So need to shift a few kg, I’m currently around 85 and want to be down to about 80. Normally I have porridge for breakfast with semi-skimmed milk – after doing a 7 mile commute. Should I aim to swap this out for something less carby? Any recommendations?

No, don’t be silly.

My plan is eggs at the moment, admittedly easier to prepare at home. 2 scrambled or made into a frittata with some bits. Seems to be working, but it part of a wider plan, I’m also drinking less and not eating ALL the biscuits, but I like ALL the biscuits!

No porridge following a morning commute is a really good part of your diet. Look at other areas.

how much porridge, how much ss milk?
swap the milk out for water?

ref: carbs – I reckon you are better having them in the morning, when they can be used as fuel through the day

How much porridge are you consuming per serving?

We’d need to know what you’re eating for the rest of the day, including snacks etc, to pass any meaningful judgement.

I tend to alternate porridge (made entirely with water), with an eggy breakfast such as an omelette with some cheese/ham etc. My only strict rule is no carbs after 7pm.

milk in porridge! yuk. I have sugar & fat free water in mine.

For a diet to work it has to be sustainable over a long period of time and it needs to suit your metabolism and your lifestyle. Porridge is supposed to be good because it has some slow release energy. However, as a cereal, it still gives an insulin response, and it’s those insulin spikes which lead to blood sugar crashes which in turn lead to uncontrollable urges for sweet and fatty foods.
However after 7 miles of commuting you will need a certain amount of replenishment of simple carbs (like the lactose in milk and the sugar you add) so porridge could be a good call.

your going to get 100 different answers on here.

if your looking to drop weight for cycling improvement pick up a copy of racing weight and have a read. Not only does it clearly explain how but it also tells you why unlike alot of fad diet books

if your just looking to drop arbitrary weight for no specific reason follow some of the meal skipping plans that will be put forward on here in the following posts including some that say breakfast is the worst meal of the day.

even meal skipping boils down to one simple premace and that is consuming less calories.

I would not skip poridge in the morning BUT what i would be sure is that your having a portion of poridge – its alot less than most people expect.

also its an important point but Poridge is OATS and oats alone. Poridge does not come out a paper packet or a plastic tub that you just add to. ….. those one shot pieces of shit give poridge a bad name. Very few if any are actually clean of extra crap.

I lost loads of weight (and kept it off) by not eating breakfast after my 7 mile commute.
Try it, what have you got to lose*

*apart from weight

No.

No point in skipping the semi skimmed milk…that only contributes about 80 calories, and is basically fat free…full fat milk is low fat at a 4%. Both milk and porridge is extremely good for you so a good meal to have. Either stick with the porridge and skip lunch or skip the porridge and have lunch.

Though, if you’re having porridge at work then I assume you’re having those sachet porridges?? If so ditch them. They’re crap. Just have proper porridge at home before your commute or proper porridge at work after your ride if you can make it there.

Why skip meals ?

No porridge following a morning commute is a really good part of your diet.

There’s an important comma missing in that sentence after the “No”!

I don’t think dropping porridge from your diet would be a good idea. It’s not just a good source of energy to get your day started, it’s also an important source of fibre. A major WHO study has recently identified that fibre is extremely important in preventing a number of health problems, and a lot of us are not eating enough.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/10/high-fibre-diets-cut-heart-disease-risk-landmark-study-finds

Why would switching your breakfast for something “less carby” help you lose weight? It’s the energy content in your breakfast that matters. If you are eating too much to lose weight, just have a smaller plate of porridge, but don’t ditch it.

Why skip meals ?

Because it’s not necessary to have three meals a day. That is something that evolved through convenience and the calorific needs of a generation of people who toiled in the fields all day and walked 20 miles a day to get too and from work every day and lived off bread and water. We sit on our arses for 8 hours a day driving a computer so need a fraction of the calories. Eat when you’re hungry. Or better still go hungry for a couple of hours before eating. If you want to lose weight then you have to go hungry for periods of time through the day. Don’t believe the gulf about metabolic rate slowing down. That may be the case when you’ve been hungry for days but not hours.

Do you follow it up with a full english, couple of pints with lunch and a curry when you get home?

Some info missing here, try one of the activity and food trackers like MFP and see what the whole picture is before making a change

I have 2*scrambled eggs after my 15 mile commute, then 2* jumbo pasties for lunch and a Belgian bun. Mmmmmm.

Keep the porridge, just drop the snacks like chocolate, crisps, full sugar pop etc.

Bejesus Begora….. The old porridge is it?

You weans have it tough. Back in the old days, all we had to worry about were pasties making us fat.

Apparently its the porridge thats out to get us now.

So the 9 or 10 lbs you want to loose have been created by an over-indulgence of PORRIDGE?

**** me boy! Are you deep-frying the porridge?

Get on ur bike, ride it lots, cut out alcohol and cream buns and stop worrying about bloody killer porridge!

Jesus! How to strip all the fun outta life.

