4 reasons why you need to eat breakfast

engineman312

Here are the first three. the last one is a video.

http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/02/11/5-reasons-why-you-need-to-eat-breakfast/

Growing up, your mom told you that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. She also told you that those sweat pants you wore in 7th grade were cool too, so you don’t know WHAT do believe anymore. That’s where Nerd Fitness comes in. I’m going to give you the low-down on breakfast, and find out if it’s the real deal or if Count Chocula and Tony the Tiger are full of crap.

Nearly everybody I know who is in shape eats breakfast. Nearly everybody I know who is out of shape and overweight doesn’t eat breakfast. Seems counter-intuitive, I know – if somebody is overweight, then skipping one of the three meals a day should help them, right? Wrong, and here’s five reasons why:

1) When you skip breakfast, you end up getting so hungry by the time lunch rolls around that you overeat and often eat unhealthily. If you wake up, and eat a good breakfast, you won’t be so starved by noon and you can think with a clear head, “hmmm, maybe four Big Macs is a bad idea.” People that eat breakfasts are more likely to make more healthy choices throughout the day, because they’re not completely preoccupied all morning with thoughts of food. You’ll also be less likely to reach for the donuts your cubicle neighbor brought to work. Stay away from the bearclaw!

2) Breakfast gives you energy for the morning. You know when you get to your desk in the morning, you’re all Grumpelstilskin and Crankenstein, and by 9:15 you already need to run to Chachski’s for a coffee break? Well, when you eat breakfast, you’ll have more energy, a better attention span, and you won’t “space out” nearly as much. Still feel free to use the side door, however, when you come in 15 minutes late.

3) You’ll be less likely to do something stupid for dinner and late at night. When you skip breakfast, you tend to overeat for lunch and dinner and all that extra food gets stored as fat on your body. You know that old saying, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper?” Yeah, me neither. But still, I’m pretty sure that is a saying, and there is truth behind it. People who stuff their face right before bed are pretty much sending every one of those calories straight to their *kitten* while sleeping. If you eat a big healthy breakfast, your appetite will be curbed throughout the day and you’ll be far less likely to eat that pint of Chunky Monkey before bed.

McKayMachina

So true.

A handful of nutritional/physiological reasons and a truckload of behavioral ones = eat breakfast.

Tropical_Turtle

Thank you for this ~ I tell my mother this ALL the time. I tell her it is like trying to start a car without any gas in the engine (waking up in the morning and jump to going without eating) Then she wonders why she is shoveling crap down her throat and *****ing at everyone when its mid to late afternoon. Geesh

Anyway - thanks again for sharing - had to email this to mom!!

ProTFitness

BREAKFAST IN NOW MY FAVORITE MEAL OF THE DAY

janetteluparia

Break-the-fast!

Also, carbohydrates nourish your nervous system and your brain!

engineman312

BREAKFAST IN NOW MY FAVORITE MEAL OF THE DAY

omg. you have an amazing looking breakfast this morning. i have pumpkin spice powder in my house, and i'm gonna put it in my oatmeal tomorrow.

WKenL

I skipped breakfast yesterday. Nothing deliberate, just didn't think of it.

The end result was that I felt sufficiently famished that I went through a drive-thru. Waste of money, blew my sodium for the day (by a lot) and had to eat a lot less of my supper, which was actual food, to make up for the gosh-awful calorie content.

All of it would have been prevented by a bowl of cereal and a peach before I left the house.

Jean410

I've always been a breakfast eater, so now I feel justified... so why am I overweight? Probably another discussion. LOL. Thanks for the post!

mamashatzie

Eh, that's true for many people, but not all.

I usually just don't get hungry in the morning. I'm at my desk by 9 but I'm rarely hungry until lunchtime. If I'm hungry, yes I do eat, but if I'm not hungry then I don't. I keep plenty of food at work in case I decide to eat breakfast. And on the days I don't eat breakfast, I still stay within my calorie goals.

Yes, breakfast is great for many people, but that doesn't make it the be-all, end-all. Listen to your body.

SMarie10

I eat breakfast food (eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, hashbrowns) whatever qualifies - anytime for any meal. I love having breakfast for dinner cause it is so tasty and easy to make. So, Breakfast isn't just for BF anymore.

HMonsterX

All those reasons listed are "you may...", "you might", "you may find"....That's hardly scientific! If you control your eating, make the right choices, etc, then breakfast has a negligible effect on weight loss. Your body wont go into starvation mode if you skip breakfast. You wont kickstart your metabolism if you do eat breakfast...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/355648-stop-eating-breakfast-here-s-why?hl=breakfast

Anyone remember this thread? While the title was slightly misleading, a lot of truth and research was presented to help dispel the myth that breakfast boosts metabolism, and this whole "Breakfast like a king" thing your gran always told you...

