Skipping Breakfast

DannyMussels

Love the advice of people with no pictures.........lol

agleckle

Personally, I feel that breakfast is really important and if you can't sit down to a real meal in the morning, at least bring a protein bar or something to eat during class. The majority of the weight that I lost happened when I started eating breakfast consistently in the morning... I'm not sure if it was because my metabolism was started earlier every day or if it just helped me to eat less later on because I wasn't as hungry, but I definitely give having breakfast alot of credit.

Your metabolism doesn't need to be started in the morning. If your metabolism stops at night then you have a big problem.

I meant that you need to start fueling your body sooner than later...

Say what you mean then, because that's a totally different thing than what you actually said. And while you're at it, explain why it's better. When you eat dinner that fuels your body for the next day, doesn't it? Or does it all magically turn to fat at midnight?

Jeez, you are probably one of those people that jump on everyone for saying that "muscle weighs more than fat" instead of "muscle is more dense than fat" too. It is one of those things that even though people don't say it completely scientifically correctly, people still understand what you mean.

With that said, imagine that your body is a machine. It needs fuel to fire properly. If you go several hours after waking up without feeding your body anything, your metabolism isn't going to be rapidly firing. But if you wake up and feed it, it will start your metabolism firing sooner and this gives you that much more time of your metabolism firing, which, IN MY OPINION is more beneficial to weight loss than if you let your metabolism stay slow for long periods of time. The same type of thinking is found when people advocate several small meals a day vs. 2 or 3 large ones.

tameko2

I've always skipped breakfast, but recently started a new job that means getting up earlier and I was getting hungry before lunch time so have started to have a small breakfast - typically a breakfast bar. After a plateau of no weight loss for 3 months my weight has started to drop off again. My total calorie intake is the same, and actually I'm doing less exercise as have less spare time.

I've been a bit stressed with my now job, but the hours are the same (have to get up earlier as longer commute) and its just as active as my previous job.

I'm wondering if its like 'starvation mode'. When your asleep your body shuts down, when you wake up and get active again and if you don't eat then your body thinks it might not get food for a while so slows your metabolism to cope and to try to make sure you last as long as possible before food is available (thinking to caveman lifestyle).

good point

Its not like that at all.

Your body does a LOT of stuff while you are asleep - YOU BURN CALORIES WHILE YOU SLEEP! in fact most people burn more calories sleeping than watching TV. Seriously.

You know what makes a difference though? Being up longer. When I wake up at 6:45 I tend to eat breakfast - I'm hungry around 9 and I know I won't get to eat until 11:30 or 12. So I eat. But when I wake up later, I tend to just wait 2-3 hours and eat lunch.


Those of us who are telling you its irrelevant are NOT anti breakfast. If breakfast helps you focus and feel good throughout the day THEN EAT IT.

What we are trying to tell the OP is that if he/she doesn't like eating breakfast there is absolutely no SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN reason to FORCE yourself to eat it. Unless you are hungry - people perform tasks better when they are not hungry. But if you're not hungry or dont' have tiem til noon, as long as you stick to your macros or calories it is FINE to eat your first meal at noon.

itontae

"Eating breakfast jump starts your metabolism"
"you need to drink at least eight glasses of water a day for optimum health"

if I hear either of those pieces of utter nonsense again I am going to jump off a bridge.

HMonsterX

According to Bob Harper (from biggest loser) skipping breakfast is really bad for your metabolism.

What he about to do some cheesy product placement for some breakfast cereal sponsor? That really put me off the US version of TBL.

Jeff92se

I've always skipped breakfast, but recently started a new job that means getting up earlier and I was getting hungry before lunch time so have started to have a small breakfast - typically a breakfast bar. After a plateau of no weight loss for 3 months my weight has started to drop off again. My total calorie intake is the same, and actually I'm doing less exercise as have less spare time.

I've been a bit stressed with my now job, but the hours are the same (have to get up earlier as longer commute) and its just as active as my previous job.

I'm wondering if its like 'starvation mode'. When your asleep your body shuts down, when you wake up and get active again and if you don't eat then your body thinks it might not get food for a while so slows your metabolism to cope and to try to make sure you last as long as possible before food is available (thinking to caveman lifestyle).

good point

Its not like that at all.

Your body does a LOT of stuff while you are asleep - YOU BURN CALORIES WHILE YOU SLEEP! in fact most people burn more calories sleeping than watching TV. Seriously.

You know what makes a difference though? Being up longer. When I wake up at 6:45 I tend to eat breakfast - I'm hungry around 9 and I know I won't get to eat until 11:30 or 12. So I eat. But when I wake up later, I tend to just wait 2-3 hours and eat lunch.


