Is it too late for breakfast?

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tommygirl15
tommygirl15 Posts: 1,012 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been meaning to ask this question for a while now so I figured I better get it out while it's on the brain now.

After waking up, how long can you wait to eat breakfast before your body triggers starvation mode?

I normally don't eat breakfast until 2-3 hours after I wake up (I know, bad bad...) but I do have a coffee within the first hour upon waking. I put 1 milk and 1 sugar in my coffee (or sometimes only milk) and wonder, do those calories count in offsetting starvation mode until I eat a meal of substance? When is it 'too late' to eat breakfast?

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  • tommygirl15
    tommygirl15 Posts: 1,012 Member
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    Really? Boy, then I'm in trouble now! What about those coffee calories though?
  • servingthealiens
    servingthealiens Posts: 144 Member
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    I personally can't eat right when I wake up. I'm either not hungry, or my stomach feels a little off, or both. I need to be up and moving for a while, use the bathroom if I need to, and I eat when I feel hungry. It's usually 60-90 minutes before I eat.

    Not sure if there's a recommended time in which you *should* eat, but if there is and it's not within my body's timeframe, then I guess I'm just screwed.
  • peck113
    peck113 Posts: 19
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    The whole idea of why you should eat breakfast 1/2hr to a hr after waking up is to jump start or maybe I should say restart your metabolism after being a sleep. When you are at sleep all of your body's organs and functions slow down so you are not burning as many calories. The quicker you eat breakfast the sooner you speed things back up so you're burning more calories..
  • nikki4ever
    nikki4ever Posts: 116
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    Personally, I wake up looking forward to bf. I have dinner pretty early go to sleep, and wake up wanting BF. I take my shower, and then have BF, so i would say around 15-20 minuters right after I wake up. I just love mornings and Breakfast, just simple toast with fruits, or egg whites. YUMMY can't wait till the morn!
  • lilmissy2
    lilmissy2 Posts: 595 Member
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    I think 2 hours is fine. A lot of people get up and get ready for work then eat either on their commute or when they get to work and I don't think there is a problem with that... certainly much better than waiting until lunch time to eat like people who skip breakfast. For the best 'boosting metabolism' results, eating sooner would help but for other benefits of breakfast (high nutrition and fibre usually, improved concentration, less snacking) it wouldn't matter if you ate a little later.
  • LotusF1ower
    LotusF1ower Posts: 1,259 Member
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    I've been meaning to ask this question for a while now so I figured I better get it out while it's on the brain now.

    After waking up, how long can you wait to eat breakfast before your body triggers starvation mode?

    I normally don't eat breakfast until 2-3 hours after I wake up (I know, bad bad...) but I do have a coffee within the first hour upon waking. I put 1 milk and 1 sugar in my coffee (or sometimes only milk) and wonder, do those calories count in offsetting starvation mode until I eat a meal of substance? When is it 'too late' to eat breakfast?

    Let's put the answer another way....

    Let's say, you usually rise at 7am (just for the sake of a time), you rise at 7am everyday, you eat your breakfast and on with your life you go.

    However, one day, you are tired and want to remain in bed, in fact you don't want to get up at all, you decide to read in bed and stay there until one o'clock in the afternoon, reading or perhaps just sleeping.

    This is now six hours past the time you would normally get up and eat, would you consider you had entered "starvation mode" in this case? No of course you wouldn't. The same goes if you actually get up. If you get up and do not feel like eating for a few hours, so be it, nothing bad will happen.

    I have gone several hours before my first intake of food on many occasions. Not because of my weight loss programme, but because I just haven't felt hungry or I have had to get up at stupid o'clock (2.30am) for work and as I wouldn't normally eat at that time in the morning, I decided to wait until it was at least a reasonable hour.

    Many people on this Site, will also go to the gym before breakfast, they do not eat beforehand, therefore, it will be several hours before food passes their lips and they will have exercised as well!

    If everybody were to enter starvation mode after not eating for a few hours, every member of the human race would be forever in starvation mode as we all sleep and during sleep of course we are not eating.

    Breakfast is an immensely important meal - you are "breaking the fast" that you were in during sleep. However, don't fret over it, if you prefer to leave it for a few hours before eating, not everybody can face eating something shortly after waking.

    (for what it's worth, breakfast is my favourite meal and I find it sets me up for the day - unless it is a really early alarm call, then it makes me feel sick at the thought of it :laugh: )

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