Is breakfast still the most important meal?

indipeach
indipeach Posts: 9
in Food and Nutrition
I'm not generally all that hungry in the morning, but as the day goes on, it certainly ramps up. Is having a good breakfast, really that important if it ends up with you being low on "calories" to eat later on when you're actually hungry?

Would it be counterproductive to just eat a small breakfast, say an oatmeal/bran muffin, and save the extra eats for later on when actual hunger hits?
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Replies

  • daniellegwilliam
    daniellegwilliam Posts: 122 Member
    I never used to eat breakfast, and when I waited until I was really hungry I made bad choices or ate too much.
    Once I startd eating breakfast, it fueled me for the day and I felt much better. But breakfast may not be as soon as you wake up, for me its usually 1-2 hours after I wake up. (workout, get ready, and off to work. than I eat at my desk)

    I know they call it BREAK-FAST..To break the Fast.. since you problay havent eaten in 12 hours

    Also, maybe try something with more protein, greek yogurt and berries, eggs. My fave quick breakfast is hardboiled egss, avocado and ham. or if you can cook at home an egg omelette with cheese spinach tomato and avacodo. hot sauce on top! YUMM
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    I don't want to eat a big meal when I first get up so I have a yogurt, an hour or so later at work I have 2 hard boiled eggs, an hour later I have an apple. You don't have to sit down the moment you get up and eat a large meal. FWIW, a muffin is going to be a waste of calories, it won't keep you full long and is probably full of sugars and fat.
  • t4shara3
    t4shara3 Posts: 16 Member
    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-and-nutrition/AN01119

    ^ that is an article from a local clinic. I would say the info in it is pretty reliable. The general consensus is yes, it is important!

    I used to not eat breakfast, and I would be fine until lunch. However, (this isn't in the article) from my understanding, your metabolism starts when you eat. The later in the day you have your first meal, the later your metabolism kicks in for the day.

    If nothing else, I would suggest starting your day with a protein shake. That's how I started - sipping a protein drink as I got ready before school/work/etc

    Hope I was helpful :)
  • indipeach
    indipeach Posts: 9
    I eat something first thing in the morning, I'm just not usually interested in eating a big breakfast. So I'm not "starving" myself til I'm hungry, that's not what I'm asking. I'm wondering if a small breakfast is just as beneficial, it's still breaking the fast of over night, but not forcing myself to eat more than I'm actually hungry for. If I'm not supposed to eat more than I want at other meals, why would I at breakfast is what I'm wondering.
  • t4shara3
    t4shara3 Posts: 16 Member
    Sorry, I read it wrong. I would imagine as long as you are eating something, you should be fine. I don't think it's ever good to FORCE yourself to eat, especially if this is how you feel every day.
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
    Works for me :~) Actually the more i eat breakfast the more I wake up wanting to eat.. And I was a breakfast skipper up until December.

    Mine are still small usually..and if I do it right.. i'm not hungry until lunch time. Although I have plenty of healthy snacks (which I didn't eat today grrrr)

    I am a coverted breakfast is important thinker.. but I don't think it needs to be the biggest meal of the day. Your body will tell you if it needs more in the mornings or not. Just listen to it and make good healthy choices and you;ll be fine.
  • justicekenny
    justicekenny Posts: 80
    I do intermittent fasting .. I do not have breakfast sometimes up until 4 p.m. .. My energy levels are actually better in my mind than before .. I workout fasted everyday at 630 am, and it's steady eddy .... In my opinion, and experience breakfast, atleast to me is meh ..
  • CristinaL1983
    CristinaL1983 Posts: 1,119 Member
    I do intermittent fasting .. I do not have breakfast sometimes up until 4 p.m. .. My energy levels are actually better in my mind than before .. I workout fasted everyday at 630 am, and it's steady eddy .... In my opinion, and experience breakfast, atleast to me is meh ..

