When should I eat breakfast?
Options
leishamaree
Posts: 62 Member
Well duh, that sounds like a silly question, obviously I eat breakfast in the morning.
BUT, I have just worked out that I eat breakfast TWO HOURS after I wake up. In this time I am getting myself and my daughter ready for work/daycare, and then driving to work (I eat brekkie at work).
Now, I am guessing that this is a bit too late to get my metabolism working to it's full potential - can anyone confirm/deny this?
And my 2nd question is, would a smoothie made at home and drunk on the go suffice? And what should I put in it?
Thanks!
BUT, I have just worked out that I eat breakfast TWO HOURS after I wake up. In this time I am getting myself and my daughter ready for work/daycare, and then driving to work (I eat brekkie at work).
Now, I am guessing that this is a bit too late to get my metabolism working to it's full potential - can anyone confirm/deny this?
And my 2nd question is, would a smoothie made at home and drunk on the go suffice? And what should I put in it?
Thanks!
0
Replies
-
Within an hour of getting up. I make up a dozen hard boiled eggs on Sunday, precut some cheese that I weigh out at 1 oz, and then can grab my Ezekial Bread (low carb/sprouted grain as opposed to refined grains), top with mustard. So a quick egg sandwich. Good protein. Low carb. It keeps me going every morning and I can eat it in the car while I drive.
0 -
I eat breakfast in the morning. I eat breakfast in the middle of the day. And I especially eat breakfast at night time. Breakfast is delicious and should never be limited to a single timeframe.0
-
first of all breakfast has nothing to do with "jump starting" metabolism. Meal timing has nothing to do with metabolism. So you can eat three times a day, one time a day, or 24 times once an hour and there is zero impact on metabolism.
so the answer is it does not matter when you eat breakfast, and, if you want, you could skip it entirely....0 -
When your hungry? I get up at 6am. If you told me to eat then, I would strike you dead ( lol). I have coffee, go for a walk, have another coffee, shower and then MAYBE have breakfast if ny tummy is screaming at me. I am not a morning person. Usually I save those extra calories for a bed night snack
0 -
Meal Frequency has no bearing whatsoever, it comes down to personal preference....... Best of Luck....0
-
My standard breakfast is 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt, fruit, and 30g of Bare Naked granola. I throw it all in a cup, mush it around, and eat it during my commute. It's quick, convenient, and a relatively inexpensive breakfast.0
-
i usually get up around 8:00 am then go do am cardio then have a protien shake around 9:00 or 9 :30 then have a big breakfast around 11 :000
-
When you feel like it. Technically i eat breakfast at noon but i call it lunch. Then i eat lunch at 8 at night but i call it dinner. Then i do it again the next day;)0
-
I have seen a few posts saying you can skip breakfast and/or it does not matter when you eat it. That would be bad advise.
While meal timing and eating lots of little meals all day is disputable, one thing is not, glucose levels, and protein amino acid levels.
If your goal is to loose weight, while at the same time limit loss of muscle you cannot let your body get into a anabolic state where it eats your muscle because it is hungry.
Instead shoot for an catabolic state where there is plenty of amino acids floating around and your glucose levels do not drop or spike.
The one time this is hard to avoid is during sleeping. 8 hours of nothing and you wake up low in glucose low in blood sugar, low in amino acids, etc. You need to quickly add something to prevent your metabolism from slowing down and going anabolic.
Even before you workout.
If you have no time, no problem. Buy a shaker bottle and Body Fortress 100% whey protein or something similar. Mix 8 oz of water and one scoop of powder. Shake it while in the car for 60 seconds and drink it down.
Thats 150 calories, a little bit of carbs and fat and loads of amino acids. This should stabilize your glucose and metabolism until you can get some real food in you. But don't wait too long. 150 calories goes very fast. Maybe mix two scoops.
What you always want to keep in mind is to never let your metabolism get into a hibernation state. That sounds extreme, but all it takes is 500 to 1000 calories in the deficit column for the day to make it happen. That is when your metabolism thinks no more food is coming, so it tries to preserve what it has, slows down, and quickly converts eaten foods into body fat.
How easy is that? Mow the lawn, do some gardening, then at night workout. For me that 1500 burned calories on top of me trying to eat 1500 BMR calories. I have to eat big calorie meals just to stay at a 500 calorie daily deficit.
That is why some people use the "eat all day" method. While that is not a diet, per se, it does help you prevent hibernation mode and stabilize blood sugar which will stabilize metabolism.
