Is breakfast necessary??

AlsDonkBoxSquat

Don't listen to those who say breakfast is not necessary because "usually" they are the ones who are not in shape or who are in shape now but will gain it back quickly. That's why they have the yo-yo sydrome...loose weight for a few days/weeks and then gain it back quickly.

Yeah, I'm totally out of shape and have the yo-yo syndrome. Usually people that don't research and debunk myths spell "lose" wrong.

I'll keep fasting in the morning and keep LOSING body fat, you keep posting generalizations.

I KNOW!!! It's incredible how out of shape I am for a woman who doesn't think that eating breakfast is a necessity. It's just a terrible cycle of building muscle followed by periods of losing fat . . . wtf.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

its fine I was just repeating what over 12 different medical professionals and speciallist have told me over the last 5 years because of numerous medical problems I have had.
Its kind of like when you strive to eat 5 to six smaller meals a day because its suppose to be healthier then after you sleep you skip breakfast. Its kind of defeating the whole purpose of eating 6 meals a day right. I f breakfast is not nessary then why eat lunch or dinner. maybe we all should just eat all of our calories in one huge meal. I mean there is tons of studies that proove that 3 meals a day minimum is required for good health and more smaller meals are healthier. So telling the OP that only 2 meals (basically what you are teling her by skipping breakfast) is ok is against all studies that have been preformed saying you should have a minimum 3 balanced meals a day

Please quote your sources if you want to post things like this.

What if they predate the interwebz?

CoderGal

Absolutly need to eat breakfast after you wake up hense the name BREAK FAST. You should eat after breakfast because your body will go into a like starvation mode and it will mess with your metabolisim for the day and your body will start loading on fat. Breakfast also boost your metabolism and kicks starts it for the day. This is especially needed for woman.
I am not a speciallist or anything but this has been told to me by nutritionist and doctors and nurses and a lot of them.

Also think about this. your body has been fasting for 7 to 8 hours. You give it a high protein healthy meal in the morning to replish with creating a leaner healthy body that is burning more calories and has the energy to push you thru the day. when you sleep you burn your weight in Kilograms x .9 = calories/hour burn during sleep. Ithe calories are usually more than double what you would burn sitting at your desk all day specially the heavier you weight. So it is like exercising and you need to replinish your exercise calories

HAHAHAHAHA gigglesnort HAHA

Hmmm let's see...
120lb=54.4311kg
(54.4311-54.4311*.9)*8 hrs of sleep=43.5448800000pounds per sleep=96lbs per sleep
Sweet I burn off 96 pounds per night! In 2 days I'll be -72 pounds!

Damn I definitely sleep walk/eat.

secretlobster

I KNOW!!! It's incredible how out of shape I am for a woman who doesn't think that eating breakfast is a necessity. It's just a terrible cycle of building muscle followed by periods of losing fat . . . wtf.

You're going to kill yourself if you keep not following the advice from some random dude on the internet who can't form coherent sentences but insists that 12 medical professionals are always giving him advice tailored for women

yoovie

Absolutly need to eat breakfast after you wake up hense the name BREAK FAST. You should eat after breakfast because your body will go into a like starvation mode and it will mess with your metabolisim for the day and your body will start loading on fat. Breakfast also boost your metabolism and kicks starts it for the day. This is especially needed for woman.

Why, exactly, is it especially needed for a woman? This is the kind of stuff that gets tossed around for no good reason.

You will not go into starvation mode if you don't eat breakfast. If you don't eat anything for days, yes, your body will go into starvation mode, but not if you eat breakfast a few hours later than most people.

I was not talking like Starvation mode where you have not been eating for days more of your body is looking for food because you have not eaten for 7 to 8 hours and it wants food. Women need a a high protein breakfast to kick start there metabolism in the morning more than a man does because something to different hormones and how the 2 genders body works. Just saying what different medical professions have told me not something I read on some site. if its not true then oh well.

^^^ Wow... There's some great scientific reasoning in this post...

I dont understand why all these medical professionals were teaching you what women need in the morning for their metabolisms.

CoderGal

its fine I was just repeating what over 12 different medical professionals and speciallist have told me over the last 5 years because of numerous medical problems I have had.
Its kind of like when you strive to eat 5 to six smaller meals a day because its suppose to be healthier then after you sleep you skip breakfast. Its kind of defeating the whole purpose of eating 6 meals a day right. I f breakfast is not nessary then why eat lunch or dinner. maybe we all should just eat all of our calories in one huge meal. I mean there is tons of studies that proove that 3 meals a day minimum is required for good health and more smaller meals are healthier. So telling the OP that only 2 meals (basically what you are teling her by skipping breakfast) is ok is against all studies that have been preformed saying you should have a minimum 3 balanced meals a day

Please quote your sources if you want to post things like this.

What if they predate the interwebz?

I believe him. I don't even need to quote sources. If someones doing a study chances are the people they take who aren't eating 3 meals a day aren't eating much...I mean really I knew one person who fasted periodically period before I came to this place.

Therefore irrelevant.

secretlobster

How dare any of you jerks have different weight maintenance methods that work for you as individuals!

Sidesteal

I HATE eating in the morning, I'm not even remotely hungry when I get up. Is eating breakfast completely necessary for successful weight loss? Because I'd rather save calories for lunch lol. Any tips or suggestions for easy breakfasts would be much appreciated!
:yawn:

I am not an advocate of skipping breakfast despite this post. I AM an advocate of the individual finding the right aspects of dieting that are clearly personal preference, and utilizing those aspects to create the best long-term adherence possible.

That said, there seems to be a lot of sillyness going on in here.

First of all, note the quoted part above. The OP is asking if breakfast is necessary for weight loss.

All of these claims about breakfast boosting your metabolism aren't backed by anything substantial. In fact, can ANYONE find me any set of studies that show greater expenditure given equal calories and macronutrients but with different partitioning? Go ahead, I'll wait.

There's a few different things to address here. One of them is the concept of food increasing your metabolism and the other thing to address would be the effects of short term fasting on metabolic rate.

As far as feeding frequency goes, any time you eat, you are expending calories through various digestive means. In other words, there's an energy cost associated with eating and this cost is based on the macronutrient composition of foods and total calories.

Meal Frequency and Energy Balance.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9155494
...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...

Different macronutrients do have a different thermic effect, but if we are comparing different meal timing we keep macronutrient intake and calories constant and just vary the timing of the meal.

Increased meal frequency does not promote greater weight loss in subjects who were prescribed an 8-week equi-energetic energy-restricted diet.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943985
...We conclude that increasing MF does not promote greater body weight loss under the conditions described in the present study.


Lyle McDonald's comments: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.html
Steve Troutman's explanation: http://body-improvements.com/resources/eat/#frequency


Now, as far as "your body needs food, you've been sleeping for 10 hours!" or whatever the claim is.....

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2405717
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10837292

There's at least some research suggesting the opposite, see above.


Now in closing there's something quite important to remember, and msf pointed some of this out already:

There is research that shows a correlation between weight gain and skipping breakfast but it's specifically because some people who skip breakfast will end up over-compensating so to speak, and eating too many calories for the day. But it's not the skipping breakfast that made them gain weight, it was the overeating of calories.

As msf pointed out in a previous reply, there's a pretty significant difference between a population that controls intake (we are tracking on MFP) and a population that eats ad-libitum. If you're tracking intake, and you can see that skipping breakfast causes you to over-eat, then you should eat breakfast.



However, if you're like the OP in this thread who clearly does not want to eat breakfast due to preferential/lifestyle reasons, then she can freely do so and monitor total daily intake. If she's not overeating for the day, her breakfast skipping behavior is perfectly fine.

ZoeLifts

Absolutly need to eat breakfast after you wake up hense the name BREAK FAST. You should eat after breakfast because your body will go into a like starvation mode and it will mess with your metabolisim for the day and your body will start loading on fat. Breakfast also boost your metabolism and kicks starts it for the day. This is especially needed for woman.