Those of us who are telling you its irrelevant are NOT anti breakfast. If breakfast helps you focus and feel good throughout the day THEN EAT IT.

What we are trying to tell the OP is that if he/she doesn't like eating breakfast there is absolutely no SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN reason to FORCE yourself to eat it. Unless you are hungry - people perform tasks better when they are not hungry. But if you're not hungry or dont' have tiem til noon, as long as you stick to your macros or calories it is FINE to eat your first meal at noon.

If the OP wasn't hungry in the morning, I don't think the OP would describe skipping breakfast as a "sacrafice". IMHO

Acg67

Bellisle F et. al. Meal frequency and energy balance. Br J Nutr. (1997) 77 (Suppl 1):S57-70.

"Although some short-term studies suggest that the thermic effect of feeding is higher when an isoenergetic test load is divided into multiple small meals, other studies refute this, and most are neutral. More importantly, studies using whole-body calorimetry and doubly-labelled water to assess total 24 h energy expenditure find no difference between nibbling and gorging. Finally, with the exception of a single study, there is no evidence that weight loss on hypoenergetic regimens is altered by meal frequency. We conclude that any effects of meal pattern on the regulation of body weight are likely to be mediated through effects on the food intake side of the energy balance equation.

HMonsterX

Personally, I feel that breakfast is really important and if you can't sit down to a real meal in the morning, at least bring a protein bar or something to eat during class. The majority of the weight that I lost happened when I started eating breakfast consistently in the morning... I'm not sure if it was because my metabolism was started earlier every day or if it just helped me to eat less later on because I wasn't as hungry, but I definitely give having breakfast alot of credit.

Your metabolism doesn't need to be started in the morning. If your metabolism stops at night then you have a big problem.

I meant that you need to start fueling your body sooner than later...

Say what you mean then, because that's a totally different thing than what you actually said. And while you're at it, explain why it's better. When you eat dinner that fuels your body for the next day, doesn't it? Or does it all magically turn to fat at midnight?

Jeez, you are probably one of those people that jump on everyone for saying that "muscle weighs more than fat" instead of "muscle is more dense than fat" too. It is one of those things that even though people don't say it completely scientifically correctly, people still understand what you mean.

With that said, imagine that your body is a machine. It needs fuel to fire properly. If you go several hours after waking up without feeding your body anything, your metabolism isn't going to be rapidly firing. But if you wake up and feed it, it will start your metabolism firing sooner and this gives you that much more time of your metabolism firing, which, IN MY OPINION is more beneficial to weight loss than if you let your metabolism stay slow for long periods of time. The same type of thinking is found when people advocate several small meals a day vs. 2 or 3 large ones.

And that thinking is also incorrect. Several small meals has been proven to offer no advantage over 1,2 or 3 meals in a day. It's your opinion, fair enough. Doesn't make it correct though. And as such, when you try to tell people that, you are always going to have people stating what the actual fact is, rather than their personal opinion.


As has been said before, breakfast has no biological advantage for your metabolism. It may help you control cravings, etc. But from a purely metabolic standpoint, it matters not if you have it or if you skip it. Just do what you actually enjoy!

Sidesteal

It has been readily proven that meal frequency does not speed up metabolic process.

Structure your meal timing around lifestyle and best athletic performance. These things matter, the metabolic crap does not.

ElizabethRoad

Personally, I feel that breakfast is really important and if you can't sit down to a real meal in the morning, at least bring a protein bar or something to eat during class. The majority of the weight that I lost happened when I started eating breakfast consistently in the morning... I'm not sure if it was because my metabolism was started earlier every day or if it just helped me to eat less later on because I wasn't as hungry, but I definitely give having breakfast alot of credit.

Your metabolism doesn't need to be started in the morning. If your metabolism stops at night then you have a big problem.

I meant that you need to start fueling your body sooner than later...

Say what you mean then, because that's a totally different thing than what you actually said. And while you're at it, explain why it's better. When you eat dinner that fuels your body for the next day, doesn't it? Or does it all magically turn to fat at midnight?

Jeez, you are probably one of those people that jump on everyone for saying that "muscle weighs more than fat" instead of "muscle is more dense than fat" too. It is one of those things that even though people don't say it completely scientifically correctly, people still understand what you mean.

With that said, imagine that your body is a machine. It needs fuel to fire properly. If you go several hours after waking up without feeding your body anything, your metabolism isn't going to be rapidly firing. But if you wake up and feed it, it will start your metabolism firing sooner and this gives you that much more time of your metabolism firing, which, IN MY OPINION is more beneficial to weight loss than if you let your metabolism stay slow for long periods of time. The same type of thinking is found when people advocate several small meals a day vs. 2 or 3 large ones.

