When should I eat breakfast?

choxmay

I simply just do have the appetite in the morning! I am in no way an expert but I have recently read and started drinking water(cold, icy water) or coffee early in the morning to trigger the sympathetic nervous system to keep the metabolic rate humming!

AnvilHead

I have seen a few posts saying you can skip breakfast and/or it does not matter when you eat it. That would be bad advise.
While meal timing and eating lots of little meals all day is disputable, one thing is not, glucose levels, and protein amino acid levels.
If your goal is to loose weight, while at the same time limit loss of muscle you cannot let your body get into a anabolic state where it eats your muscle because it is hungry.
Instead shoot for an catabolic state where there is plenty of amino acids floating around and your glucose levels do not drop or spike.
The one time this is hard to avoid is during sleeping. 8 hours of nothing and you wake up low in glucose low in blood sugar, low in amino acids, etc. You need to quickly add something to prevent your metabolism from slowing down and going anabolic.
Even before you workout.
If you have no time, no problem. Buy a shaker bottle and Body Fortress 100% whey protein or something similar. Mix 8 oz of water and one scoop of powder. Shake it while in the car for 60 seconds and drink it down.
Thats 150 calories, a little bit of carbs and fat and loads of amino acids. This should stabilize your glucose and metabolism until you can get some real food in you. But don't wait too long. 150 calories goes very fast. Maybe mix two scoops.

What you always want to keep in mind is to never let your metabolism get into a hibernation state. That sounds extreme, but all it takes is 500 to 1000 calories in the deficit column for the day to make it happen. That is when your metabolism thinks no more food is coming, so it tries to preserve what it has, slows down, and quickly converts eaten foods into body fat.
How easy is that? Mow the lawn, do some gardening, then at night workout. For me that 1500 burned calories on top of me trying to eat 1500 BMR calories. I have to eat big calorie meals just to stay at a 500 calorie daily deficit.
That is why some people use the "eat all day" method. While that is not a diet, per se, it does help you prevent hibernation mode and stabilize blood sugar which will stabilize metabolism.
Simple rule of thumb ... Eat something, every 3-4 hours, starting right when you wake up. Keep it low cal, low fat, high protein.

-Rich

One more time - No.

Here's a link with plenty of discussion and several peer-reviewed studies which debunk meal frequency/timing and the "rev up your metabolism" myth:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/820577-meal-frequency-rev-up-that-furnace-lol

Pookylou

I eat within an hour of getting up, mainly because I am hungry and get a "little" grumpy if I don't eat :laugh: I have a bowl of porridge with fruit and keeps me full until lunchtime.

But I agree with (most) of the posters above, meal frequency does nothing for you metabolism, and if you feel like you can't/don't want to eat then don't! I have a work mate who doesn't eat anything until about 11/12, simply because she isn't hungry till then. I would want to ax murder someone by that time...............

irishgo

Hi folks, good morning,

I recommend never to skip breakfast, the most important meal of the day. However it would be advisable to split 6 or more healthy small portions across the day.
I start the day with drinking one glass of lukewarm (purified) water, and than half breakfast withing a half an hour, either at home or at work 1st thing.

As I am a vegetarian for my upkeep of running 5 or 6 miles a day (8-10 km) I need to get some protein, I take Whey Protein. (one or two scoops a day).

Interested in your thoughts?

momzeeee

Hi folks, good morning,

I recommend never to skip breakfast, the most important meal of the day. However it would be advisable to split 6 or more healthy small portions across the day.
I start the day with drinking one glass of lukewarm (purified) water, and than half breakfast withing a half an hour, either at home or at work 1st thing.

As I am a vegetarian for my upkeep of running 5 or 6 miles a day (8-10 km) I need to get some protein, I take Whey Protein. (one or two scoops a day).

When and how you break your daily fast is nothing more than a preference. Some people like eating shortly after they get up, and other don't. Neither way is better than the other. Also, meal frequency is the same-it's a preference thing and nothing more. Smaller/more frequent meals do nothing different than larger/less frequent meals.

Personally, I do 8:16 IF and break my fast at 11am with my largest meal of the day (around 1,000-1,200 calories). I eat again at around 6 pm, with a slightly smaller meal. I do not snack at all. The rest of the time I drink water and go about my day I love the simplicity of this schedule and also the larger meals I eat. I never ever get hungry during my fasting times-my body loves this schedule and for me, it's what I'll be doing long term for my maintenance plan

ndj1979

Hi folks, good morning,

I recommend never to skip breakfast, the most important meal of the day. However it would be advisable to split 6 or more healthy small portions across the day.
I start the day with drinking one glass of lukewarm (purified) water, and than half breakfast withing a half an hour, either at home or at work 1st thing.

As I am a vegetarian for my upkeep of running 5 or 6 miles a day (8-10 km) I need to get some protein, I take Whey Protein. (one or two scoops a day).

Interested in your thoughts?

my thoughts are "no" ...

if you like eating six meals a day and it works for you, then more power to you. However, eating six meals or 24 meals, or one meal has nothing to do with metabolism.

Please explain to me why breakfast is the "most important meal of the day"....

I skipped it for eight months and had no adverse side effects...

Francl27

When you're hungry.

__Di__

first of all breakfast has nothing to do with "jump starting" metabolism. Meal timing has nothing to do with metabolism. So you can eat three times a day, one time a day, or 24 times once an hour and there is zero impact on metabolism.

so the answer is it does not matter when you eat breakfast, and, if you want, you could skip it entirely....

I agree with this ^