    Pretty much this. I eat breakfast but it's usually in the afternoon. I still make good choices about food. I think that is more important than whether you eat breakfast or not. Do you still make good choices? Yes, then good. No, maybe get yourself to eat something earlier. Other than that, i don't think it matters. If you feel better with a small breakfast, eat a small breakfast, if you feel better with no breakfast then don't eat, if you feel better using 3/4 of your calories on a giant breakfast, eat one.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    I have a small breakfast and then a small snack when I get settled into my office.
  • emtjmac
    emtjmac Posts: 1,320 Member
    Chinese food is the most important meal.
  • AlongCame_Molly
    AlongCame_Molly Posts: 2,835 Member
    Nope! I hardly ever eat before 11:00am.
  • 1ConcreteGirl
    1ConcreteGirl Posts: 3,677 Member
    Is dietary fat still the reason I gained weight?
  • crystalflame
    crystalflame Posts: 1,049 Member
    No.

    Eat when you're hungry. Eat when you feel you need the energy. Eat in a way that if you need food at night because you work out in the evenings, you can have it. Meal timing is irrelevant, and the only reason people tout the power of breakfast is because there is CORRELATION (not causation!) between a large number of people eating breakfast and not overeating/feeling fuller the rest of the day.

    Eating breakfast does not jump start your metabolism. Skipping breakfast does not put you into starvation mode. Eat when you want.
  • desiv2
    desiv2 Posts: 651 Member
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    A lot of people will give you different answers, but for me I have to have breakfast or I'm hungry all day long. XD
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    If you feel fine and perform fine without breakfast, and you are able to hit your calorie and nutrient targets by end of day, and your preference is to skip breakfast so that you can eat more later, then just do it.
  • Danny_Boy13
    Danny_Boy13 Posts: 2,094 Member
    Most health and fitness studies show that it is. We have just awoke from at least 6hrs of sleep and usually it is a few hours before we go to sleep that most eat some kind of dinner. So that is 8+ hours of the body not getting anything put into the gas tank. It is not to say that right as soon as we awake we consume food but usually within an hour or two it is recommended. This is not to say that one could not see results by skipping breakfast but typically one can see the best results by eating properly in the morning.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    If you overeat later because you skipped it, then eating breakfast is very important. If you overeat for the day because you ate breakfast, then skipping it may be important.

    It's the big picture that matters.
  • Danny_Boy13
    Danny_Boy13 Posts: 2,094 Member
    No.

    Eat when you're hungry. Eat when you feel you need the energy. Eat in a way that if you need food at night because you work out in the evenings, you can have it. Meal timing is irrelevant, and the only reason people tout the power of breakfast is because there is CORRELATION (not causation!) between a large number of people eating breakfast and not overeating/feeling fuller the rest of the day.

    Eating breakfast does not jump start your metabolism. Skipping breakfast does not put you into starvation mode. Eat when you want.

    This goes against everything I have ever read. Are there any medical studies to back this up or is this just personal opinion? Not trying to be rude... just trying to get all of the facts.
  • Cr01502
    Cr01502 Posts: 3,614 Member
    If you feel fine and perform fine without breakfast, and you are able to hit your calorie and nutrient targets by end of day, and your preference is to skip breakfast so that you can eat more later, then just do it.

    This.
  • daybehavior
    daybehavior Posts: 1,319 Member
    If you overeat later because you skipped it, then eating breakfast is very important. If you overeat for the day because you ate breakfast, then skipping it may be important.

    It's the big picture that matters.

    Nothing else needs to be said other than this.
  • Barbellerella
    Barbellerella Posts: 1,838 Member
    If you feel fine and perform fine without breakfast, and you are able to hit your calorie and nutrient targets by end of day, and your preference is to skip breakfast so that you can eat more later, then just do it.

    This.
    WOW THATS WHAT I DO WHO KNEW I WAS DOING IT RIGHT ALL THIS TIME
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    Definitely eat when you're hungry. If you aren't hungry for breakfast, then wait until you *are* hungry.
  • Cr01502
    Cr01502 Posts: 3,614 Member
    If you feel fine and perform fine without breakfast, and you are able to hit your calorie and nutrient targets by end of day, and your preference is to skip breakfast so that you can eat more later, then just do it.

