Is congee good for weight loss? Brehan Crawford, L.Ac., adding extra water to a pot of rice to make congee

Is Congee Good for Weight Loss?

Table of Contents

    Share

    Congee is rice cooked in far more water than usual, simmered until it turns into a thick, creamy porridge. It began as a way to make a little rice feed a lot of people, and it became one of the oldest medicines in the Chinese kitchen. Here is why a bowl keeps you full, what it does to your blood sugar and your gut, and how to build one that works for you.

    The short answer

    Yes, congee can help with weight loss. A little rice simmered in a lot of water gives you a big, warm bowl that fills you up on a fraction of the rice, and studies on soup show that water cooked into food satisfies in a way a glass of water beside the plate does not. Plain white rice congee digests quickly, so start with leftover rice and add an egg, scallions or peanuts. No single food is a magic fix. What counts is the whole picture of how you eat and live.

    The short version, on video.

    Is congee good for weight loss?

    It can be, and the reason is volume. The Chinese worked out how to turn simple white rice into a food that keeps you full. In ancient times, villagers often had very little to eat, and they needed a small amount of rice to keep many people full for as long as possible. So they cooked a little leftover rice in a huge amount of water. The result was congee.

    Water you eat fills you more than water you drink

    Researchers at Penn State tested this idea directly. Twenty-four lean women ate one of three starters before lunch: a chicken rice casserole, the same casserole with a glass of water, or the same ingredients cooked together as chicken rice soup. The calories were identical. After the soup the women felt fuller, and they ate about 290 calories at lunch, against roughly 395 after the casserole, with or without the glass of water. They did not make up the difference at dinner.[1]

    A second study from the same lab served 60 adults soup before lunch. Chunky or pureed, the soup cut the energy eaten at the whole meal by 20 percent, about 134 calories.[2]

    Chicken rice soup is close to a description of congee: mostly water, and water you eat instead of drink.

    Warm, cooked and easy on the Spleen

    Chinese medicine describes the same bowl in its own terms. The Spleen and Stomach turn food into qi, and they do that work best with food that is warm, cooked and soft. Congee is all three. When the Spleen is weak it fails to transform fluids, and what it leaves behind is dampness: heaviness, puffiness, and weight that does not respond to eating less. A warm bowl in place of a cold one is where I start, for the same reason I ask people to rethink ice-cold drinks. Changing that terrain is the work we do together inside Gut Brain Synchrony.

    What is congee made of?

    Rice, water and time. Congee is the English name. You will also hear jook in Cantonese, zhou in Mandarin, juk in Korean and okayu in Japanese. The method is the same everywhere: a small amount of rice, a large amount of water, and a slow simmer until the grains break down.

    It turned out that congee not only kept people full, it also helped them heal, and it became a medicine for people recovering from gut bugs and flu. The physician Zhang Zhongjing wrote it into the Shang Han Lun around 200 CE. After the first formula in the book, a cinnamon twig decoction, the patient is told to sip hot, thin porridge to help the herbs do their work.

    Does congee spike blood sugar?

    Plain white rice congee digests quickly, and you should know that going in. In a 2026 crossover study, 31 healthy university students ate either cooked rice or rice porridge containing the same 40.7 grams of carbohydrate. The porridge raised glucose higher at 30, 45 and 60 minutes, and fullness two hours later was no different.[3] Gram for gram of rice, porridge is not the more filling food. The advantage of congee is that a bowl holds far less rice, and that you decide what else goes into it.

    01 Start with leftover rice. When cooked rice cools, part of its starch reorganizes into resistant starch, which your small intestine cannot break down. In an Indonesian study, freshly cooked white rice held 0.64 grams of resistant starch per 100 grams. Rice cooled for 24 hours in the refrigerator and then reheated held 1.65 grams, and in 15 healthy adults it produced a lower blood sugar response than fresh rice.[4] That study reheated the rice and did not simmer it into porridge, so read it as a direction, not a measurement of your bowl.
    02 Add an egg. When 30 overweight women ate an egg breakfast in place of a bagel breakfast with the same calories, they felt fuller, ate about 575 calories at lunch against about 740, and kept eating less for the next 36 hours.[5]
    03 Add peanuts. In a trial of 15 women with obesity and a high risk of type 2 diabetes, peanut butter added to breakfast raised the gut hormones that signal fullness, lowered the desire to eat, and lowered the glucose response to the next meal. Whole peanuts pointed the same way without reaching significance.[6]

    Is congee good for gut health?

    Yes, and leftover rice is the reason. Resistant starch passes through the small intestine untouched and arrives in the colon as food for your flora. It is one of the best prebiotics we have for essential residents like Bifidobacterium.

    At the University of Michigan, 174 healthy young adults added a fermentable fiber to their diet for two weeks. Resistant starch from potatoes produced the largest rise in short-chain fatty acids, butyrate included, and most microbiomes responded with more bifidobacteria.[7] In a smaller crossover study, one form of resistant starch increased Bifidobacterium adolescentis, and in three of the ten volunteers bifidobacteria rose tenfold.[8]

    That matters for weight. In a 2024 trial in Nature Metabolism, 37 people with overweight or obesity took a resistant starch supplement for eight weeks. They lost an average of 2.8 kilograms, about 6 pounds, and their insulin resistance improved. The benefit tracked with changes in the gut microbiota, B. adolescentis above all, and when the researchers gave that species to mice it protected them from diet-induced obesity.[9] That trial used a concentrated supplement, not porridge. What it shows is the mechanism: feed the right residents and the body handles weight differently.

    This is what I mean when I say congee heals your guts. Warm, soft, cooked food asks very little of a tired digestive system, and the starch feeds the flora you want to keep.

    Gut Brain Synchrony

    Food as medicine is a daily practice. Come practice it with us.

    Gut Brain Synchrony is my community on Skool: courses on gut, brain and sleep health, condition-specific programs, and weekly live Q&A with our clinical team. Your first week is free.

    Join Gut Brain Synchrony

    Is congee good for an upset stomach or a cold?

    This is the oldest use of the dish, and medicine has tested the principle. Rice-based oral rehydration solution is a rehydration salt drink made with rice in place of glucose, a clinical cousin of thin congee. A BMJ meta-analysis of 13 trials and 1,367 patients compared the two. The rice version cut stool output in the first 24 hours by 36 percent in adults with cholera, by 32 percent in children with cholera, and by 18 percent in children with other acute diarrhea.[10]

    For a cold or flu, heat is part of the medicine. In a study of 15 healthy people, sipping hot water sped up the flow of nasal mucus from 6.2 to 8.4 millimeters per minute, and hot chicken soup from 6.9 to 9.2. Cold water slowed it from 7.3 to 4.5.[11] A bowl of hot congee is fluid, salt, steam and easy calories in one.

    What to put in congee

    Plain congee is a base. What you add turns it into a meal, and into medicine.

    Goji berries for the eyes. In Chinese medicine, goji nourishes the Liver and brightens the eyes. At UC Davis, 27 adults aged 45 to 65 ate 28 grams of goji berries five times a week for 90 days, and the protective pigment in the macula increased. A lutein and zeaxanthin supplement did not move it.[12]

    Jujubes for the heart. Red dates nourish the blood and settle the spirit, which Chinese medicine houses in the Heart. In a 12-week trial of 116 people with type 2 diabetes, jujube tea three times a day lowered total cholesterol by 24 mg/dL, against 11 with diet alone, and LDL by 20 against 7.[13]

    Scallions for immunity. Scallion is an old kitchen remedy for the first hours of a cold. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 55 healthy adults, four weeks of scallion green leaf extract raised natural killer cell activity significantly in both extract groups, and an overall immune score that fell on placebo held steady on the higher dose.[14] Natural killer cells are part of your first response to viruses.

    Chili oil, if you like it spicy. I use my own homemade Sichuan chili oil. A meta-analysis of eight trials found that capsaicinoids, the compounds that make chili hot, taken before a meal reduced the calories eaten at that meal by about 74.[15]

    An egg or collagen for protein. Crack an egg into the hot pot for the fullness described above.[5] If you add collagen, stir it in well so it does not form chewy clumps.

    Peanuts for a little crunch. Chop them over the top. They bring the appetite effect covered earlier.[6]

    Cinnamon, apples and honey. If you like your porridge sweet, this is the bowl.

    How to make congee with leftover rice

    01 Start with leftover rice. A cup or two of cooked rice from the refrigerator makes several bowls.
    02 Add extra water. About four cups of water or broth for each cup of cooked rice. Use more if you like it thin.
    03 Simmer it slowly. Bring it to a boil, turn it down, and stir now and then until the rice turns into a thick, creamy porridge. Leftover rice gets there in about half an hour.
    04 Dress it. Savory: scallions, an egg, goji berries, jujubes, chili oil, peanuts. Sweet: cinnamon, apples and honey.
    05 Eat it warm, early and unhurried. Congee is breakfast across much of Asia, and eating more of your food earlier in the day works in the same direction.

    Congee questions, answered

    Does congee have protein?

    Very little on its own. Plain rice porridge is mostly water and starch, which is why the traditional bowl is rarely plain. An egg, shredded chicken, peanuts or collagen turns it into a meal that holds you.

    Does congee have fiber?

    White rice congee has little conventional fiber. What it can carry is resistant starch, which behaves like a fermentable fiber once it reaches the colon. Cooled, leftover rice and toppings like scallions, apples or peanuts give your flora more to work with.

    Does congee keep in the fridge?

    Yes. It thickens as it cools, so loosen it with a splash of water when you reheat it.

    Simple food, cooked slowly and eaten warm. You get a bowl that keeps you full for hours and looks after your gut at the same time.

    — Brehan Crawford, L.Ac.

    Gut Brain Synchrony

    A warm bowl is a start. The rest is how you eat and live.

    If your weight, your digestion and your energy have stopped responding to effort, come learn how to rebuild the terrain underneath them. Courses, condition-specific programs and weekly live Q&A, inside Gut Brain Synchrony.

    Start your free week

    Your first week is free.

    References

    1. Rolls BJ, Bell EA, Thorwart ML. Water incorporated into a food but not served with a food decreases energy intake in lean women. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;70(4):448-455. doi:10.1093/ajcn/70.4.448
    2. Flood JE, Rolls BJ. Soup preloads in a variety of forms reduce meal energy intake. Appetite. 2007;49(3):626-634. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2007.04.002
    3. Kodama K, Kayashita A, Tsuji N, et al. Postprandial Glycemic Responses to Rice Porridge Versus Cooked Rice in Healthy Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Crossover Study. Cureus. 2026;18(7):e112070. doi:10.7759/cureus.112070
    4. Sonia S, Witjaksono F, Ridwan R. Effect of cooling of cooked white rice on resistant starch content and glycemic response. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2015;24(4):620-625. doi:10.6133/apjcn.2015.24.4.13
    5. Vander Wal JS, Marth JM, Khosla P, et al. Short-term effect of eggs on satiety in overweight and obese subjects. J Am Coll Nutr. 2005;24(6):510-515. doi:10.1080/07315724.2005.10719497
    6. Reis CE, Ribeiro DN, Costa NM, et al. Acute and second-meal effects of peanuts on glycaemic response and appetite in obese women with high type 2 diabetes risk: a randomised cross-over clinical trial. Br J Nutr. 2013;109(11):2015-2023. doi:10.1017/S0007114512004217
    7. Baxter NT, Schmidt AW, Venkataraman A, et al. Dynamics of Human Gut Microbiota and Short-Chain Fatty Acids in Response to Dietary Interventions with Three Fermentable Fibers. mBio. 2019;10(1):e02566-18. doi:10.1128/mBio.02566-18
    8. Martínez I, Kim J, Duffy PR, et al. Resistant starches types 2 and 4 have differential effects on the composition of the fecal microbiota in human subjects. PLoS One. 2010;5(11):e15046. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015046
    9. Li H, Zhang L, Li J, et al. Resistant starch intake facilitates weight loss in humans by reshaping the gut microbiota. Nat Metab. 2024;6(3):578-597. doi:10.1038/s42255-024-00988-y
    10. Gore SM, Fontaine O, Pierce NF. Impact of rice based oral rehydration solution on stool output and duration of diarrhoea: meta-analysis of 13 clinical trials. BMJ. 1992;304(6822):287-291. doi:10.1136/bmj.304.6822.287
    11. Saketkhoo K, Januszkiewicz A, Sackner MA. Effects of drinking hot water, cold water, and chicken soup on nasal mucus velocity and nasal airflow resistance. Chest. 1978;74(4):408-410. doi:10.1378/chest.74.4.408
    12. Li X, Holt RR, Keen CL, et al. Goji Berry Intake Increases Macular Pigment Optical Density in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Pilot Trial. Nutrients. 2021;13(12):4409. doi:10.3390/nu13124409
    13. Yazdanpanah Z, Ghadiri-Anari A, Mehrjardi AV, et al. Effect of Ziziphus jujube Fruit Infusion on Lipid Profiles, Glycaemic Index and Antioxidant Status in Type 2 Diabetic Patients: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial. Phytother Res. 2017;31(5):755-762. doi:10.1002/ptr.5796
    14. Hirayama Y, Takanari J, Goto K, et al. Effect of Welsh onion (Allium fistulosum L.) green leaf extract on immune response in healthy subjects: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Funct Foods Health Dis. 2019;9(2):123-133. doi:10.31989/ffhd.v9i2.569
    15. Whiting S, Derbyshire EJ, Tiwari B. Could capsaicinoids help to support weight management? A systematic review and meta-analysis of energy intake data. Appetite. 2014;73:183-188. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2013.11.005