Simple rule of thumb ... Eat something, every 3-4 hours, starting right when you wake up. Keep it low cal, low fat, high protein.
-Rich0 -
first of all breakfast has nothing to do with "jump starting" metabolism. Meal timing has nothing to do with metabolism. So you can eat three times a day, one time a day, or 24 times once an hour and there is zero impact on metabolism.
so the answer is it does not matter when you eat breakfast, and, if you want, you could skip it entirely....
This. Eat breakfast whenever you want. Eat whatever you want. It's 100% personal preference, and has no impact at all on your health.0 -
I get up to work out for an hour at 5am. I have coffee and water until breakfast at 9. If I eat before then, I find that I'm hungry again before lunch. No issues for me with fatigue, etc when waiting that long to eat breakfast. As long as you're eating breakfast, I think you just need to go with what works for you.0
-
I have seen a few posts saying you can skip breakfast and/or it does not matter when you eat it. That would be bad advise.
While meal timing and eating lots of little meals all day is disputable, one thing is not, glucose levels, and protein amino acid levels.
If your goal is to loose weight, while at the same time limit loss of muscle you cannot let your body get into a catabolic state where it eats your muscle because it is hungry.
Instead shoot for an anabolic state where there is plenty of amino acids floating around and your glucose levels do not drop or spike.
The one time this is hard to avoid is during sleeping. 8 hours of nothingand you wake up low in glucose low in blood sugar, low in amino acids, etc. You need to quickly add something to prevent your metabolism from slowing down and going catabolic.
Even before you workout.
If you have no time, no problem. Buy a shaker bottle and Body Fortress 100% whey protein. Mix 8 oz of water and one scoop of powder. Shake it while in the car for 60 seconds and drink it down.
Thats 150 calories, a little bit of carbs and fat and loads of amino acids. This should stabilize your glucose and metabolism until you can get some real food in you. But down wait too long. 150 calories goes very fast. Maybe mix two scoops.
What you always want to keep in mind is to never let your metabolism get into a hibernation state. That is when your metabolism thinks no more food is coming, so it tries to preserve what it has, slows down, and quickly converts eaten foods into body fat.
That is why some people use the "eat all day" method. While that is not a diet, per se, it does help you prevent hibernation mode.
Simple rule of thumb ... Eat something, every 3-4 hours, starting right when you wake up. Keep it low cal, low fat, high protein.
-Rich
Um...no0 -
No. Fat burning is a catabolic activity. You burn fat while in a catabolic state, you store fat while anabolic. Also, glucose levels are highly regulated by the body, unless you are diabetic, you don't have to worry about maintaining glucose levels. That's what the liver and pancreas are for. Total calories matter, not timing of food. It takes the body the same amount of time and energy to process 1000 calories of food, whether it's eaten all at once, or in 10 100 calorie bites.I have seen a few posts saying you can skip breakfast and/or it does not matter when you eat it. That would be bad advise.
While meal timing and eating lots of little meals all day is disputable, one thing is not, glucose levels, and protein amino acid levels.
If your goal is to loose weight, while at the same time limit loss of muscle you cannot let your body get into a catabolic state where it eats your muscle because it is hungry.
Instead shoot for an anabolic state where there is plenty of amino acids floating around and your glucose levels do not drop or spike.
The one time this is hard to avoid is during sleeping. 8 hours of nothingand you wake up low in glucose low in blood sugar, low in amino acids, etc. You need to quickly add something to prevent your metabolism from slowing down and going catabolic.
Even before you workout.
If you have no time, no problem. Buy a shaker bottle and Body Fortress 100% whey protein. Mix 8 oz of water and one scoop of powder. Shake it while in the car for 60 seconds and drink it down.
Thats 150 calories, a little bit of carbs and fat and loads of amino acids. This should stabilize your glucose and metabolism until you can get some real food in you. But down wait too long. 150 calories goes very fast. Maybe mix two scoops.
What you always want to keep in mind is to never let your metabolism get into a hibernation state. That is when your metabolism thinks no more food is coming, so it tries to preserve what it has, slows down, and quickly converts eaten foods into body fat.
That is why some people use the "eat all day" method. While that is not a diet, per se, it does help you prevent hibernation mode.
Simple rule of thumb ... Eat something, every 3-4 hours, starting right when you wake up. Keep it low cal, low fat, high protein.
