How Bad Is It To Skip Breakfast?

MandaLen13

Some mornings (like today) I just really dont feel like eating. I always have my coffee but the thought of food just doesn't appeal to me until around lunch time. Is this bad or is it ok to skip breakfast?

ScottInTheOC

I never had breakfast in the mornings. I'd get up, get to work, have coffee and then didn't have lunch until after 2pm. I was starving my body and in doing it was affecting my blood sugars.

Ever since I started eating breakfast, I noticed I have more energy thru the day and I think is a contributing factor to weight management. I think not eating breakfast actually caused me to gain weight. Since I didn't eat for a good 5-7 hours after I woke up, I would binge at lunch and then since I didn't eat lunch until 2-3pm, I would have a late dinner just before bed.

DroseraBohemica

I'm really curious about this too.. During summer holiday it's ok but when I have to wake up to school at 6 AM I'm not able to eat.. That means 10 months without breakfasts (except weekends) every year. Is it bad? O.o

Curvygoth

I'd say don't listen to what anyone says on this and go with what your body tells you. Experts will say its the most important meal of the day, but if like me you get up really early and the thought of food in the morning makes you feel sick then what's wrong with waiting until lunchtime?

I usually skip breakfast - unless my body tells me it wants some. I then have lunch and dinner, but also a late afternoon snack with my breakfast calories which keeps me sane and is when my body craves food. I am losing weight this way so it works for me - its whatever works for you.

I guess the danger is if you don't eat breakfast and you have a physically demanding job but if you don't it shouldn't be a problem.

emmyworthy

I agree with curvygoth that you should always listen to your body to see if you are hungry or not, but since I started making sure I got up early enough to fit in breakfast I feel that my metabolism has shot up and that whatever I eat for the rest of the day has a kick start in being burnt off.

I don't know if this is scientific in any way, its just what I feel.

babyblake11

how about making an iced coffee smoothie? you get your coffee fix and its not hard to have in the morning, plus you get some energy.

1 tub vanilla or plain yogurt
4 ice cubes
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons coffee

thats a recipe i use but you could change it up

suzycreamcheese

its not bad to skip breakfast at all, unless youre skipping it when youre hungry and then ending up binging later to make up for it.

I think its wise to listen to your own bodyclock, and if you dont feel hungry till later, then wait, as long as youre not going over your cals the rest of the day

MandaLen13

Its not that I dont have time for breakfast. I'm a stay at home wife so I have all the time in the world. Its just that some mornings I really just dont feel hungry at all until around noon. I dont want to force myself to eat when I'm not hungry, but I also dont want to pig out at lunch. Maybe a smoothie or something would be a good fit for those mornings. Anybody got any good breakfast smoothie recipes?

MandaLen13

how about making an iced coffee smoothie? you get your coffee fix and its not hard to have in the morning, plus you get some energy.

1 tub vanilla or plain yogurt
4 ice cubes
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons coffee

thats a recipe i use but you could change it up

Oh that sound so delicious!!! Thank you! I will definitely be trying this one!!!!!

emmaNEEDSskinny

how about making an iced coffee smoothie? you get your coffee fix and its not hard to have in the morning, plus you get some energy.

1 tub vanilla or plain yogurt
4 ice cubes
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons coffee

thats a recipe i use but you could change it up

im going to do this!

editara13

Wrong wrong wrong.....Please,,,,,, you like it or not breakfast is important. Is like you are gonna use your car and have no gas in it. That's how our body works. After all night the engine in our system works and in the morning it needs energy to keep you focus, clear and healthy during the day. I'm not saying to eat a 2000 calorie breakfast, but a regular one that will keep your system healthy.........


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babyblake11

how about making an iced coffee smoothie? you get your coffee fix and its not hard to have in the morning, plus you get some energy.

1 tub vanilla or plain yogurt
4 ice cubes
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons coffee

thats a recipe i use but you could change it up

Oh that sound so delicious!!! Thank you! I will definitely be trying this one!!!!!

happy to help

seph_house

assuming you trust what your body is telling you (and not all of us are at that point yet ) and you have plenty of energy through the morning, then you are probably fine.

however... i would make a suggestion for those who don't think they are a breakfast person or you never feel like eating that early and so don't. You should try it out for a bit. Pick a month and commit to eating breakfast every day, plan what you are going to eat so you don't have to think about it and makes sure it's something simple (i'm a muesli girl but different things work for diff people), and just eat even when you don't want to.
then after the month (or two weeks or whatever), decide how you feel about it.

i never used to be a breakfast person until i forced myself to start and once my body got used to it it did make a huge difference to my snacking habits. I did have give my body a couple of weeks to get over the shock though

littlemili

Wrong wrong wrong.....Please,,,,,, you like it or not breakfast is important. Is like you are gonna use your car and have no gas in it. That's how our body works.

Cars don't have a fat supply to work off, nor do they get overweight and have to diet...

I think breakfast is pretty important, but if you can't deal with it then just make sure to take something with you at least so that if you get hungry an hour or two later you can eat and not have to wait til lunch. Just be smart - better to skip it than feel nauseous all day from having force fed yourself. That said I trained myself to eat breakfast after years of never touching it and my energy levels are much more consistent through the day now.

