrients.

Just the fact that the main ingredient is oatmeal is already a positive signal for your health. Because oats are one of the complex carbohydrates, sometimes called slow carbs . This means that the carbohydrates enter the bloodstream more slowly and thus cause your blood sugar levels to rise at a healthy rate – not too fast and not too slow.

In addition, oats contain the fiber beta glucan, which reduces the insulin response of your pancreas ^​3​ and can help maintain your insulin sensitivity and prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus. The reduced insulin and blood glucose response also ensures that the carbohydrates are absorbed more slowly and thus provide long-term energy.

Another advantage of overnight oats is their versatility in preparation . The base, consisting of oatmeal or oat bran, is fixed, but you can refine your overnight oats with all kinds of seed, nut or berry mixtures.

This not only ensures a variety of flavours in your daily diet, but also varying nutrient patterns . Nuts and seeds provide healthy fatty acids and valuable fat-soluble vitamins , while fresh berries provide you with water-soluble vitamins and valuable minerals.

What happens in the body when you regularly eat overnight oats

If you've gotten a taste for it and are planning to regularly incorporate overnight oats into your diet, you might want to know what the effects are on your body. And that is exactly what we are now taking a closer look at.

First of all, you will have less stress by preparing the evening before in the morning. What sounds banal can be experienced as extremely pleasant in practice and ensure a more relaxed start to the day.

If you now eat your oats and use natural ingredients in the preparation , you will also benefit from the fact that there is no added sugar in your breakfast. This will sensitize your taste buds as well as your reward centre and allow you to enjoy the natural sweetness of fruit again.

After your breakfast, you will most likely notice an increased feeling of fullness . This effect is mainly due to the long-chain structure of the carbohydrates of the oats as well as the high protein and fiber content. Thanks to the improved satiety and the gentle rise in blood sugar levels , you will now be supplied with energy in the long term and also avoid the dreaded cravings that can otherwise occur quite often in a calorie deficit.

Overnight Oats Weight Loss Recipes – Our Tips for a Healthy Breakfast

As we have now established, overnight oats have numerous advantages that can work wonders in everyday nutrition. Now we would like to show you how you can ideally prepare delicious oats for the next morning.

Whether you're looking to incorporate superfoods or just your favorite fruits, we've prepared some simple recipes to inspire you.

Oatmeal as a base: this is how the basic recipe succeeds

But before we dive into the detailed design of the overnight oats, we should first briefly go through the basic recipe. For a filling breakfast, it is advisable to use at least 45 g of oatmeal. By the way, to achieve a creamy consistency, you should rely on delicate oatmeal and milk or creamy almond milk.

For the low-calorie version of the basic recipe, you should mix the oatmeal with about 80 ml of water or a plant-based drink of your choice. These liquids contain fewer calories than 80 ml of milk, which makes them a suitable variant for your weight loss success.

Overnight Oats Basic Recipe – No Added Sugar

The basic recipe for overnight oats is super simple – you only need 2 ingredients.

Preparation time 2 min.

Total time 2 hrs

Servings: 1 serving

Calories: 150 kcal

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp oatmeal (approx. 45 g oatmeal) or Verival Overnight Oats
• 80 ml milk, water or a plant-based alternative (e.g. milk from soy)
• Toppings of your choice: berries (blueberries, raspberries,...), nuts, nutmeg, dried or fresh fruits, bananas, apples, grated coconut,...

Preparation

• Water, milk or a plant-based alternative comes together with the oatmeal in a glass and is stirred well.
• The mixture is put in the fridge overnight until the next morning or for at least 2 hours.
• Then stir well again and enjoy.
• If necessary, you can refine your overnight oats with toppings of your choice.

Tip

Tip: We recommend refining your Overnight Oats recipe with honey, cinnamon, turmeric, agave syrup or maple syrup and completing it with fruits, nuts and seeds. Every now and then, a few grates of chocolate are also okay as a sweet refinement. If you use gluten-free oatmeal, this meal is also a great option for people with gluten intolerance.

Nutritional values

Calories: 150 kcal

Weight Loss Recipe Ideas with Overnight Oats

Now that you know the basic recipe and the most important variations, we can focus on the fun and creative part of the preparation. The question now is which foods you want to integrate into your overnight oats in addition to the oatmeal.

You can answer this question from two perspectives. On the one hand, you can freely choose your toppings according to your taste. On the other hand, it is possible to first determine which nutrients you want in breakfast – and only then select the appropriate ingredients. Below is a brief overview of suitable toppings and their benefits from a nutritional point of view.