-Rich
As for the last part, it takes 4 days of complete fasting to see any kind of metabolic slowdown. (Or hibernation as you seem to think its called.) Eating every 3-4 hours is personal preference, and has absolutely nothing to do with metabolism.0 -
Great advice. I met with a nutritionist a few weeks ago, and started eating within 30 minutes of waking up. I also eat ev dry 3-4 hours,which I always thought seemed crazy. In two weeks I have lost weight, feel better, and put an end to the binges that were sabotaging my diet.0
-
Research shows that how often you eat or when in the day makes no difference. What works for you works for you. What it may affect is how you feel, shaky or strong, hungry or not, cranky or happy, etc. So, again, whatever works for you.0
-
I have seen a few posts saying you can skip breakfast and/or it does not matter when you eat it. That would be bad advise.
While meal timing and eating lots of little meals all day is disputable, one thing is not, glucose levels, and protein amino acid levels.
If your goal is to loose weight, while at the same time limit loss of muscle you cannot let your body get into a catabolic state where it eats your muscle because it is hungry.
Instead shoot for an anabolic state where there is plenty of amino acids floating around and your glucose levels do not drop or spike.
The one time this is hard to avoid is during sleeping. 8 hours of nothing and you wake up low in glucose low in blood sugar, low in amino acids, etc. You need to quickly add something to prevent your metabolism from slowing down and going catabolic.
Even before you workout.
If you have no time, no problem. Buy a shaker bottle and Body Fortress 100% whey protein. Mix 8 oz of water and one scoop of powder. Shake it while in the car for 60 seconds and drink it down.
Thats 150 calories, a little bit of carbs and fat and loads of amino acids. This should stabilize your glucose and metabolism until you can get some real food in you. But don't wait too long. 150 calories goes very fast. Maybe mix two scoops.
What you always want to keep in mind is to never let your metabolism get into a hibernation state. That sounds extreme, but all it takes is 500 to 1000 calories in the deficit column for the day to make it happen. That is when your metabolism thinks no more food is coming, so it tries to preserve what it has, slows down, and quickly converts eaten foods into body fat.
How easy is that? Mow the lawn, do some gardening, then at night workout. For me that 1500 burned calories on top of me trying to eat 1500 BMR calories. I have to eat big calorie meals just to stay at a 500 calorie daily deficit.
That is why some people use the "eat all day" method. While that is not a diet, per se, it does help you prevent hibernation mode and stabilize blood sugar which will stabilize metabolism.
Simple rule of thumb ... Eat something, every 3-4 hours, starting right when you wake up. Keep it low cal, low fat, high protein.
-Rich
congratulations, you have posted the most inaccurate thread in MFP history, you win ....0 -
No. Fat burning is a catabolic activity. You burn fat while in a catabolic state, you store fat while anabolic. Also, glucose levels are highly regulated by the body, unless you are diabetic, you don't have to worry about maintaining glucose levels. That's what the liver and pancreas are for. Total calories matter, not timing of food. It takes the body the same amount of time and energy to process 1000 calories of food, whether it's eaten all at once, or in 10 100 calorie bites.
Yes, sorry for the mixup of catabolic vs anabolic.
Go ahead and do what you want, but every doctor I ever spoke with says adaptive thermogenesis does happen.
Metabolic slowdown does happen, and occasional rest from a diet is needed.0 -
No. Fat burning is a catabolic activity. You burn fat while in a catabolic state, you store fat while anabolic. Also, glucose levels are highly regulated by the body, unless you are diabetic, you don't have to worry about maintaining glucose levels. That's what the liver and pancreas are for. Total calories matter, not timing of food. It takes the body the same amount of time and energy to process 1000 calories of food, whether it's eaten all at once, or in 10 100 calorie bites.
Yes, sorry for the mixup of catabolic vs anabolic.
Go ahead and do what you want, but every doctor I ever spoke with says adaptive thermogenesis does happen.
Metabolic slowdown does happen, and occasional rest from a diet is needed.
metabolic slow down and starvation mode are not the same thing.
Also, your original post indicated that a 500 calorie deficit would lead to "hibernation mode" , which I guess is starvation mode. If that is the case why do people on 500 calorie deficit diets lose weight, and continue to do so?0 -
congratulations, you have posted the most inaccurate thread in MFP history, you win ....
Wow the hate on this site is terrible.
Trying to be helpful gets this kind response. What class. Why would anyone want to take advise from a poster that says something like that.0 -
I make a fruit smoothie every morning almost, and toss in a little protein powder to thicken it up and drink it on the go Keeps me full for hours!
0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 392.1K Introduce Yourself
- 43.6K Getting Started
- 259.9K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.7K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 403 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.8K Motivation and Support
- 7.9K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.4K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 999 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.4K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions