Eating Breakfast

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seabs88
seabs88 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm curious - I've heard that you should eat breakfast in order to lose weight and I've also heard about intermittent fasting. I personally do not like to eat breakfast. Does anyone have an opinion or personal experience on whether eating breakfast is a good idea for weight loss? TIA
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  • Rockmama1111
    Rockmama1111 Posts: 262 Member
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    I also used to skip breakfast and preferred to have bigger lunches and dinners. I changed it up and have been eating a fiber-and-protein-rich breakfast almost every day for a few months. I can’t say that it’s a “should” or that it is better, but I will say that I feel really good and energized all day. Last week I skipped breakfast because I was going out for a big lunch, and I found myself kind of cranky and not feeling so great as noon approached.
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,042 Member
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    I do best losing weight when my schedule allows for two meals taken between 10AM and 6PM. If my work schedule makes for an early day, I will have coffee immediately upon waking to (TMI) facilitate morning matters. Often breakfast is provided at my workplace - but if I know my first meal opportunity will not happen until mid-day, I'll have a handful of nuts and/or a hard-boiled egg and maybe a medium sweet potato for a total of 250-350 calories. On work days, I feel a light breakfast is important to keep me mentally sharp and to stop myself from binging lunch.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,697 Member
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    seabs88 wrote: »
    I'm curious - I've heard that you should eat breakfast in order to lose weight and I've also heard about intermittent fasting. I personally do not like to eat breakfast. Does anyone have an opinion or personal experience on whether eating breakfast is a good idea for weight loss? TIA
    It doesn't matter. It's whatever is the most convenient for each person as fatloss comes down to a consistent calorie deficit over time. For many, IF causes them to consume fewer overall calories.

    Anecdotally, I eat something at 10, something light at around 1 and a light dinner at 6 with a glass of wine. That works out to about 1,700 a day which is my sweet spot for a pound a week of fatloss.

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,566 Member
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    I don't eat breakfast regularly. First meal is usually after 11:30am-12pm. But I also eat late into the night usually up to 11pm so I have carbs in my system come morning time.

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  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,634 Member
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    I fell into an intermittent fasting eating schedule just because I have to be at work by 7, and I just can't eat that early, and then my next opportunity to eat isn't until 12:15 at lunch. I finish dinner by 8 so I can go to bed. That makes a 16 hour fasting window. I just don't ever eat breakfast except on the rare occasion. So yes, it can work, and no, you don't need breakfast.
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,158 Member
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    I eat breakfast when I am pregnant or nursing, but I have found that when I am not, I really don't miss breakfast if I wait to eat until later (I do still drink coffee with half and half in the mornings - that's not "pure" enough for some people, but total is under 50 calories).

    I do find that I prefer a larger lunch or dinner; it is difficult to eat less then for whatever reason, even when eating breakfast, and I have to very carefully manage my calories then. Skipping breakfast and eating a larger lunch and dinner just seems to fit my inclinations for how I'd like to eat and I don't struggle as much to stay within my targets. I'm not a natural snacker or grazer either. I'm not an IF "believer" per se, but I think IF has a higher likelihood of success for people inclined like me, just because it fits our habits rather than trying to make us eat less more frequently.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,014 Member
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    My n=1 personal experience is that I feel better when I eat breakfast,especially on work days ( weekends sometimes breakfast is so late it morphs into early lunch ( brunch )
    I don't eat a big breakfast, usually a bowl of cereal or couple of pieces of toast but I do better eating that than having nothing

    Totally individual and subjective though.
  • candylilacs
    candylilacs Posts: 614 Member
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    Breakfast: Matcha latte tea/and little scrambled eggs with cheese and spinach.

    There are days when I feel a little full, and I'll make matcha latte tea. And that's when my stomach growls a ton by 10:30-11 a.m.

    I'm not saying breakfast is a pain to make, but it is. I'll try to slip a little protein in.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,950 Member
    edited January 2023
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    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    seabs88 wrote: »
    I'm curious - I've heard that you should eat breakfast in order to lose weight and I've also heard about intermittent fasting. I personally do not like to eat breakfast. Does anyone have an opinion or personal experience on whether eating breakfast is a good idea for weight loss? TIA
    It doesn't matter. It's whatever is the most convenient for each person as fatloss comes down to a consistent calorie deficit over time. For many, IF causes them to consume fewer overall calories.

    Anecdotally, I eat something at 10, something light at around 1 and a light dinner at 6 with a glass of wine. That works out to about 1,700 a day which is my sweet spot for a pound a week of fatloss.