Why, exactly, is it especially needed for a woman? This is the kind of stuff that gets tossed around for no good reason.

You will not go into starvation mode if you don't eat breakfast. If you don't eat anything for days, yes, your body will go into starvation mode, but not if you eat breakfast a few hours later than most people.

I was not talking like Starvation mode where you have not been eating for days more of your body is looking for food because you have not eaten for 7 to 8 hours and it wants food. Women need a a high protein breakfast to kick start there metabolism in the morning more than a man does because something to different hormones and how the 2 genders body works. Just saying what different medical professions have told me not something I read on some site. if its not true then oh well.

Well you stumped me right their with all your facts and scientific evidences...Not really. I'll leave that new myth that women need more protein in the morning than men and we'll give you credit for that when it pops up on Dr. Oz.

I stole this yesterday from someone on my friends list, so I'm going to put it here because it is about how I feel at this point:

yoovie

Why won't these topics ever die?

because of all the close minded people that only post comments like parrots and never read anything and perpetuate the propaganda.

say it five times fast!

ichigo007

Absolutly need to eat breakfast after you wake up hense the name BREAK FAST. You should eat after breakfast because your body will go into a like starvation mode and it will mess with your metabolisim for the day and your body will start loading on fat. Breakfast also boost your metabolism and kicks starts it for the day. This is especially needed for woman.
I am not a speciallist or anything but this has been told to me by nutritionist and doctors and nurses and a lot of them.

Also think about this. your body has been fasting for 7 to 8 hours. You give it a high protein healthy meal in the morning to replish with creating a leaner healthy body that is burning more calories and has the energy to push you thru the day. when you sleep you burn your weight in Kilograms x .9 = calories/hour burn during sleep. Ithe calories are usually more than double what you would burn sitting at your desk all day specially the heavier you weight. So it is like exercising and you need to replinish your exercise calories

HAHAHAHAHA gigglesnort HAHA

Hmmm let's see...
120lb=54.4311kg
(54.4311-54.4311*.9)*8 hrs of sleep=43.5448800000pounds per sleep=96lbs per sleep
Sweet I burn off 96 pounds per night! In 2 days I'll be -72 pounds!

Damn I definitely sleep walk/eat.

the equation gives you calories per hour not pounds. you should read before posting smart remarks
your weight in Kilograms x .9 = calories/hour burn during sleep

myofibril

This whole "breakfast kickstarts your metabolism" needs to be put into context.

Metabolism is simply the chemical process by which fuel sources in the body are converted to energy in order to power functions.

When you eat something, at breakfast for example, there is an energy cost in processing that intake (thermic effect of food - TEF) Therefore your body is forced to fuel this process when in the absence of food it would not have had to do so. Hence the idea that breakfast "kickstarts your metabolism."

However, there is the notion that because you have done that your metabolic rate somehow is more elevated throughout the day rather than a short term timeframe which simply incorrect. Some people therefore recommend eating small meals more often (which is actually more about stabilising blood sugar levels to prevent over eating but that's another story...) to keep your metabolism "revved up"

If you don't eat breakfast you are missing out on the TEF advantage but that does not mean your metabolism stops. Actually, in order to fuel your necessary functions it draws off existing fuel substrates, including fat, rather than extracting it from the immediate food intake. Then what happens when your body is presented with larger meal later on in the day? It has to work proportionally harder to process it in comparison to a smaller meal which offsets any advantage you may had by eating earlier.

I don't want to get into the whole meal frequency thing but studies I have read show little or no difference between a "nibbling" and "gorging" diets so all this revving up your metabolism malarkey is an irrelevance.

The one big caveat in this is that this will only hold true if the overall calorie intake is the same

I thank you. I am also available for weddings and Bah Mitzvahs...

yoovie

^^^ Absolutely - I always listen to the people who have only made it 2% of the way toward their goal so far. They totally know more than the 'people who have made it 75-100% of the way. Those jerks are just know-it-alls.

