Should I eat breakfast?

jessicakogle
jessicakogle Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Can someone settle the long question of the importance of breakfast? I’m not a huge breakfast fan so I normally skip it and eat around 11am each day.
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Replies

  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    There is no particular importance to eating breakfast at any given hour. Whatever meal you eat, whenever you eat it is technically "breakfast". But eat in the way that works best for you and most enhances your health.
  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,839 Member
    If you don't want to, why would you?

    Just stick to your calorie budget.
  • quemalosuerte
    quemalosuerte Posts: 242 Member
    I don’t eat breakfast because i am not hungry in the morning (and I don’t like traditional american breakfast foods, so it just works out). My husband eats breakfast everyday because he is hungry and/or needs it to get through to midday. To each their own. If you are hungry, find something that fits into your calories to satisfy you. If you aren’t hungry til lunch, eat then. As long as you are getting proper nutrition and eating enough calories to stay healthy, the exact distribution of your eating habits is irrelevant. Do what works for you and makes you happy.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,156 Member
    I eat breakfast because I'm not even remotely effective after waking until I eat something, especially if my plan is a morning workout; and because felonious assault is not only a poor way to win friends, but also is otherwise a Really Bad Life Plan. :lol:

    I know various people who - unlike me - can triumph during fasted workouts; who are irritatingly (to me) perky and cheerful upon waking, even without eating; and who prefer to eat their calories later in the day, because they're not hungry when they wake up.

    The latter type of person probably ought to, or at least can, delay their first meal until later in the day. People like me really, really should not. You sound like one of the "can delay eating" people.

    It makes no difference to your weight management, which is about overall calorie intake; nor to your nutrition, which is about your overall food intake. Neither is about timing. If meal timing doesn't affect your energy, mood, appetite, exercise/work performance, or satiation, etc., in a negative way, it's not important.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    You should eat breakfast if you want to, or if you have a medical reason to do so.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    I like breakfast first thing but I don't need it (except when cycling a long distance...) so I find it a painless way to cut calories if I want to.

    It's no more important than any other meal.
  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
    I eat a small meal (400 cal, say) at 2pm, similar at 5pm and my main meal at 8pm. I exercise in the morning, fasted. It's what works for me and breaking loose of the "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" mentality has been nothing but good for me. It won't work for everyone, I'm sure.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,300 Member
    Are you hungry? If so, eat. If not, don't eat. There is nothing mythical or magical about eating breakfast.

    I do eat it on weekdays because I am up early for work and can not make it until lunch. No one wants a hungry and cranky coworker.
  • PrismaticPhoenix
    PrismaticPhoenix Posts: 65 Member
    It depends on how you react to NOT eating breakfast. I dislike the push that there has been to get people to eat breakfast regardless of how they are feeling because "breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" If you're fine until lunch if you don't eat breakfast, don't eat breakfast. If you want a mid-day snack instead of breakfast, eat a mid-day snack instead of breakfast. If you end up hungrier later in the day on days that you don't eat breakfast, eat breakfast.

    I myself have had a difficult relationship with breakfast for most of my life because I've always wanted it, but I've wanted it closer to 10 am. If I've eaten it too close to waking up, I've gotten nauseated. But skipping it altogether has led to extreme hunger at lunch.
  • shaf238
    shaf238 Posts: 4,022 Member
    In short, no you don't have to.

    As long as you're eating a good variety of foods in a day, you're all good.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    If skipping makes you hungry, lethargic, and/or stabby you should eat it. Otherwise you can skip it.

    It is easier for me to skip it due to a medical issue. I can eat it if I am careful but if I do my hunger is much harder to control the rest of the day. That might be okay if I am facing a day that I anticipate will far exceed my normal activity level.
  • tanyanelson922
    tanyanelson922 Posts: 27 Member
    You need to fuel your body and increase your metabolism, you cannot skip meals 3-5 small meals will keep you energized though out the day, and keep burning calories. Your stomach will growl and you will lose weight properly. Breakfast is a necessity. Egg-protein, nuts-protein, fruit or smoothie, sausage-protein, skip hashbrown, one bread-any way with jelly vs. butter/margarine. Very healthy for you. Some may add veggies and have omelet, and sausage, two egg, with veggies, Parmesan cheese and garlic, better choice of cheese. Tastes great less filling
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    timhiley wrote: »
    tanyanelson922 wrote: »
    You need to fuel your body and increase your metabolism, you cannot skip meals 3-5 small meals will keep you energized though out the day, and keep burning calories. Your stomach will growl and you will lose weight properly. Breakfast is a necessity. Egg-protein, nuts-protein, fruit or smoothie, sausage-protein, skip hashbrown, one bread-any way with jelly vs. butter/margarine. Very healthy for you. Some may add veggies and have omelet, and sausage, two egg, with veggies, Parmesan cheese and garlic, better choice of cheese. Tastes great less filling

    I don't find generic advice like this really helpful. I believe that as other posters have said it is very much down to the individual. I do something akin to IF 16:8 and this works for me I have never particularly been a breakfast person. My mistake was not worrying about what I ate the rest of the day!

