High calorie porridge: calories in a bowl and how to add more

A bowl of porridge made with 40g of oats, the standard UK portion, is about 150 calories made with water, 270 with 250ml of semi-skimmed milk and 310 with 250ml of whole milk. A big 80g bowl made with whole milk is nearer 590, and peanut butter, honey and nuts take a high calorie porridge to 750 or even 1,000.

Written by James Frost, founder of Flaming Phoenix. Updated October 2026.

The calories on this page are worked out from McCance and Widdowson's CoFID 2021 food tables (porridge oats 381 calories per 100g; whole milk 63, semi-skimmed 46 and skimmed 34 per 100g, treated here as 100ml) and rounded to the nearest 10. They line up with the packet: Quaker gives 150 calories for 40g of its rolled oats and 291 with 300ml of semi-skimmed milk, against 290 by this method.

How many calories are in a bowl of porridge?

A standard bowl of porridge, 40g of oats cooked in 250ml of liquid, is 150 to 310 calories depending on the milk; the oats themselves are always about 150. Larger bowls scale up from there.

Standard bowl: 40g of oats with 250ml of liquid

• With water: about 150 calories and 4g of protein.
• Half semi-skimmed milk, half water: about 210 calories.
• With skimmed milk: about 240 calories and 13g of protein.
• With semi-skimmed milk: about 270 calories and 13g of protein.
• With whole milk: about 310 calories and 13g of protein.

Large bowl: 60g of oats with 350ml of liquid

• With water: about 230 calories.
• With semi-skimmed milk: about 390 calories.
• With whole milk: about 450 calories.

Big bowl: 80g of oats with 450ml of liquid

• With water: about 310 calories.
• With semi-skimmed milk: about 510 calories.
• With whole milk: about 590 calories.

If you weigh porridge after cooking, CoFID gives 47 calories per 100g for porridge made with water, 72 made with milk and water, 84 with semi-skimmed milk and 112 with whole milk. A 300g bowl is therefore about 140 calories made with water and about 340 made with whole milk.

Other databases differ slightly. The British Heart Foundation, using Nutritics data, puts 40g of oats with 250ml of semi-skimmed milk at 279 calories against 270 here, which is close enough for anyone not weighing to the gram.

Is porridge high in calories?

No. Cooked porridge is low in calories for its size: 47 calories per 100g made with water and 112 made with whole milk.

Dry oats are a different matter at 381 calories per 100g, which is why "are porridge oats high in calories?" and "is porridge high in calories?" get different answers. Cooking adds five to eight times the oats' weight in liquid, so each spoonful is mostly water or milk. Porridge made with water has fewer calories per 100g than the whole milk you might pour on cereal.

That is exactly why the British Heart Foundation describes porridge as a low-calorie breakfast, and why it suits anyone eating less: it fills you up for very few calories. If you are trying to gain weight, the same quality is the problem. A bowl fills you up long before it has given you many calories, so the work has to go into what you cook it in and stir into it.

How to make porridge high calorie

Make high calorie porridge in three moves: cook it in whole milk, stir in a fat such as peanut butter, cream or nuts, and finish with something sweet. The milk comes first because it adds about 160 calories to a standard bowl compared with water without making it any bigger.

After the milk, these are the add-ins ranked by calories per typical portion:

• Walnuts or pecans, 30g: about 205 calories.
• Mixed nuts, 30g: about 175 calories and 7g of protein.
• Double cream, 30ml (two tablespoons): about 150 calories.
• Coconut oil, a 14g tablespoon: about 125 calories.
• Peanut butter, 20g (a heaped tablespoon): about 120 calories and 5g of protein.
• Plain chocolate, 20g, stirred in at the end: about 100 calories.
• Pumpkin seeds, 15g: about 85 calories and 4g of protein.
• Banana, 100g peeled: about 80 calories.
• Butter, 10g: about 75 calories.
• Raisins or chopped dates, 30g: about 70 to 75 calories.
• Honey or golden syrup, 20g: about 60 calories.
• Skimmed milk powder, 15g whisked into the milk: about 50 calories and 5g of protein, with no extra volume.

By weight the fats win easily: cream is about 5 calories a gram, nuts 6 to 7 and oil 9, against 0.8 for banana. Fruit makes porridge nicer to eat, but it does very little for the calorie count.

High calorie porridge recipes for weight gain

Each bowl is cooked the way the Quaker pack suggests: bring the oats and milk to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes, then stir the add-ins in off the heat so the nut butter and cream melt through.

Everyday bowl, about 510 calories. 50g of oats in 250ml of whole milk, with 20g of peanut butter and half a sliced banana. About 19g of protein.

Weight gain bowl, about 750 calories. 80g of oats in 300ml of whole milk, with 20g of peanut butter, 20g of honey and a sliced banana. The working: 305 from the oats, 190 from the milk, 120 from the peanut butter, 60 from the honey and 80 from the banana. About 25g of protein.

Higher protein bowl, about 770 calories. As the weight gain bowl, but swap the honey for 20g of skimmed milk powder whisked into the milk before cooking. About 32g of protein.

