Can I eat porridge for breakfast on a low carb diet?

[Fourmoos]

I’m starting a low carb diet and breakfast is tricky. Can I get away with porridge?

Depends how low carb you are going. I wouldn't personally cereal is too high. Full fat Greek yoghurt raspberries and chia seeds would work.

It would be better to have Oatbran.

Overnight oats with oatbran, yoghurt and a bit of milk is a good low carb option or oatbran porridge and blueberries.

What sort of low carb diet? Just a general avoiding cards type thing or full on keto?

Keto you definitely can't have porridge and have to be really strict at the beginning.

But just a general thing you can do what you like really. You may not drop loads of weight but you would still be eating quite healthily and might lose some weight just more slowly

From google a bowl of porridge is 28g of carbs so if you had that and then were very careful the rest of the day, and weren't going VERY low carb (say, under 60g?) it could work. I personally wouldn't and wouldn't like to use up all my carbs in one relatively small meal.

No. Some things to try: eggs, avocado, a bit of last nights dinner... or try fasting until nearer lunchtime and then eat food that isn't 'breakfast food'

I don’t want to go full keto. But I do need to lose the weight…

I've dropped it from my diet, I'm trying to limit myself to 30g of carb per meal, and a bowl of porridge that small is just sad. Apparently steel cut oats are better than rolled, but I haven't investigated them yet.

@woopdedoodle have you ever seen steel cut oats anywhere? I've been looking for these, haven't seen them anywhere 🤷‍♀️

A better breakfast would be scrambled eggs with bacon, sausages (the high meat content ones, no filler) or a slice of toast (20g carbs). Or an omelette. The protein keeps you feeling full for much longer.

I’ve been doing this for ten weeks, and haven’t needed anything else to eat until the evening most days, and I’ve lost 10kg.

I've been told steel cuts oats are available on Amazon.

I’m feeling really full up and no cravings. I haven’t weighed myself yet and finding it hard to believe I can lose weight eating full fat things!

I have MOMA porridge pots with coconut and chia as an occasional treat, think its 29g of carbs and I put a teaspoon of almond butter in it with some berries.

I try to keep my carbs under 60g a day, so just means I have to watch the rest of the day a bit more carefully.

You can make a porridge substitute with quinoa and even cauliflower rice - I’m not saying it’s good but you can find recipes on Pinterest.

I personally favour smoked fish, eggs and cherry tomatoes

Every slim person I know swears by porridge including me.

Chia porridge?

Depends a bit why you are going low carb. If your blood sugar is high, porridge is likely to be a problem. All carbs end up as glucose, so a bowl of porridge is likely to send blood sugar up, though more slowly than more refined cereals. If you’re going low carb as a weight loss strategy, a bowl of porridge may be a good way to prevent hunger pangs before lunchtime, so you won’t be tempted by choc/ cake/ crisps mid-morning.

Try lowering carbs first and see how that works for you. Personally I don't find porridge fills me for long so it's not a carb I miss.

I'd advise cutting out white carbs and sugar for a few weeks, then assess the results, see if you need to be more extreme.

After losing 20lbs on keto, and keeping it off for a year, I went bananas for carbs one day, I couldn't get back on the wagon at all. When I'd put it all back on again, I started again. BUT just low ish carb. I still have one weetabix some mornings (with protein yogurt). I have soup with one slice of brown bread. (ive cut white bread). And no side carbs for dinner. Ie no rice/pasta
/ potatoes.
The weight has come off, slower, but I have less of a crazed feeling. I dont feel like I could let myself down at any moment. I'm not dreaming of cake. Its so much easier. So, I vote to keep a few healthy carbs!!

WeeStyleIcon I like your idea of lowish carbs, less extreme and maybe easier to stick to.

It works for me! Maintenance is easy.

I slipped in to disordered eating when I was keto. Some might disagree but to be weighing a leek and counting net carbs in a vegetable, even a root vegetable, ill never go back! But I still go easy on things like sweet potato, leeks, chick peas, hummus, brown soda bread. I'm aware that a portion is enough, so there's a bit of self control involved, but I don't feel like I'm going crazy.

I started a diet at the same time as a woman in my office and I DID lose it slower, but I got there.

Now, having put on and lost and put on and lost 20lbs since 2020, I'm determined to just be sensible and healthy and not torture myself yoyo-ing.

Good luck! You definitely have to do what works for you. Like for me, I need to avoid hunger, and I could more or less the same thing 4 week days out of 5. But i know some people need to avoid boredom more than hunger.

My obesity specialist suggests porridge for breakfast. Keeps you full with slow release carbs, good for bowel health. I'm post bariatric surgery so make porridge but mix some collagen with milk and add that to my porridge.

I was on a low carb diet due to gd, quaker do a protein porridge that is lower carb so I had it most mornings. Might be worth looking into?

I get organic steel cut oats from abel &cole. Porridge has one of the highest pesticide residues of any food.

OP I would say the decision to eat porridge needs to depend on your blood sugar control. Do you find it keeps you full all morning or do you get a blood sugar drop/hunger pangs mid morning. High protein at breakfast is good for keeping you full and for maintaining muscle mass.