The only time breakfast has been proven to have a noticeable impact on something other than things we can control ourselves is in kids at school. I would always try to get kids to eat breakfast. Adults, if it makes you not make bad choices later, then go for it! But don't do it because you think it boosts metabolism etc.

People who stuff their face right before bed are pretty much sending every one of those calories straight to their *kitten* while sleeping.

Completely, utterly, false.

MikeSEA

Eh, that's true for many people, but not all.

I usually just don't get hungry in the morning. I'm at my desk by 9 but I'm rarely hungry until lunchtime. If I'm hungry, yes I do eat, but if I'm not hungry then I don't. I keep plenty of food at work in case I decide to eat breakfast. And on the days I don't eat breakfast, I still stay within my calorie goals.

Yes, breakfast is great for many people, but that doesn't make it the be-all, end-all. Listen to your body.

Yeah, I can barely choke down my morning Fiber One bar. I have to wait at least a few hours into my day before i want to eat anything. The only reason I have anything at all before I leave the house is so something else can be on my stomach along with the fish oil supplement and multi-vitamin. Breakfast doesn't do much for me...unless I sleep in for awhile.

engineman312

guys, like everything else on this forum, its all a matter of opinion. i never said this was scientific fact, or research i conducted myself.

personally, even on days i wake up at 4am to go to work, i find that i'm eating something at 445, and i feel great for the rest of the day and don't have to "choke it down."

MikeSEA

Would it be fair to say, then, that we can distill down the 4 reasons to "Meh, eat breakfast if that's what works for you." ? I hate to be reductive, but....

HMonsterX

The title of this thread made it sound like we all NEED to have breakfast...which we don't.

If you find it helps you, then go for it. But it has been proven that breakfast has negligible biological impact on weight loss.

I was very overweight, and i used to eat breakfast regularly. Porridge was awesome back then.Now, i haven't had breakfast in 6 months, and im 50lbs down. Therefore, skipping breakfast is great for weightloss! I'm proof!


Breakfast is a great example of correlation not meaning causation.

strawberryromper

It is an opinion- and others are presenting opposing opinions.

I am not a big fan of being told what I will do, personally. If I skip breakfast, no, I will not go out and overeat. No, I will not be tired or irritable. Someone might and if they do, they should eat breakfast.

engineman312

Would it be fair to say, then, that we can distill down the 4 reasons to "Meh, eat breakfast if that's what works for you." ? I hate to be reductive, but....

absolutly. everything posted on this public forum is open to debate.

like i said, i find that days that i start off with a good breakfast of some carbs and protein, i can stay more focused in the morning, and fend off hunger until much later in the day.

MikeSEA

So the moral of the story here is that eating breakfast works for some people and not others. I'm struggling to find the point, I guess. If there was an myriad of posts saying breakfast is bad, then I would see the use; a balanced opinion is always nice.

I see people ask whether or not breakfast can be skipped, but I rarely see people posting questions asking whether or not breakfast (as a meal concept, not specific foods) is the culprit in their weight gain.

I'm probably over-thinking this.

engineman312

The title of this thread made it sound like we all NEED to have breakfast...which we don't.

hey man, i just quoted the title of the article. the "stop eating breakfast. heres why" thread didn't have a much better title. i like that guys blog, and i think he makes a lot of good points, but ultimatly its what he has found works for him, and it's working for me.

HMonsterX

Hey, I know you're just the messenger here! Nothing against you personally!

Just the whole thing whoever wrote it said is purely behavioural, and that is clearly going to be different from person to person.

The thing he said about everyone in shape he knows eats breakfast, and all the out of shape ones dont eat breakfast instantly slammed his credibility tbh. If he really thinks that eating breakfast is the reason for that, then christ....he is either on a different agenda, or really is dumb...

engineman312

Hey, I know you're just the messenger here! Nothing against you personally!

Just the whole thing whoever wrote it said is purely behavioural, and that is clearly going to be different from person to person.

The thing he said about everyone in shape he knows eats breakfast, and all the out of shape ones dont eat breakfast instantly slammed his credibility tbh. If he really thinks that eating breakfast is the reason for that, then christ....he is either on a different agenda, or really is dumb...

maybe he just doesn't know a lot of people.

