Is it ok to skip breakfast?

theledger5

I am struggling with my weight loss despite sticking to approx 1400-1500 cals a day. I am not hungry at breakfast and to be honest feel I am just eating for the sake of it. I have skipped it for the last few days but have a banana mid morning. Is this OK? For years it has been drummed in that breakfast is the most important meal for metabolism etc. I hope that I can save a few more cals by missing it and kick start the losses again. I am 50 days into logging and only 5lb down.

toxikon

Yup! I haven't really eaten breakfast in several years. I used to be a huge breakfast person and I'd get so hungry and miserable if I didn't eat it. I don't know what changed - maybe I just wanted extra time to lay in bed in the morning - but breakfast eventually disappeared. And now I don't miss it at all.

Now I start getting hungry around 11am and eat my lunch at noon, then dinner around 6pm. Splitting my calories into 2 meals is way easier and more satisfying than 3 meals or grazing throughout the day.

The technical term is "intermittent fasting". Skipping breakfast usually means you're following a 16:8 schedule, meaning you fast for 16 hours (including when you sleep) and you have an 8 hour window to eat.

PS - the whole "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" mantra was created by Kellogg to sell breakfast cereal. It's stuck around for a long time but it's simply not true. WHEN you eat doesn't matter.

quiksylver296

Yes. I don't eat any food til about 10:00, only coffee. Why eat when I'm not hungry? It also seems to kick-start my hunger and I'm hungrier throughout the day if I eat early.

DJ_Skywalker

Can skip a morning meal .... Can't skip coffee

psuLemon

Technically, breakfast literally just means that you break the fast. So it can be at 6am or 5pm.. you are still eating breakfast...


And the time you eat and the frequency doesn't matter.

RachelElser

I don't force myself to eat when I am not hungry, not even at breakfast time! Generally I take something with me and eat at 9/9:30 ( I get up 7 ish), so yeah, a banana mid morning is fine. Maybe just try to add a smidgen of protein like a boiled egg or jerky or cheese to prevent a sugar spike from the banana.

briohne128

I can't see skipping breakfast as a problem! I am always hungry when I wake up though so I do have breakfast myself however I try and make sure it is under approx 300 calories.

hesn92

5lb in 50 days isn't bad.
Yes you can skip breakfast... I would if I wasn't starving in the morning. more calories for lunch and dinner

kshama2001

It's afternoon here and I still have more than half of my breakfast smoothie left. I love smoothies for breakfast because I am not especially hungry in the AM and I can just sip on it as my appetite dictates.

Blitzia

hesn92 wrote: »

5lb in 50 days isn't bad.
Yes you can skip breakfast... I would if I wasn't starving in the morning. more calories for lunch and dinner

This. As others have said, go ahead and skip breakfast. But you may still need to adjust your expectations for weight loss. 50 days is 7 weeks. Unless you are significantly overweight, you shouldn't try to lose more than a pound a week. If you only have a few pounds to lose, half a pound per week is a more reasonable goal. So between 3.5-7 pounds in 7 weeks is great progress and you're right in the middle of that.

theledger5

I do have quite a lot to lose! I am 190lbs and need to be closer to 150. I have no thyroid gland so losing weight can be slower for me I find. I was hoping in the beginning with such drastic diet changes that I would have lost more but still 5lb is a loss and I will keep at it!