Totally only listen to the opinions of those that have just started doing this!

If you are talking about me. If not sorry for pointing at you lol
Yes I have only lost 25 pounds on scale but I have dropped from 33% body fat to 23.5% body fat and have increased my lean mass by 7.169 lbs. in 9 weeks. My info comes from doctors, Nurses, and Nutritionlist.

Pretty sure your numbers arent a 2% toward goal so no I wasnt speaking to you.

However, lol - your stuff about why you have to eat breakfast made me laugh so hard I snorted.

its fine I was just repeating what over 12 different medical professionals and speciallist have told me over the last 5 years because of numerous medical problems I have had.
Its kind of like when you strive to eat 5 to six smaller meals a day because its suppose to be healthier then after you sleep you skip breakfast. Its kind of defeating the whole purpose of eating 6 meals a day right. I f breakfast is not nessary then why eat lunch or dinner. maybe we all should just eat all of our calories in one huge meal. I mean there is tons of studies that proove that 3 meals a day minimum is required for good health and more smaller meals are healthier. So telling the OP that only 2 meals (basically what you are teling her by skipping breakfast) is ok is against all studies that have been preformed saying you should have a minimum 3 balanced meals a day

I cant even laugh anymore. Im starting to feel really guilty because it seems you honestly believe these things.

Im sorry, but it isnt true.

6 meals, 3 meals, meals and snacks, skipping breakfast - all propaganda and different combinations of things work for different people. I fast 16 hours or so once or sometimes twice a week, and then do a weight session and eat an hour afterward. My focus is out of this world, my workout is always killer, Im full of energy and I soar all day - plus my body is burning the right fuel and its got protein it can use just for repairs. Because I pay more attention to how Im fueling my workouts, than when Im eating cereal.

Anastacia1119

Why won't these topics ever die?

because of all the close minded people that only post comments like parrots and never read anything and perpetuate the propaganda.

say it five times fast!

i tried. I couldn't. Fail. haha

secretlobster

Scientific evidence in this thread can be summed up as "this is what *I* do and *I'm* not fat"

Amazing how two people with different eating habits can both be in shape, so instead of taking this as evidence that breakfast isn't 100% necessary for everyone on earth, I'm going to refuse to believe it. ALSO THE EARTH IS FLAT

dailyguy

Yes....you haven't eaten for hours and your body has been fasting. If you workout, muscles are repaired and built when you are sleeping and it burns calories. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

You have to listen to experts, fit people, and those who rely on their fitness and knowledge for their way of living.

Don't listen to those who say breakfast is not necessary because "usually" they are the ones who are not in shape or who are in shape now but will gain it back quickly. That's why they have the yo-yo sydrome...loose weight for a few days/weeks and then gain it back quickly.

Meal is a fuel for your body...give it some fuel and you'll have energy all day without taking those 5-hour energy, coffee, soda, energy drinks, etc.

i'm assuming you're also one of those people who believe you shouldn't eat past 7 o'clock...

Everything is based on timing. If you don't eat past 7:00 and you wake up at 6am, that's 11 hours of no food. I eat an evening "snack" of protein shake with skim milk around 10pm.

cubizzle

Scientific evidence in this thread can be summed up as "this is what *I* do and *I'm* not fat"

Amazing how two people with different eating habits can both be in shape, so instead of taking this as evidence that breakfast isn't 100% necessary for everyone on earth, I'm going to refuse to believe it. ALSO THE EARTH IS FLAT

I'm a firm believer in the "Earth is flat" idea.

Breakfast on the other hand. It's too confusing to me so I just drink mine in the form of fruit, almond milk, and protein powder all blended together.

NOW dinner....that's a whole other story. If you eat dinner after 6pm in a room with artificial light, then you are almost 95% guaranteed to gain 5% of your body weight per dog life cylce. SCIENTIFIC FACT!

