breakfast or not to breakfast

msarro

Sadly at this time I can't. I have no access to a university network to start browsing for more scholarly journals.

However, I think your understanding of statistics is slightly flawed. While causation!=correlation, consistent correlation shows that there is some type of link (causitive or otherwise), we simply don't understand its nature. See the law of large numbers.

I'll take the huge risk and continue eating breakfast. It seems to have worked for the first 140 pounds I lost pretty well.

Might eating breakfast be correlated to greater weight loss not due to a metabolic advantage, but due to people that tend to skip breakfast have crappy eating habits in general?

Studies on meal frequency show no metabolic advantage and i posted above why people tend to still beleive that there is one (TEF mostly)

And you can continue to eat breakfast, it's a personal preference, but again yields no metabolic advantage to not eating it

Another possibility is that eating more frequent meals (same number of total kcal) does lead to increased feelings of satiation, and helps increase fat oxidation (at least in women). It could keep people from binging on crap if they feel less hungry. (source:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18053311)

Acg67

Another possibility is that eating more frequent meals (same number of total kcal) does lead to increased feelings of satiation, and helps increase fat oxidation (at least in women). It could keep people from binging on crap if they feel less hungry. (source:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18053311)

I'd have to look at the composition of the 3 meals in the study, but increased fat intake would increase fat oxidation. Note:

"Eating three meals compared with two meals had no effects on 24 h energy expenditure, diet-induced thermogenesis, activity-induced energy expenditure and sleeping metabolic rate

Also

Meal frequency and energy balance. Br J Nutr. 1997 Apr;77 Suppl 1:S57-70. (another meta analysis of epidemiological studies)

"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."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9155494

Increased meal frequency does not promote greater weight loss in subjects who were prescribed an 8-week equi-energetic energy-restricted diet. Br J Nutr. 2010 Apr;103(8):1098-101. Epub 2009 Nov 30.

"The main goal of the present study was to investigate whether using a high MF could lead to a greater weight loss than that obtained with a low MF under conditions of similar energy restriction. Subjects were randomised into two treatment arms (high MF = 3 meals+3 snacks/d or low MF = 3 meals/d) and subjected to the same dietary energy restriction of - 2931 kJ/d for 8 weeks. Sixteen obese adults (n 8 women and 8 men; age 34.6 (sd 9.5); BMI 37.1 (sd 4.5) kg/m2) completed the study. Overall, there was a 4.7 % decrease in body weight (P < 0.01); similarly, significant decreases were noted in fat mass ( - 3.1 (sd 2.9) kg; P < 0.01), lean body mass ( - 2.0 (sd 3.1) kg; P < 0.05) and BMI ( - 1.7 (sd 0.8) kg/m2; P < 0.01). However, there were NS differences between the low- and high-MF groups for adiposity indices, appetite measurements or gut peptides (peptide YY and ghrelin) either before or after the intervention. We conclude that increasing MF does not promote greater body weight loss under the conditions described in the present study."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943985

Stacyanne324

I am not a huge fan of breakfast unless it is lots of cheesy eggs, bacon, toast, bagels with cream cheese, homefries... well, you get the idea. Not what I can eat on a daily basis and lose weight. If it's just a bowl of cereal I'm not interested. But, I do need to eat something so most mornings I have a breakstone cottage double. The protein keeps me full enough until lunch and it's only 100 calories so I can save those daily calories for the meals I do like.
Every now and then I'll have a proper breakfast but not most days.

Reinventing_Me

I'm shocked by the number of people suggesting that you force yourself to eat when you aren't hungry. I don't know about you, but that's part of why I'm fat.

Hi,

Is it simply because you eat/ate when you aren't/weren't hungry, or was it the food choices you made when you ate? It's one thing to grab a light healthy nutrient-dense snack to stave of hunger before it really hits, but its another thing to just sit and eat a bunch of processed food or a bag of chips with no nutritional benefits just because its there. That's why I'm overweight...that, and lack of exercise.

I'm an advocate of eating SOMETHING. Maybe not a full-out breakfast spread, but something. And not necessarily first thing when I wake up. Sometimes I eat at 7:30am, sometimes it's 9am. Weekends it might be 10 or 10:30, but if it's that late, I have an apple or other piece of fruit so that I can better control how much of "breakfast food" I eat.

If that doesn't work for you or others, its all good. I'm not trying to tell people what to do one way or the other. Only sharing what I've learned about myself and my habits and to provide discussion as to why I think its a good idea to start the day off with something in the tank (keeping in mind that YOUR day is different from MY day).

maryjay51

i remember having this conversation with my trainer.. he told me he has a hard time eating breakfast too but he does it regardless of how he feels.. he said protein is the way to go for breakfast.. you dont have to eat a traditonal breakfast either.. sometimes i will eat chicken or a protein shake. most the time i force myself to eat because i never was a breakfast person..but hey there is something to eating breakfast.. ive been extremely successful with weight loss and that played a roll in it. my way apparently didnt work so i tried it by eating breakfast. it keeps your metabolism going and gives you energy to start your day ..not eating anything is not healthy

Sweet_Potato

I'm shocked by the number of people suggesting that you force yourself to eat when you aren't hungry. I don't know about you, but that's part of why I'm fat.

I rarely wait until I'm hungry to eat, and I've never been fat. If you eat controlled portions it shouldn't be an issue. Also, I genuinely enjoy food so I'm not forcing it.

reddoorjess

So true regarding not having to stick to "breakfast foods" as in, traditional cereal/ oatmeal ect. I can eat left overs, a turkey sandwich (as you said) and all manner of other dinner/ lunch type foods for breakfast, but cannot stomach breakfast foods. I am unsure why I never gave myself permission to eat whatever in the morning, instead, I was stuck on it having to be a breakfast food. stoopid me.