Training & Nutrition - diet questions - cereal?

ok, i'm writing partly to force myself to address the subject...

background: i am a hard-gainer and do quite a bit of aerobic and weight training. i am 6'1" and unfortunately back down to less than 160lbs, and something around 9% body fat... --- i was up to 170lbs and about 5% body fat about 3 years ago, but i go to the gym less frequently and i got lazy about keeping to my strict diet (lots of chicken)... so my biggest concern is getting enough calories - otherwise i loose weight!

for about the last 6 months i had been lax about going to the gym as my gym membership had run out (3-4 years ago i lifted 5-6 times a week in addition to LOTS of cycling) and now i found a cool place that's only $3 per visit, so i've been going about 3 times a week again and i can tell that i need to eat more and better.

next is i'm kind of lazy and most of my "cooking" consists of fixing pasta or cutting up chicken and vegies for stir-fry or putting a pizza in the oven...

anyhow, i think in general i eat pretty well:
1) i eat a fair number of fruits and vegies
2) i try to eat as much Chicken and turkey as possible, reducing the pork and beef and heavy fat stuff
3) i don't eat too much deep-fried or fast food or junk or whatever

my main problem is that i eat cold CEREAL a lot, which in itself is not bad... i will probably eat cold cereal for breakfast for my whole life (pretty much have to this day), but the problem is that as i eat 4-5 meals per day, i often eat cereal for 2 or even 3 of these meals!!! part of it is convenience: i can grab a bowl and milk and fill up in no time.

so 2 questions:
1) how much do you guys think i would be better off if i ate something different (more variety, plus other nutrients)
2) i change every few months to a different type/brand of cereal and go from the range of FrostedFlakes/CocaPebbles all the way to RaisinBran/wholeGrainCereals/Muesli... how much of a difference is this?

i eat cereal every morning, get a pretty good lunch at our work cafeteria and then eat a 2-yogurt and pretzel snack and then for my one or 2 dinners it varies from pizza to to pasta with tomato sauce to home stir-fried chicken (last week had with brocoli 2 days - yum!) ... and then i usually have either a yogurt or cereal snack before bed...

so any help? any big suggestions?
i'm kind of looking to improve something but the excessive cereal is hard for me to curb and i don't know what i can substitute that is so convenient (i.e. i need to leave for a bike ride or for the gym in 10 minutes - what can i eat?)

I am also a hardgainer that does a lot of aerobics much of the year(but am currently limiting it)along with weight training.As you said I have to eat enormous amounts of calories to avoid losing weight as well as to avoid overtraining.IMO it sound like on your overall diet you may be trying to hard to eliminate fats.Hardgainers should use full fat milk,coconut milk,whole eggs,and even cream and balance these with essential fats from sources such as nuts,pumpkin seeds,salmon and fish oils . In addition hardgainers should not limit carbs either particularly complex so with the cereal I would suggest going with the non sugar whole grain types or oatmeal and adding fruit to sweeten and maybe almonds or walnuts to add fats and perhaps even some whey to add protein.As an alternative and I am even lazier than you as I rarely cook try a blended shake of water, whey/soy powder,raw oatmeal,two fruits of your choice and one or more of peanut butter(natural),other nuts,coconut milkor cream.Use a glass blender and drink out of the blender next to the sink rinse out blender with water and your out the door lol.

(i was expecting an answer from you RWTD - thanks!)
hmm... so you think that as long as it's more "healthy" cereal rather than sugar cereal, it's not so bad to eat it more than once a day or even 3 times...

i forgot to add - i also each lots of Nutella b/c it's also easy. it has a lot of calories, but i'm not sure how much processed sugar and crap is in it... anyone know anything about nutella (it's basically peanut butter but with a different nut - uh, i'm blanking on the name right now)

hmm... eggs and whey protein...
so how do you take your whey? i've never bough any, but can you just buy it like a bag of flour? and can you buy it at the supermarket or only at a health food store (or GNC)? is it "expensive" like many supplements or reasonably cheap? as i'm currently in Germany, it is often hard for me to find stuff since i still haven't really learned how/where everything is as the stores tend to be smaller with mayn specialty stores. is it just called "Whey" or "Whey Protein" or "Protein supplement" or what?

i used to take Gainer shakes, but i haven't in maybe 3 years or more...

i got on the scale about 2 months ago and it registered like 68kg or something which according to my conversion is 150 lbs (2.2046lbs/kg), but it's just a crappy bathroom scale so i hope it is wrong! yesterday it registered 71kg (156.5lbs) --- i really hope that is not right, although i do know i have lost some muscle... some day here i'll find a good scale.

There is nothing wrong with whole grain cereal as long as you balance it out to include protein and fat (and fruit for antioxidents etc.)as well.As a hardgainer you want to always keep your muscles topped up with carbs to avoid muscle loss .I actually prefer raw nuts to nut butters and am not really familiar with nutella but do recall Dwagenheim seemed to eat a lot of it on his tour .As far as whey I would go with the micro/ultrafiltered whey protein concentrate powder.I buy it from a manufacturer in Calif. in bulk for less than $4/lb. for 50 lbs. unflavored/unsweetened and it is hard to find this way otherwise.This makes it comparable to powered milk or eggs in cheapness.In the US at GNC or similar supplement stores or online you can find economy 5lb. sizes for around $5/lb otherwise it can get rather pricey if you aren't careful.If hard to find just use powdered milk,soy protein isolate,raw eggs,whole milk,whole yogurt or a combination of these just remember to keep rotating ingredient as with the cereals and you won't get tired of it.And finally avoid the gainer shakes as their mostly sugar.P.S. The whey protein itself is actually best for building muscle and staying lean in conjunction with weighttraining than pure weight gain due to its high/fast absorption and utilization rate for musclebuilding so if you use it it is important to use other high calorie items to prevent too much weight loss.

nathank I may have answered a little too generally to your question on eating cereal 3 times /day so let me try to elaborate some.I try to eat a meal every 3 or 4 hours and the amount of calories and composition will vary based on my planned activity level until the next meal or beyond.If I am planning on endurance aerobic activity I will eat meals high in complex carbs and fats and fairly low in protein and then up the protein during the post ride recovery phase still keeping the carbs and fats high(ie more balanced between the three).If I am focusing on weight training I will up the protein considerably and moderate the carbs and fat somewhat bringing them all more in balance as to proportion as well(the amounts hre vary as to pre-training or post-training but I won't get into that here).If I am being inactive I will cut the carbs way down and go fairly high in protein and fat.So going to specifically how much carbs I go by feel and observation as the idea is to always keep your muscle glycogen(carb) stores topped up but no more to avoid storage as fat.If my muscles are looking flat and I have been doing alot of activity I will up the carbs and the 3 bowls of cereal would work here.However once my muscles begin to look full due to eating alot of carbs and/or less activity I will cut back on carbs to avoid fat storage.Here using the cereal strategy I would not eat it 3 times a day or else cut back on the actual amount of cereal in the bowl and up the protein/fat.That is why I like the shakes as its relatively easy to manipulate the various ingredients to change the protein/complex carb/simple carb/fat ratio so that it is suitable for any meal and any activity level.I guess this can be done with the cereal but keep in mind you may need to cut back on the actual cereal and up other ingredients at times.If you have any further comments or questions about this just ask.