    Ditto.

    I generally don't eat breakfast and consume an espresso then off to the gym 2 or 3 days a week. On those off days I might have a breakfast which is generally mostly protein and fat and specifically animal protein and fat because I'm at the moment switching from low carb to very low carb. My total calories right now in the two meals I normally consume if I don't have breakfast are around 3000 from checking the caloric values periodically but it could be 3500 some days, I just basically eat until I feel satiated and some days when I'm much more active I generally do eat a little more. I try as best I can to facilitate a fasting state of around 14-16 hours. Cheers
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
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    stevebozz0804 wrote: »
    I skip breakfast every day. Eating makes me insanely hungry. I’m not usually hungry in the morning. But if I eat, it will make me (again - INSANELY) hungry. When I eat, I just get hungrier and never get full. So I never eat breakfast. It would ruin my day!
    I no longer have that, but I have had it for decades. Eating in the morning was just not a realistic option. I did not eat in the morning and was fine with that. Now, I don't care anymore, but if I wait too long, I feel rather crappy. Just do what feels best as long as you don't eat too much. The rest is meaningless.
  • DFW_Tom
    DFW_Tom Posts: 220 Member
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    stevebozz0804 wrote: »
    I skip breakfast every day. Eating makes me insanely hungry. I’m not usually hungry in the morning. But if I eat, it will make me (again - INSANELY) hungry. When I eat, I just get hungrier and never get full. So I never eat breakfast. It would ruin my day!

    Sounds like me until I stopped eating anything high in carbs in the morning. An hour or two after eating I'd get almost unfunctionable with what I thought was hunger. I think it was carb cravings from blood sugar drop (likely caused by insulin resistance). Hunger and carb cravings feel very much alike except the cravings are much, much (even insanely) stronger!

    I changed to eating low carb breakfast because skipping breakfast tended to make me overeat for lunch, which then made me lethargic for most of the afternoon. I'd still feel hungrier after eating lunch than before I ate.
  • GloriaBJN
    GloriaBJN Posts: 78 Member
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    I can't do breakfast. It makes me hungry way too early in the day. Breafast is literally breaking the fast your body experiences during sleep. I start getting hungry around 10 or 11 AM, but my coffee has 125 calories, so I wait for lunch. I also can't quit eating after supper. I have an evening snack at night. It's the same calorie intake, just shifted to suit my body's natural cravings. I'd listen to my body over advice any day.
  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,338 Member
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    CICO is the key, but there are a ton of different ways to do it.

    I used to skip breakfast and sometimes lunch because I was working. I wasn't doing IF, I just wasn't planning well. All it did for me was make me binge in the evenings.

    Now I've found that a small protein bar on the way to work or at work, does a good job for me. Of course I'm the opposite of IF now, I eat small meals (100-150cals) every 3 hours or so and then a healthy larger dinner. For me the small snacks keep me from binging during the evenings. Planning to have healthy options available was a game changer for me.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited January 2023
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    pridesabtch wrote: »
    CICO is the key, but there are a ton of different ways to do it.
    Indeed. People, especially beginners, should not make the mistake of confusing the requirement for weight loss with the method to achieve it.
    I used to skip breakfast and sometimes lunch because I was working. I wasn't doing IF, I just wasn't planning well. All it did for me was make me binge in the evenings.

    Now I've found that a small protein bar on the way to work or at work, does a good job for me. Of course I'm the opposite of IF now, I eat small meals (100-150cals) every 3 hours or so and then a healthy larger dinner. For me the small snacks keep me from binging during the evenings. Planning to have healthy options available was a game changer for me.
    I do something very similar. I eat every 2h30m, unless when it is not possible or when I am sleeping. All my meals are, while different, also the same: a measured portion of vegetables with a measured portion of a protein source. I start when I wake up, and stop when I am going to sleep. In practice, that gives me an average of 6 meals a day, i.e. usually 5, 6 or 7 with some outliers when I have a short night or an allnighter.

    It seems to work, since I went down from about 127 kg to about 65 kg.
  • mel941980
    mel941980 Posts: 49 Member
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    I have been following a 16:8 intermittent fasting schedule for three years. Like others said, CICO is the most important thing. I lost 100bs in two years and have been maintaining for over a year. Tracking calories and exercising are key, but IF is a great tool for me personally. I find it easier to manage hunger and track calories. That said, I love Sunday breakfast so I don't follow IF on Sundays.

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