So you're trying to lose weight.

And you've decided a healthy breakfast is your one-way-ticket to leansville.

Nope. It's not true that carbs make you fat. Or that a breakfast consisting primarily of carbohydrates is bad.

See, losing weight is all about maintaining a calorie deficit for long enough to reach your goal weight.

That's it.

It's no more (or less) complicated than that.

Ready Brek can be a part of a healthy, sustainable weight-loss diet. But there are some considerations we need to take into account before we can decide whether it's the right breakfast for you. 👇

Will Ready Brek help me lose weight?

So, will Ready Brek help you lose weight?

That depends.

For sustained weight loss, you have to enjoy what you’re eating

If you find Ready Brek tortuously bland to eat, it’s probably not a good weight loss option for you. Any good diet needs to be sustainable for the long term. At least, long enough for you to reach your goal weight.

But, if you don’t like Ready Brek, you might like other branded or non-branded porridge. Whole rolled oats and jumbo oats both have different textures to Ready Brek which you may prefer. They have a thicker, more substantial mouthfeel.

If you like your oats mushy and easy to eat, without much “bite” to them, Ready Brek is probably the consistency for you.

Texture-aside, there’s taste to consider.

Oats, on their own, don’t taste of a lot. If you make them with milk rather than water, they’ll be creamier, but they still won’t pack a flavourful punch.

What is Ready Brek? Is Ready Brek just blended oats?

Ready Brek is a combination of “super smooth porridge oats” and oat flour, and is fortified with a few vitamins and minerals for good measure.

Here are the vitamins and minerals Ready Brek is fortified with, and their amounts in percentages of daily recommended intake (RI) per 100g. 👇

Many other branded cereals are also fortified with vitamins and minerals. (Many supermarkets’ own-brand cereals are not. This is part of how they keep their own costs down relative to the branded options.)

Fortified cereals often contain added folic acid (Vitamin B9).

Is Ready Brek better than other types of porridge for fat loss?

Since Ready Brek is just oats, almost any other porridge option will be just as effective a weight loss option.

But just switching your breakfast to oats is unlikely to help. If you want to lose weight successfully, you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns. Every day.

If you switch to Ready Brek from a daily Full English Breakfast, sure, you’ll reduce your calories at Breakfast. But if you then eat more later in the day because you feel hungrier, you won’t have helped yourself.

Carb sources: Oats vs. white rice vs. quinoa

So, if Ready Brek is just oats (porridge), and oats are primarily a carb source, how do they stack up against other sources of carbs?

Nutritionally speaking, they actually come out pretty well. They're high in fibre and carry a respectable amount of protein, too.

All-in-all, oats are a pretty mixed source of macronutrients, since their fat content isn't super low either.

But that doesn't make them bad. With the fibre and protein, porridge in all its forms makes for a great source of slow-release energy that'll keep you feeling full.

The pros and cons of Ready Brek as a weight loss option

Pros

• High in fibre
  • Filling
  • Slow release energy
• Versatile
  • You can combine Ready Brek and oats with many other things. They carry flavor well, so you can spice them up with cinnamon or stir in some Greek yoghurt for additional flavour.

Cons

• Low in protein.
  • Ready Brek carries a fair bit of protein per calorie compared to other complex carb sources, like white rice. But oats aren’t a high protein breakfast on their own.
• Not super enjoyable to eat on its own.
  • And, since you need to enjoy what you’re eating if you’re going to eat it most days of the week, you're probably going to have to add other things to it.
  • This doesn’t have to be a problem. But it can be. If you add high calorie foods to your Ready Brek, it'll stop being diet-friendly.

5 Porridge topper ideas for a diet-friendly breakfast (that actually tastes good)

To spruce up your porridge, you can add other things.

Protein powder is an obvious choice. Stirring in protein powder adds extra protein and flavour to your porridge.

Cook your porridge, but remove it from the hob or microwave a little earlier than normal, then stir in the powder.

This forms a much more balanced meal with a protein content high enough that it’ll help you hit your daily target of 160-200g (a range that covers 0.8-1.0g per pound of body weight for most adult males).

Here are five porridge topper ideas for other things to top your porridge with for a healthy, diet-friendly breakfast.

1) Low fat Greek yogurt

For additional protein, and an even creamier texture, Greek yogurt makes an excellent addition to oats.

2) Berries

Add blueberries, or thinly sliced strawberries, to your Ready Brek for a burst of sweetness and antioxidants.

3) Nuts and seeds

Add a conservative portion (around 15-20g is a safe bet, so as not to add too many calories) of nuts or seeds for minerals and healthy fats.

4) Dark chocolate

Add a square or two of dark chocolate for a dollop of rich, indulgent flavour, while adding tons of antioxidants and a decent dose of magnesium.

5) Fresh fruit

Sliced banana (fresh or frozen) is the obvious choice here.

You’ll add texture and flavour for no additional calories (and you’ll stop them going brown on the countertop).

How to really lose weight (and keep it off)

Okay.

So you've swapped out the Full English for a bowl of Ready Brek in the mornings. You're adding protein powder, Greek yoghurt, and a smattering of berries.

Life's good.

But... what now?

You’ve intentionally eaten less early in the day. That's good.But what about later on?

You could just trust yourself not to intuitively overeat later. But is hoping and praying a good strategy for achieving things in life?

No. It isn’t.

If you want to hit your goal weight, you need a strategy.

And a good strategy takes into account the following things:

1. Where you’re at right now (A).
2. Where you want to get to (B).
3. What has to change for you to get from A to B.
4. The challenges you're likely to face in implementing those changes.

Once you've figured out these four things, you break those changes down into smaller actions, chart those actions onto a timeline, and cross them off each day until you hit the goal.

Whether you decide to count calories, track your macros, or just make intentional choices around food, you need a strategy that accounts for the challenges you’ll face along the way.

So just switching to Ready Brek isn’t a complete solution.

Weight loss doesn’t have to be complicated. It just needs a plan you can follow that’s built for you.

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