Curvygoth

Well I need my fuel at a different time of day. I don't want breakfast at 0530 in the morning. I want my cals about 6pm before I go off to an intense exercise or training session. It gives me energy to burn off more calories in the workouts. At weekends I throw hammer so I do eat breakfast, but it depends when you need that energy I guess.

suzycreamcheese

if the car is running, then it has gas in it to spare

jcannon15

i try to eat something every morning, even if its light because your metablolism switches "on" once you eat something and continues as you eat. Some mornings it a 100 cal pack of almonds just so theres something in my stomach.

bumflapassassin

I don't know much about it but I used to wait until about 10.30-11 until eating because I am not a morning person and generally struggle with food in the morning but I have recently started eating either toast or cereal in the mornings and find that I'm less irritable first thing at work and it may be my imagination or unrelated but I am craving crisps a lot less

tigersword

MEAL TIMING IS A MYTH. It does not matter when you eat, as long as you are eating the appropriate amount of calories and nutrients each day, it doesn't matter when you eat them. Your metabolism doesn't randomly speed up and slow down based on whether you had breakfast or not. It usually takes 2 days of constant fasting, or months of underrating to slow your metabolism down.

kitinboots

I find that eating breakfast allows me time to plan my lunch so I don't make a bad decision when I'm suddenly hungry.

onevision

It's pretty well proven that your body doesn't burn fat when in fasting mode. Fasting mode starts a few hours after you go to bed and lasts until you start feeding again. And recent studies suggest that people who eat a low GI breakfast within an hour of waking generally have 5% less bodyfat than those that eat high GI breakfasts or who fast until mid-morning.

jeanine89

I think this all depends on your sleeping habits if you sleep til ten lunch is your breakfast.

bumflapassassin

It's pretty well proven that your body doesn't burn fat when in fasting mode. Fasting mode starts a few hours after you go to bed and lasts until you start feeding again. And recent studies suggest that people who eat a low GI breakfast within an hour of waking generally have 5% less bodyfat than those that eat high GI breakfasts or who fast until mid-morning.

This is very interesting, thank you

DroseraBohemica

It's pretty well proven that your body doesn't burn fat when in fasting mode. Fasting mode starts a few hours after you go to bed and lasts until you start feeding again. And recent studies suggest that people who eat a low GI breakfast within an hour of waking generally have 5% less bodyfat than those that eat high GI breakfasts or who fast until mid-morning.

This sounds interesting, I'm gonna read something about it. That would be a good motivation to force myself to eat ^^

onevision

My pleasure guys, glad I could help. Have researched this a lot in recent years and now of all my routines, getting breakfast down me as quickly as I can after waking is now number 1. It really gets me going and I find it incredibly motivational thinking that I've kicked my metabolism in to overdrive!

I can point you at the reference material studies but in the first instance I recommend Dave Zinczenko's Abs Diet, which explores the importance of breakfast in some length and is a very informative reference.

ahavoc

Breakfast absolutely. But it can be as simple as a bowl of oatmeal. I used to eat like you, and I couldn't lose weight. Once I started eating breakfast and putting in my small healthy snacks during the day, I've been losing like I never have before. Find something you can tolerate and do it!

I have my Trader Joes gummy bear vitamins and take them first. I get the low sugar oatmeal which is only 110 - 120 calories, depending on the flavor, and I'm good to go.

Think of your body as an engine. If the engine doesn't have enough fuel to burn, it will compensate and run less effectively, trying to store resources so it can keep running (low metabolism), but if you've got fuel going to it in a constant stream, (eating every 2 - 3 hours, meals and snacks) it will run more efficiently on a continual burn. That's what you want your metabolism to do. That's why eating and exercising together are so important, and why not eating slows your metabolism down, and that leads to diet disaster. The biggest change I've made since I've come here is to eat breakfast and eat all my calories, but it's made a huge difference.

tigersword

It's pretty well proven that your body doesn't burn fat when in fasting mode. Fasting mode starts a few hours after you go to bed and lasts until you start feeding again. And recent studies suggest that people who eat a low GI breakfast within an hour of waking generally have 5% less bodyfat than those that eat high GI breakfasts or who fast until mid-morning.

I'd love to read these studies, because they completely seem to contradict intermittent fasting, which seems to work extremely well for many people as both a complete lifestyle and a way to lose significant weight. And it also seems to contradict the fact that the body lives off of fat reserves during fasting in general, for several days at a time. If your body suddenly stops burning fat while you sleep, then how is it continuously burning fat during multi-day fasts? Also, what does the body burn when your sleeping, if it doesn't burn fat stores? The human body is constantly burning and storing fat 24/7, as part of the metabolic cycle.

Also, I think that study had more to do with GI foods than fasting, as if you compare low GI foods to high GI foods eaten at different times, then you can't make an actual correlation between the meal times, as the foods are different.

sarahmaryfearnley

There is a lot of one side or the other comments so far. I find personally, eating breakfast helps me stay on track but I don't really like to eat in the morning either.

One comment I haven't seen is breakfast doesn't have to be a whole meal. A handful of almonds or grapes, a couple of strawberries or a small orange can be just enough at 6am. I know I'm probably stoking the know-it-alls fires recommending fruit and no protein in the morning but I like the fruit bc it's watery and easier to get down and you can have it with your coffee.

Try to keep it light if your not into it. For me, even a banana, yogurt, or smoothie just seems like way too much. Although the coffee smoothie sounds rockin! I think I'll try that one for an afternoon snack/pick-me-up.

AZackery

Breakfast is important, especially for people with a health problem, such a diabetes.

I don't believe a person has to feel hungry to eat. To me, the hungry feeling is there to let you know that you haven't eaten anything.

I don't wait until I'm thirsty to drink water.

Rae6503

Not that bad as long as you eat as much total food as you should. I often just have coffee then have hard boiled eggs or something at 10 or 11.

HMonsterX

No, skipping breakfast is not inherently bad for you, nor does it slow metabolism etc. Its just a myth.

http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com/is-skipping-breakfast-bad-for-you.aspx