No, no, no. "Starting your metabolism" is not in any way the same thing as "fueling your body". Your metabolism doesn't need to be started because it is always functioning. Fueling your body certainly is something you need to do, but: YOU ATE FOOD LAST NIGHT. THAT FOOD DID NOT DISAPPEAR WHEN YOU WENT TO SLEEP.

I am not interested IN YOUR OPINION.

Jeff92se

let's say you eat 1 ginormous meal a day vs breaking it up into 3. As far as weight loss/metabolism it might be a wash but how would one just eat one meal (no matter how large that one meal is)?

ElizabethRoad

let's say you eat 1 ginormous meal a day vs breaking it up into 3. As far as weight loss/metabolism it might be a wash but how would one just eat one meal (no matter how large that one meal is)?

With a fork?

Sidesteal

let's say you eat 1 ginormous meal a day vs breaking it up into 3. As far as weight loss/metabolism it might be a wash but how would one just eat one meal (no matter how large that one meal is)?

You would prepare the food and put it into your mouth?

Not sure I see what the issue is. I've done all my calories in 1 meal before, feels freakin' amazing honestly.

EDIT: Not trying to be a d1ck here Jeff, I just don't see where you're going with this.

WhitneyJerome

how about this if your hungry in the morning your body eat if not then don't. Isn't eating when we're not hungry the reason we are all overweight anyway?

Hmm I wouldn't say that exactly. I have a serious appetite and could easily eat over maintenance if i lacked self control

And we aren't all overweight. I have always been a healthy weight and skipped breakfast

I understand I didn't really mean hey if your hungry go eat a piece of cake because your body might think your starving (personal opinion here). You can eat a ton of food and not take in that many calories. If your trying to stay within say 1400 calories and your at 1300 then hunger hits, all of a sudden your reaching for a 300 calorie candy bar to sate the hunger. If you would have just ate a salad you could have sated the hunger without going over your calories. My point is if your eat when your hungry then for those of us without your rock hard will power with have an easier time not over eating.

joejccva71

I love it when I read through a thread like this and not have to intervene because my friends already took care of everything.

Carry on grasshoppers.

/bows and backs out of the room

silkysly

Love the advice of people with no pictures.........lol

Me too. I’m fit, run regularly, eat healthy & weigh 124lbs fully clothed. I’ve always been height proportioned to weight most of my life. I have been on here & working with a dietician only because I am donating a kidney to a friend. She advises eating breakfast is smart. End of story. People are going to do what they want to do in the end.

ElizabethRoad

Love the advice of people with no pictures.........lol

Me too. I’m fit, run regularly, eat healthy & weigh 124lbs fully clothed. I’ve always been height proportioned to weight most of my life. I have been on here & working with a dietician only because I am donating a kidney to a friend. She advises eating breakfast is smart. End of story. People are going to do what they want to do in the end.

I don't see what pictures have to do with anything. I am not putting my name or photograph up on the internet because I value my privacy. That doesn't mean I don't know what I'm talking about. You go right ahead and give me ANY reasoning behind what you are saying. PLEASE.

Jeff92se

let's say you eat 1 ginormous meal a day vs breaking it up into 3. As far as weight loss/metabolism it might be a wash but how would one just eat one meal (no matter how large that one meal is)?

You would prepare the food and put it into your mouth?

Not sure I see what the issue is. I've done all my calories in 1 meal before, feels freakin' amazing honestly.

EDIT: Not trying to be a d1ck here Jeff, I just don't see where you're going with this.

If I ate one big meal at 7:00am. I'm pretty damned sure I'd be hungry as hell again by lunch or definately at dinner. The point being while the studies are technically correct (I'll assume they are), I think the point is that people that might only eat one meal, in reality end up eating something else during the day. Thus ending up eating more food VS someone that split up that huge calorie binge thoughout the day.

I suppose you could train yourself to only eat one meal a day but I'm not sure how that would affect your insulin levels etc....thoughout the day. I'd THINK that spreading out the calories would tend to keep your body more on an even keel than eating just one meal a day.

Qarol

If I take a nap in the afternoon do I need to have a snack when I wake up so that my metabolism will restart?

I read the whole thread...this is my favorite comment of the day.

Sidesteal

Physique and good information are not related, period. I can name people who constantly give good advice and have no .avi and I can also unfortunately show you some people who look great and spew out incorrect BS that they learned from a bodybuilding magazine.