(Bloody millenials!) end of rant.

full sugar pop

No just drop the pop full stop.

Have a can of full sugar as a treat as and when as a treat.

There is no need for artificial sweeteners as you shouldn’t need to drink that much fizzy pop anyway.

There’s some science that suggests artificial sweeteners actually promote appetite for other stuff. Will try and find it.

It’s documented in the book I suggested. But it’s also detailed here

Diet Coke Exposed: What Happens One Hour After Drinking Diet Coke, Coke Zero Or Any Other Similar Diet Soda

“Don’t believe the gulf about metabolic rate slowing down. ”

Nothing to do with that. It’s the side effects on your health that not exercising portion control and eating regular meals can encourage.

Not to say missing the odd meal is the end of the world but it’s not a healthy life style unless your just interested in the number on the scale.

milk in porridge! yuk. I have sugar & fat free water in mine.

So what you’ve done there is the processed food routine of removing fat but adding sugar to compensate for the loss of flavour.

My porridge if full fat milk, pinch of salt and some Golden Syrup.

My only strict rule is no carbs after 7pm.

So the pub’s out of bounds then?

Ive been doing this (16/8) for the last month or so, and its not as hard as I thought. I’ve done several 4/5hr rides without any breakfast and felt fine.
I regularly don’t even feel hungry if Ive not eaten for 16+hrs!
I don’t have too much to lose, but I’ve dropped about 1.5kg so far.

I love porridge. I’m not sure there are many breakfast (carb) options that are lower GI. Carbs are pretty important for me if I’m riding 7 miles, and porridge is about the safest way to consume them. Anecdotally, I definitely feel full for longer after porridge, but that may just be because I’ve consumed more of it!

I’ve been trying steel-cut oats since they are apparently absorbed even slower, but no conclusions yet.

It’s documented in the book I suggested. But it’s also detailed here

I have to say that I don’t know the science behind fizzy drink consumption, but this triggered me:

I’d like to start this article by stating that from my experience as a community pharmacist helping people to get off medications for metabolic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity, I found if people drink diet sodas they still get the same problems as people who drink normal soda.

This is just nonsense. That’s not what community pharmacists do at all. The ‘Renegade Pharmacist’ is ticking all the boxes for a class A quack.

to be fair you do realise he/she doesnt claim to be inventing any of what hes saying regarding the diet coke – they just put info from other studys into a nice infogram for people who dont want to read books – which coincidentaly was how i found his website looking for a handy infogram for people who dont want to read books. i have realised my mistake i should have used a youtube version.

having looked at the rest of his site – im with you . nut job. the diet sodas thing seems to be the only sense on his whole site.

Why not try half of your normal portion first?
Eat less, exercise more.
Eating more slowly and drinking more water has never been proven to not aid weight loss.

milk in porridge! yuk. I have sugar & fat free water in mine.

So what you’ve done there is the processed food routine of removing fat but adding sugar to compensate for the loss of flavour.

I think the line is meant to read, I have water, which is sugar and fat free, in mine. Rather than I have sugar and water in mine.

Why not eat it before you ride? One third of a mug of oats, one third water, one third milk. No sugar. Microwave for 2:40 on 800 watts. Eat and ride. It’s slow release and will keep you full for hour. I rode 100 I’m on nothing more several times a week. Look to other areas for weight loss.

As above. Portion control, rolled oats, half milk / half water.

Definitely don’t have your breakfast before riding, afterwards is best. Otherwise you will end up being “starving” a couple of hours later. I try and leave it as late as I can, then I end up eating less throughout the day. I just have black coffee before riding and when I get to work.

I also would advise changing to water in the porridge- I make it with boiling water and cinammon. Leave for 15min and then microwave – the liquid turns more milk like.

Myfitnesspal is good, but if you can’t be bothered then start to weigh your portions of your porridge. It is quite suprising how many calories are in a small handful. I use 280ml water with 50g oats. I also put some chia seeds in from Aldi and brown linseeds from Tesco (Aldi linseeds are ground but mixed with sugary things)

milk in porridge! yuk. I have sugar & fat free water in mine.

So what you’ve done there is the processed food routine of removing fat but adding sugar to compensate for the loss of flavour.

how can sugar and fat free water contain added sugar?

Because it is an odd saying and it sounds like exactly as slowoldman has read it regardless of how you intended it to be read.

I find porridge blows through my system quickly.

A short ride and in starving.

Scrambled egg on toast is king for me.

FFS can we stop with the bollocks about diet fizzy drinks – there is no conclusive science supporting it. Yes some studies have shown limited evidence but more have shown no such link.

Fruit and oat muffins, most days, absolutely awesome and keep me going from brekkie til lunch (7-12)

No one ever got fat from a bowl of porridge after riding to work. People get fat from too much pies, crisps, chips, cheese, cakes, white pasta, chocolate and booze!

No one ever got fat from eating ‘white pasta’ either tbh, it’s the shite folk put in it.