BREAKFAST - what is the truth?
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I’ve read all the theories and studies about fasting, but only after I had been doing it for many, many years. It didn’t have an official name for it back in the 70s, when as a teenager I didn’t like eating breakfast or lunch because I couldn’t stay awake in class. I ate dinner and that was it, sometimes a pre-bed snack.
It doesn’t necessarily keep my weight down, on its own. It just makes it easier to get a deficit when I have limited time devoted to eating.
It just makes me feel better and healthier. And younger.1 -
There is no truth. There's very little truth in dieting besides "try to eat healthy foods most of the time, and if you wanna lose weight, eat less of them". Best not to even seek the hidden truth; there's only what works, and that's person-specific.
When it comes to breakfast, some people find eating it is beneficial for dieting, some don't. I've been doing IF for 15 months, so breakfast has not been part of the plan. I find it helpful to free up those calories to put into two larger meals (lunch and dinner). For other people, that doesn't work. I went on diet hiatus last week and find I still don't actually want breakfast even though I am now eating at maintenance and free to have it. Just not used to eating breakfast anymore and it does nothing for me.
I agree with the above posters about two things: one, you do adjust to not eating breakfast when you do IF and then you're just not hungry until lunch. Some kind of adaptation takes place, which is probably entirely psychological, but when you don't just "skip" breakfast now and then but have a time before which you never or very rarely eat, you do sort of get past the hunger pangs and fixation on food in the morning.
Two, while I love carbs and make no effort not to eat them, I'd have to admit that lower carb meals as the first meal tend to leave me less hungry later on. By which I mean higher protein, since I'm not going to eat a pailful of lard. Higher protein first-meals do seem to stave off the hunger longer. Why, I don't really know. If I know I have a high calorie dinner coming up such that there needs to be NO snacking between lunch and dinner, I will eat a high protein (aka lower carb) lunch so that I won't be hungry during the day.7 -
There is no truth. There's very little truth in dieting besides "try to eat healthy foods most of the time, and if you wanna lose weight, eat less of them". Best not to even seek the hidden truth; there's only what works, and that's person-specific.
When it comes to breakfast, some people find eating it is beneficial for dieting, some don't. I've been doing IF for 15 months, so breakfast has not been part of the plan. I find it helpful to free up those calories to put into two larger meals (lunch and dinner). For other people, that doesn't work. I went on diet hiatus last week and find I still don't actually want breakfast even though I am now eating at maintenance and free to have it. Just not used to eating breakfast anymore and it does nothing for me.
I agree with the above posters about two things: one, you do adjust to not eating breakfast when you do IF and then you're just not hungry until lunch. Some kind of adaptation takes place, which is probably entirely psychological, but when you don't just "skip" breakfast now and then but have a time before which you never or very rarely eat, you do sort of get past the hunger pangs and fixation on food in the morning.
Two, while I love carbs and make no effort not to eat them, I'd have to admit that lower carb meals as the first meal tend to leave me less hungry later on. By which I mean higher protein, since I'm not going to eat a pailful of lard. Higher protein first-meals do seem to stave off the hunger longer. Why, I don't really know. If I know I have a high calorie dinner coming up such that there needs to be NO snacking between lunch and dinner, I will eat a high protein (aka lower carb) lunch so that I won't be hungry during the day.
The healthy foods isn’t even the truth. Eat what you like so you can stick to your diet. If that’s TV dinners, simply choose ones that let you remain within your calorie goals.
A calorie deficit is all that matters for losing weight, not healthy foods.4 -
Dogmom1978 wrote: »There is no truth. There's very little truth in dieting besides "try to eat healthy foods most of the time, and if you wanna lose weight, eat less of them". Best not to even seek the hidden truth; there's only what works, and that's person-specific.
When it comes to breakfast, some people find eating it is beneficial for dieting, some don't. I've been doing IF for 15 months, so breakfast has not been part of the plan. I find it helpful to free up those calories to put into two larger meals (lunch and dinner). For other people, that doesn't work. I went on diet hiatus last week and find I still don't actually want breakfast even though I am now eating at maintenance and free to have it. Just not used to eating breakfast anymore and it does nothing for me.
I agree with the above posters about two things: one, you do adjust to not eating breakfast when you do IF and then you're just not hungry until lunch. Some kind of adaptation takes place, which is probably entirely psychological, but when you don't just "skip" breakfast now and then but have a time before which you never or very rarely eat, you do sort of get past the hunger pangs and fixation on food in the morning.
Two, while I love carbs and make no effort not to eat them, I'd have to admit that lower carb meals as the first meal tend to leave me less hungry later on. By which I mean higher protein, since I'm not going to eat a pailful of lard. Higher protein first-meals do seem to stave off the hunger longer. Why, I don't really know. If I know I have a high calorie dinner coming up such that there needs to be NO snacking between lunch and dinner, I will eat a high protein (aka lower carb) lunch so that I won't be hungry during the day.
The healthy foods isn’t even the truth. Eat what you like so you can stick to your diet. If that’s TV dinners, simply choose ones that let you remain within your calorie goals.
A calorie deficit is all that matters for losing weight, not healthy foods.
That is the truth for weight loss ONLY. If someone has 5 or 10 pounds to lose, yes, they can lose it eating Doritos. But many people have far more to lose than 10 pounds and their "diet" projects are going to be yearlong or multi-year or forever efforts. Eating Doritos around the clock is not going to work for them. The extreme position of "eat whatever you want within your calories" is fine short-term but there's more to good health than losing weight, as anyone who's crossed that 30 or 50 pound line knows. At some point you have to start paying attention to what goes in your mouth, not just how much of it.