    I have now lost 4 stone 3lbs (57lbs) over the past six months by using MFP meticulously to track my macros (100g carbs a day) and calories (1400) and by walking a brisk 6km a day, six to seven days a week. I do have breakfast on Saturday and Sunday but then I don't have lunch and I am feeling healthier and fitter than I have done for years (currently 53)

    This is what has worked (and is still working) for me but I don't for a moment think this will work for everyone. I was also starting out at a high starting point of 285lbs.

    I have been amazed since starting my weight loss journey at the sheer amount of bad science there is out there. From 'science experts' that pedal absolute rubbish to studies that are funded or commissioned by interest groups, it is a minefield trying to pick your way through to the truth. It is also an 'industry' too full of people who push that their way is the only possible way to lose weight in a healthy way. (Usually accompanied by a product that they would be only too happy to sell you!)

    I would love to see some real peer-reviewed science that supports the 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day,' viewpoint and I believe that as long as it is not causing physiological or psychological problems and/or overeating etc later in the day, then not eating breakfast isn't a problem as long as you are taking care of the basics (Balanced diet, controlled macros & monitoring calories.)

    PS I hope I don't come across as rude to the poster I have quoted above, because I know their thoughts are genuine and they are trying to be truly helpful. I am just adding my own thoughts to the debate.

    The minimum calories for a male with no exercise is 1500 other than that you seem to be well on your way.

    Since it is a message board your post will be viewed as mostly gold by some people and rude by others. That is just how it works.

    I do not think weight loss is about a particular method other than eating less than you burn. I doubt many people could be successful with my system. I am sometimes shocked myself that it works so well (most of the time).





  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    Eat breakfast if you want to. Don’t eat breakfast if you don’t want to.

  • GratefulWayFarer
    GratefulWayFarer Posts: 61 Member
    I'll have breakfast once in a blue moon. Out of habit I really don't feel like eating in the morning. And if I don't feel like eating, I generally don't. Listen to your body!
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    edited December 2019
    Other posters have hit the nail on the head already.

    I don’t know where this idea comes from that everyone should or has to eat traditional breakfast. Growing up, I was never hungry early in the morning and I know many others who are the same. I remember school started around 8am and I would be forced to eat breakfast by my parents around 6:30am. Ugh. So many extra calories that I didn’t even want to eat then, and I grew up a bit chubby.

    I get hungry around 10 or 11am so that’s when I eat my first meal. Any earlier and I just have tea or coffee.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    lots of people skip breakfast, it's fine.
  • carolpa1
    carolpa1 Posts: 75 Member
    When I worked I got up early enough so I had time for breakfast. It was necessary for me to function until lunch. Now that I am retired i eat my breakfast (first meal) when I get hungry. Sometimes 9am, sometimes 11am. Sometimes not till noon or later. The only thing for sure, it is always eggs.
  • kcmcbee
    kcmcbee Posts: 179 Member
    Almost everything I have read for the past several months encourage eating breakfast. For weight loss related or for other reasons. So I’m stumped somewhat about the overwhelming votes for no need for breakfast comments here.
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
    If I skip breakfast routinely, I eventually start getting really hungry before bed. I think it's because my body knows I won't be eating for awhile. So I usually eat something small for breakfast (eg an 80 calorie yogurt).

    But everyone is different. If skipping breakfast works for you, then do it! There is no scientific research that definitively answers your question unfortunately. And even if there was, just because eating breakfast might be better for most people wouldn't necessarily mean it's better for you.
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    I think breakfast cereal companies have gone a long way towards pushing this idea that breakfast (as in, food eaten soon after waking) is so important. I don’t have a “most important meal”—calories, and to some extent, filling protein, are what I focus on.
  • poisonesse
    poisonesse Posts: 573 Member
    I think it's a personal option. Me? I have to eat within an hour of waking or I get nauseous. I'm one of those " fill the tank before you take a trip" kind of people. But for those that don't feel hungry, I'd say eat when you DO feel hunger creeping up on you. However, I wouldn't suggest not eating just to save calories for the rest of the day... as others have said, listen to your body! Whatever time you eat, your first meal of the day is "breakfast" because you're breaking your overnight fast. ;)
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    kcmcbee wrote: »
    Almost everything I have read for the past several months encourage eating breakfast. For weight loss related or for other reasons. So I’m stumped somewhat about the overwhelming votes for no need for breakfast comments here.

    It's because people here are responding based on what has worked for them in real life, not stuff they read on the internet.


  • JaxxieKat
    JaxxieKat Posts: 427 Member
    If you aren't hungry, don't worry about skipping breakfast. Breakfast being touted as the "most important meal of the day" was a cold cereal marketing ploy. I usually only have coffee in the morning.

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