Silverkittycat

If I'm hungry I eat it, if I'm not... I don't. Simple.

engineman312

If I'm hungry I eat it, if I'm not... I don't. Simple.

seriously. there have been times i do not eat breakfast. but if i'm going to work, where it is easy to order food and eat poorly, and make unhealthy choices, i'd rather load up in the am.

mamaredhead

I'm having trouble with eating an early breakfast (between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m.) which is the only possible point in time because my kids go to school and so do I. So skipping the first break-fast would not be the problem, skipping the coffee would be ;-) and also the second breakfast later that morning: If I don't get in a handful of carbs by 9:30 a.m. like in sandwiches and a couple of pieces of fruit I am close to EATING THE KIDS!!!!

Would have a hard time explaining that to my headmaster ;-)))))

So you guys just keep on doing what works best for you.

rachemn

This was on MSN's Fitbie this morning under 20 habits skinny people live by:

Skinny Habit #6: Eat breakfast
A study from the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who skipped breakfast were 4.5 times more likely to be obese. They don’t call it the most important meal of the day for nothin’—eating a nutritious morning meal jumpstarts your metabolism and prevents you from overindulging throughout the day. For optimal weight-loss results, choose a breakfast dish with a healthy balance of protein and fiber, like eggs with fruit and whole-wheat toast.

Here's the link to New York Mag's article on it:

http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/breakfast/47396/index1.html


Personally I always try and have breakfast, but I have to get up so early that I'm usually not hungry (except on my day's off when I can sleep in) so I compromise by having a protein shake and I up my fiber by adding flax meal to it!

MikeSEA

Skinny Habit #6: Eat breakfast
A study from the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who skipped breakfast were 4.5 times more likely to be obese. They don’t call it the most important meal of the day for nothin’—eating a nutritious morning meal jumpstarts your metabolism and prevents you from overindulging throughout the day. For optimal weight-loss results, choose a breakfast dish with a healthy balance of protein and fiber, like eggs with fruit and whole-wheat toast.

Here's the link to New York Mag's article on it:

http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/breakfast/47396/index1.html

People who eat food are 100% likely to get sick at some point in their lives. The food may or may not be the cause in each case of sickness.

The important question is: Am *I* more likely to gain weight if I skip breakfast? The answer is individual and based on behavior more than anything else.

So when when people publish "studies" we really should take it with a grain of salt.

McKayMachina

Why is everyone so argumentative?

You guys know me. I'm not likely to asskiss and blindly agree with people for the sake of a happy-hippie forum experience. But, damn. All this is is a collection of good ideas worth sharing...shared.

I didn't take the "you need to" literally and it didn't seem like engineman was commanding us to cram food down our throats. It surprises me that anyone took these tips to be mutually exclusive to any of the other infinite possible approaches.

mrsjennifermaffei

I couldn't live without my breakfast. There is not one single day in my life that I don't eat breakfast....Even when I need to leave the house ASAP I will grab something real quick. I buy many options that way it's as choosy as lunch or dinner.

strawberryromper

I think part of the problem, McKayMachina, is that most of us probably get a lot of condescending and fairly inaccurate advice related to weight loss. At this point I'm so tired of being told that I need breakfast, can't eat peanut butter, can't eat at night, can't eat all of my calories in one meal or twenty if I please, must eat "3-5 small meals" per day, can't drink my calories, can't grocery shop when I'm hungry... you get the point. I am personally pretty quick to speak out against things like that. While I did not take the advice as a command from engineman, it seems like something that is too often an unsolicited and condescending suggestion.

rachemn

[/quote]

So when when people publish "studies" we really should take it with a grain of salt.
[/quote]

Did you go to the link to the article on the study? It goes on to say that " it is not yet clear to researchers whether the relationship between breakfast and obesity is causal (i.e., breakfast consumption directly influences weight) or merely associational. Breakfast may play a supporting role in weight management, rather than a starring one. "

It could just be that it is a habit that tends to go along with other healthy habits.

I'm not sure why this is such a hot button issue here. I had no idea people would get so worked up over the topic...or is it just that we get defensive when people post things that don't correlate with our diet?

I am not a person that believes 'one size fits all.' I don't feel that the same diet works for everyone or the same healthy lifestyle fits everyone. However, for me, this fits. I'm cranky without my morning fuel and espresso alone won't do the trick. If I don't eat early, I eat late and when I eat late, I make bad choices. That's all.

HMonsterX

I think part of the problem, McKayMachina, is that most of us probably get a lot of condescending and fairly inaccurate advice related to weight loss. At this point I'm so tired of being told that I need breakfast, can't eat peanut butter, can't eat at night, can't eat all of my calories in one meal or twenty if I please, must eat "3-5 small meals" per day, can't drink my calories, can't grocery shop when I'm hungry... you get the point. I am personally pretty quick to speak out against things like that. While I did not take the advice as a command from engineman, it seems like something that is too often an unsolicited and condescending suggestion.

Well said.