For an extra creamy consistency of your overnight oats, you can also add some low-fat quark or skyr. For sweetening, you should use low-calorie sweeteners or sweeteners that are as natural as possible. Agave syrup and maple syrup contain numerous phytonutrients ^​4,5 , which are beneficial for your health despite the sugar content.

By the way, special care must be taken with chocolate. Be sure to use unsweetened cocoa powder or dark chocolate – these contain even more valuable nutrients from the cocoa bean and are also low in sugar.

As an inspiration for a varied breakfast day, here are three of our most popular recipes:

Recipe: Overnight Oats with Berries

Creamy overnight oats with blueberries – ready in no time.

Preparation time 5 min.

Cook Time 3 hrs

Total time 3 hrs 5 min.

Keyword: Overnight Oats, Porridge

Servings: 1 serving

Ingredients

• 50 g blueberry apple porridge
• 120 ml (vegetable) milk or water
• Some
berries , e.g. blueberries

Preparation

• Place the blueberry apple porridge in a mason jar.
• Then add 120 ml of a liquid of your choice and mix the ingredients together well.
• Place the mason jar overnight or for min. 3 hours in the fridge.
• Stir the porridge mixture well again before eating.
• When your overnight oats are nice and creamy, they're ready.
• Now you can refine your overnight oats with berries of your choice.

Tip

If you notice that the porridge mixture is too solid, add some more liquid.

Cocoa Banana Overnight Oats without Sugar

Preparation time 5 min.

Servings: 1

Ingredients

• 80 g cocoa banana sport porridge
• 140 ml milk or plant drink
• 1
tsp agave syrup or similar for sweetening (optional)
• Choice of toppings: bananas, berries, nuts, nutmeg, cocoa nibs,  dried fruits

Preparation

• Pour water, milk or a plant-based alternative into a glass together with the Verival Sport Porridge and stir well.
• Your mixture will be in the fridge overnight or for at least 2 hours. As a result, the mixture is properly soaked and gets its delicious consistency.
• The next day, take your overnight oats out of the fridge and stir them vigorously again.
• If necessary, you can refine your overnight oats with toppings of your choice.

Carrot Cake Overnight Oats

Preparation time 10 min.

Let swell in the fridge 3 hrs

Total time 3 hrs 10 min.

Servings: 1

Ingredients

• 50 g oatmeal
• 150 ml plant-based drink
• 1 grated carrot
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tsp cashew butter (optional)

Preparation

• Grate the carrot first and then put it in a jar, such as a mason jar.
• Then add the oatmeal, the plant drink, the cinnamon, the pinch of salt and the cashew.
• Mix all the ingredients in the glass well and then put the overnight oats in the fridge overnight or for at least 3 hours.
• The next day, the oats and carrots have soaked up the liquid and the overnight oats are now nice and creamy.
• You can then eat the overnight oats like this, or refine them with various toppings. Nuts in particular go particularly well with the Carrot Cake Overnight Oats.

Avoid these traps to lose weight with Overnight Oats

We have already touched on it briefly, but now we should take a sharper look at possible traps in the preparation. Because most of them lurk a little below the surface, which is why they are not too easy to identify for many.

A big trap is also extremely common – it's about nuts and nut mixes as a topping. While small amounts of these are extremely healthy and can significantly improve the taste of overnight oats, larger amounts can put a huge dent in your bill.

Because nuts also contain a lot of energy due to their high content of healthy fatty acids. However, if you want to lose weight, you should avoid just that – too many calories . Therefore, you should always make sure to include a maximum of a handful of nuts in your breakfast in order to benefit from the positive effects while avoiding the negative ones.

You should also avoid sweetening your oatmeal too much . Otherwise, you run the risk of negating the positive effects on your reward center as well as your blood sugar level.

Apart from that, fortunately, you can't go too wrong as long as you don't completely go overboard with the oatmeal and toppings.

Why You Should Add Overnight Oats to Your Meal Plan

So let's face it: there are plenty of reasons to include overnight oats in your meal plan. On the one hand, there is the simple preparation, which makes the recipes ideal as a meal prep. In addition, the overnight oats provide you with numerous valuable macro and micronutrients, especially if you top them skillfully.

At the same time, there are hardly any noteworthy risks and even potential traps are quickly discovered. All in all, an extremely positive balance sheet. Reason enough to integrate the versatile recipe ideas into your daily diet 😉