AlsDonkBoxSquat

Scientific evidence in this thread can be summed up as "this is what *I* do and *I'm* not fat"

Amazing how two people with different eating habits can both be in shape, so instead of taking this as evidence that breakfast isn't 100% necessary for everyone on earth, I'm going to refuse to believe it. ALSO THE EARTH IS FLAT

Oh, so I see you've read my post and filosofy on the flat earth. Damn right the earth is ****ing flat, i've seen it on the interwebz in a post and now referenced by a reliable source so it must be fact.

cubizzle

^^^ Absolutely - I always listen to the people who have only made it 2% of the way toward their goal so far. They totally know more than the 'people who have made it 75-100% of the way. Those jerks are just know-it-alls.

Totally only listen to the opinions of those that have just started doing this!

If you are talking about me. If not sorry for pointing at you lol
Yes I have only lost 25 pounds on scale but I have dropped from 33% body fat to 23.5% body fat and have increased my lean mass by 7.169 lbs. in 9 weeks. My info comes from doctors, Nurses, and Nutritionlist.

Pretty sure your numbers arent a 2% toward goal so no I wasnt speaking to you.

However, lol - your stuff about why you have to eat breakfast made me laugh so hard I snorted.

its fine I was just repeating what over 12 different medical professionals and speciallist have told me over the last 5 years because of numerous medical problems I have had.
Its kind of like when you strive to eat 5 to six smaller meals a day because its suppose to be healthier then after you sleep you skip breakfast. Its kind of defeating the whole purpose of eating 6 meals a day right. I f breakfast is not nessary then why eat lunch or dinner. maybe we all should just eat all of our calories in one huge meal. I mean there is tons of studies that proove that 3 meals a day minimum is required for good health and more smaller meals are healthier. So telling the OP that only 2 meals (basically what you are teling her by skipping breakfast) is ok is against all studies that have been preformed saying you should have a minimum 3 balanced meals a day

I cant even laugh anymore. Im starting to feel really guilty because it seems you honestly believe these things.

Im sorry, but it isnt true.

6 meals, 3 meals, meals and snacks, skipping breakfast - all propaganda and different combinations of things work for different people. I fast 16 hours or so once or sometimes twice a week, and then do a weight session and eat an hour afterward. My focus is out of this world, my workout is always killer, Im full of energy and I soar all day - plus my body is burning the right fuel and its got protein it can use just for repairs. Because I pay more attention to how Im fueling my workouts, than when Im eating cereal.

:flowerforyou:

AlsDonkBoxSquat

Can you live without breakfast? Obviously you can because people do it every day. I can tell you from experience that when a bodybuilder is cutting bodyfat and preparing for competition, they will eat 7 times a day (this includes breakfast) to keep the metabolizm elevated and it DOES work, it is NOT a myth. The key is eating the right foods and in the right portions to actually see quick results. If you find yourself waking up starving, this is a sign that your metabilsm is elevated and you will start getting hunger pangs every 2.5-3 hours telling you to keep the food coming. The fewer meals you eat in a day, the slower your metabilsm will be in general, and the more likely your body will be to store fat, especially if your diet is based on the wrong foods (simple carbs). But in the end, you cannot gain weight unless you are consuming excess calories on a daily basis.

Your body is actually smarter than you think as it knows when it needs to store food and when it doesn't need to. If it hasn't been fed in 18 to 24 hours...it will have a tendancy to store because it doesn't know when it will be fed next, but when it is being fed constantly it doesn't have a need to store anything for later, because the supply is constant. This may not be a scientific explanation, but it is the way I look at it and was taught.

This is a very subjective topic, because there are various ways to manipulate your body into burning fat and adjust your metabolizm despite what the nay-sayers think. Here is the deal, if you can simple drink a whey protein shake in the morning, it WILL boost your metabolism and can help you lose weight, but your overall diet and exercise plan will always have to be good to see results...breakfast in and of itself will not change your life....

I know a body builder that when she was cutting it was suggest she start smoking cigarettes and drinking black coffee to hold off hunger and not to have her first meal until 2PM. I know for a FACT that it worked for her, she did very well in competition. It would appear that our anecdotal facts are in direct conflict.