    This.
    WOW THATS WHAT I DO WHO KNEW I WAS DOING IT RIGHT ALL THIS TIME

    That's cuz girl . . . . you cray cray! :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:
  • iAMsmiling
    iAMsmiling Posts: 2,394 Member
    If we're talking about waffles...yes. Otherwise, meh.
  • taunto
    taunto Posts: 6,420 Member
    well, to be hoenst you can eat ALL of your calories for the day in one sitting and it won't really make a difference. Our body doesn't really know what time it is and scientifically speaking, there is no affect on metabolism when it comes to frequency, amount or timing of your food.

    That being said, I prefer to have a good breaky but not always. Lately my breaky has been 700+ calories which allows me to skip my lunch. I like it this way because at work the lunch options sucks and I can get some ful (beans, oil, bread, cheese, veggies, eggs and many other goodies) and it keeps me full till I get home at around 7.PM. Then I eat like a 1000+ calories meal. Go workout. Come back and eat some ice cream and drink some milk and hit the bed. I am happy.

    tl;dr: Let your body make your schedule for you. If you don't want breaky, don't have it. Just make sure you eat plenty some point of the day and don't eat too much either :)
  • Unknown
    Unknown
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  • indipeach
    indipeach Posts: 9
    Cool! Thanks for the info, I can definitely hit all my targets without worrying about trying to have a more balanced breakfast. I'm more hungry later in the day, as that's when I use my energy, in the morning it's rather slow paced for me, so I think that's why I'm not feeling the need for more of a boost then.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    No.

    Eat when you're hungry. Eat when you feel you need the energy. Eat in a way that if you need food at night because you work out in the evenings, you can have it. Meal timing is irrelevant, and the only reason people tout the power of breakfast is because there is CORRELATION (not causation!) between a large number of people eating breakfast and not overeating/feeling fuller the rest of the day.

    Eating breakfast does not jump start your metabolism. Skipping breakfast does not put you into starvation mode. Eat when you want.

    This goes against everything I have ever read. Are there any medical studies to back this up or is this just personal opinion? Not trying to be rude... just trying to get all of the facts.

    I would ask you if you've got any relevant research that suggests that breakfast starts your metabolism. That would be the statement to prove, IMO.

    But since you asked, I'll pubmed ninja a bit :)


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

    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."


    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10837292
    "Resting energy expenditure increases in early starvation"

    Note that I'm certainly not advocating starvation. Just pointing this out since the common myth seems to be that skipping meals slows your metabolism.
  • DoneBroughtSexyBack
    DoneBroughtSexyBack Posts: 190
    well, to be hoenst you can eat ALL of your calories for the day in one sitting and it won't really make a difference. Our body doesn't really know what time it is and scientifically speaking, there is no affect on metabolism when it comes to frequency, amount or timing of your food.

    That being said, I prefer to have a good breaky but not always. Lately my breaky has been 700+ calories which allows me to skip my lunch. I like it this way because at work the lunch options sucks and I can get some ful (beans, oil, bread, cheese, veggies, eggs and many other goodies) and it keeps me full till I get home at around 7.PM. Then I eat like a 1000+ calories meal. Go workout. Come back and eat some ice cream and drink some milk and hit the bed. I am happy.

    tl;dr: Let your body make your schedule for you. If you don't want breaky, don't have it. Just make sure you eat plenty some point of the day and don't eat too much either :)

    what-is-this-sorcery.jpg
  • tomcornhole
    tomcornhole Posts: 1,084 Member
    If you feel fine and perform fine without breakfast, and you are able to hit your calorie and nutrient targets by end of day, and your preference is to skip breakfast so that you can eat more later, then just do it.

    ^^^Best answer

    I can't skip breakfast. I get all loopy in the head and shaky. But all I do eat for breakfast is an egg protein shake with 32g of protein. That gets me going and holds me until lunch. I tried IF for a week and it did not fit me.

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