TV dinners aren't that unhealthy. They're usually high in sodium, but otherwise they tend to be fairly well balanced and of moderate or at least measured calories. I've eaten plenty of them.7 -
Dogmom1978 wrote: »There is no truth. There's very little truth in dieting besides "try to eat healthy foods most of the time, and if you wanna lose weight, eat less of them". Best not to even seek the hidden truth; there's only what works, and that's person-specific.
When it comes to breakfast, some people find eating it is beneficial for dieting, some don't. I've been doing IF for 15 months, so breakfast has not been part of the plan. I find it helpful to free up those calories to put into two larger meals (lunch and dinner). For other people, that doesn't work. I went on diet hiatus last week and find I still don't actually want breakfast even though I am now eating at maintenance and free to have it. Just not used to eating breakfast anymore and it does nothing for me.
I agree with the above posters about two things: one, you do adjust to not eating breakfast when you do IF and then you're just not hungry until lunch. Some kind of adaptation takes place, which is probably entirely psychological, but when you don't just "skip" breakfast now and then but have a time before which you never or very rarely eat, you do sort of get past the hunger pangs and fixation on food in the morning.
Two, while I love carbs and make no effort not to eat them, I'd have to admit that lower carb meals as the first meal tend to leave me less hungry later on. By which I mean higher protein, since I'm not going to eat a pailful of lard. Higher protein first-meals do seem to stave off the hunger longer. Why, I don't really know. If I know I have a high calorie dinner coming up such that there needs to be NO snacking between lunch and dinner, I will eat a high protein (aka lower carb) lunch so that I won't be hungry during the day.
The healthy foods isn’t even the truth. Eat what you like so you can stick to your diet. If that’s TV dinners, simply choose ones that let you remain within your calorie goals.
A calorie deficit is all that matters for losing weight, not healthy foods.
That is the truth for weight loss ONLY. If someone has 5 or 10 pounds to lose, yes, they can lose it eating Doritos. But many people have far more to lose than 10 pounds and their "diet" projects are going to be yearlong or multi-year or forever efforts. Eating Doritos around the clock is not going to work for them. The extreme position of "eat whatever you want within your calories" is fine short-term but there's more to good health than losing weight, as anyone who's crossed that 30 or 50 pound line knows. At some point you have to start paying attention to what goes in your mouth, not just how much of it.
TV dinners aren't that unhealthy. They're usually high in sodium, but otherwise they tend to be fairly well balanced and of moderate or at least measured calories. I've eaten plenty of them.
you can be thin and eat crap. my very slim ex lived on snickers bars, pizza and chips, and he weighed a whopping 126 at 5' 8" tall.
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You can lose 100 lbs eating cupcakes. All you have to do is eat fewer calories than you need...
CICO is king for weight loss. You might feel like crap if you live off of cupcakes, but you will still lose weight4 -
Along with all the platitudes I've always been told about breakfast is the simple realization that breakfast is by far my favorite meal! Everything else is salads and roasted vegetables and such. Breakfast is a variety of healthy foods - fiber, carbs, protein, fruit! I love it. It would be far easier to skip lunch or dinner because I'm never again as hungry during the day as I am at breakfast time.8
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The truth is I need breakfast. Other people don't.6
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cwolfman13 wrote: »Rannoch3908 wrote: »So over the years I have heard everyone chime in on whether you need to eat breakfast or it's better to skip it.
Intermittent fasters will say to skip it - that it helps get your body to start burning your fat rather than your breakfast.
Other people say it's the most important meal of the day - that it kickstarts your metabolism to start burning fat and takes your body out of starvation mode (storing fat just in case).
What is the truth?
I am not hungry in the mornings but want to be doing what is right.
Neither is the truth.
"most important meal of the day" stems from a marketing campaign by Kelloggs way back when to get people to buy cereal.
There is also no magical fat burning happening with IF other than that produced by a calorie deficit. I'm not typically hungry most mornings so I don't usually eat until noon or 1...I'm in maintenance and I'm maintaining because I'm overall eating maintenance calories...so me doing IF has had no bearing on that.
Not sure if the Kellogg's campaign worked. I almost always eat cereal for breakfast, but it's almost never Kellogg's.2 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Rannoch3908 wrote: »So over the years I have heard everyone chime in on whether you need to eat breakfast or it's better to skip it.
Intermittent fasters will say to skip it - that it helps get your body to start burning your fat rather than your breakfast.
Other people say it's the most important meal of the day - that it kickstarts your metabolism to start burning fat and takes your body out of starvation mode (storing fat just in case).
What is the truth?
I am not hungry in the mornings but want to be doing what is right.
Neither is the truth.
"most important meal of the day" stems from a marketing campaign by Kelloggs way back when to get people to buy cereal.
There is also no magical fat burning happening with IF other than that produced by a calorie deficit. I'm not typically hungry most mornings so I don't usually eat until noon or 1...I'm in maintenance and I'm maintaining because I'm overall eating maintenance calories...so me doing IF has had no bearing on that.
Not sure if the Kellogg's campaign worked. I almost always eat cereal for breakfast, but it's almost never Kellogg's.
And I eat cereal (sometimes Kellogg's) but never for breakfast.
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I find that when I eat breakfast sooner after waking up that I am more more hungry throughout the day. I sometimes eat typical breakfast food and sometimes I skip it. I have seen studies that have shown that people who eat “breakfast” tend to eat less throughout the day because they are less likely to binge eat around lunch time. Every person is so different though so do what helps you meet your goals.3
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