1,000 calorie bowl. 80g of oats in 300ml of whole milk, finished with 30ml of double cream, 20g of peanut butter, 30g of chopped walnuts and 10g of honey. About 1,000 calories and 28g of protein, in roughly 470g of food before cooking.

Vegan bowl, about 770 calories. 80g of oats in 300ml of sweetened soya drink, with 30g of peanut butter, 30g of chopped dates and 15g of pumpkin seeds. About 29g of protein. Use oats labelled gluten-free if you need to avoid gluten.

Is porridge good for weight gain?

Porridge is good for weight gain once it is made with whole milk and two or three dense add-ins; made with water, a standard bowl is only about 150 calories.

The arithmetic is encouraging. The NHS suggests adding around 300 to 500 calories a day to gain weight gradually. Swapping a 150-calorie bowl made with water for the 750-calorie weight gain bowl above adds 600, which covers the whole of that increase from one change at breakfast. If you want ideas beyond oats, my guide to high calorie breakfast ideas has eggs, toast, smoothies and a cooked breakfast with the same per-portion working.

There are limits, and they are worth knowing before you commit to a 1,000-calorie bowl every morning:

• Size. The 1,000 calorie bowl is close to half a kilo of food. On a normal appetite that is a slow, heavy breakfast; on a small one it often goes half-eaten, and half a big bowl gives fewer calories than all of a smaller, richer one.
• Richness. Past about two tablespoons of nut butter plus cream, porridge stops tasting like porridge and starts to feel greasy.
• Time. Five minutes at the hob plus a pan to wash is the point where busy mornings skip it. High calorie overnight oats made the night before take the cooking out of the morning.
• Boredom. The same sweet bowl every day for weeks gets hard to face, so rotate the add-ins: nuts one week, dates and pumpkin seeds the next.

Can you make porridge from a bar?

Yes, and many of our customers eat our high calorie bars as porridge: one bar crumbled into a bowl, with hot water or warm milk stirred in until it softens. That gives up to 557 calories in only 120g before any milk is added, without cooking oats or washing a pan. One customer training for a 170km UTMB race wrote that they "enjoyed mixing them with water to make a nutritious porridge for breakfast."

It is not a replacement for a pan of oats on an ordinary morning. Oats are far cheaper per calorie, and a homemade bowl lets you choose every ingredient. Where a bar helps is when a full bowl is too much food, or there is no hob, such as a campsite or a desk. The method is in how to use Phoenix Bars, and flavours and prices are on the Phoenix Bars page.

How to eat more porridge with a small appetite

If a full bowl is too much, make it smaller and richer rather than bigger. 30g of oats cooked in 200ml of whole milk with 10g of peanut butter stirred in is about 300 calories in a bowl you can finish, and 15g of skimmed milk powder whisked into the milk adds 50 more without changing the size.

The NHS advice on gaining weight also suggests eating smaller meals more often, so a small bowl at breakfast and a yoghurt or a few spoonfuls of something soft mid-morning can add up to more than one big bowl left half-finished. My guide to soft high calorie foods has more ideas for when chewing or a full plate feels like hard work.

If you are losing weight without trying, or your appetite has dropped suddenly, it is worth seeing your GP.

Frequently asked questions

How many calories are in 30g, 40g or 50g of oats?

30g of porridge oats is about 115 calories, 40g about 150 and 50g about 190, using CoFID's figure of 381 calories per 100g. Quaker's label gives 374 per 100g, so its 40g serving is 150. These are dry weights; whatever you cook the oats in is extra.

Is porridge better with milk or water?

For gaining weight or getting more protein, milk. 250ml of whole milk adds about 160 calories and 8 to 9g of protein to a 40g bowl, and semi-skimmed adds about 115 calories and the same protein. Water keeps a standard bowl at about 150 calories, which suits anyone trying to eat less.

Is it okay to eat porridge every day?

Yes, for most people. Oats are a wholegrain, and the British Heart Foundation notes that 3g of oat beta-glucan a day, as part of a balanced diet, has been shown to lower cholesterol; a 40g bowl gives about 2g. If you eat it daily to gain weight, rotate the add-ins so it stays appealing.

Which porridge is best for weight gain?

Plain rolled or jumbo oats cooked in whole milk, with nut butter, nuts or cream stirred in. Dry oats vary little in calories (CoFID 381 per 100g, Quaker 374), so the milk and toppings change the total far more than the type of oat does. If you buy instant pots, check the label, because the calories depend on the portion and on what you add.

How many calories does honey add to porridge?

A 20g tablespoon of honey adds about 60 calories, from CoFID's 288 calories per 100g, and the British Heart Foundation gives 60 calories for a tablespoon of golden syrup. A teaspoon is about a third of that, so it sweetens the bowl without adding much.

For more on dense foods in general, see my guide to calorie-dense foods. For a crunchy topping that adds calories quickly, high calorie granola stirred in just before eating works well.

Sources: McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID 2021), GOV.UK; Quaker UK, Traditional Rolled Oats nutrition and cooking instructions; British Heart Foundation, Porridge: is it a healthy breakfast?; NHS, Healthy ways to gain weight.