Breakfast: Yes or No?

You don't "have" to do anything.

Some people find their bodies work better when they have breakfast, others dont. It depends on many many factors.

Some people like to get their work out in before they eat, others find they need to fuel beforehand.

Some people following intermittent fasting regimes find they skip breakfast on certain days of the week, but eat it on others. Other IFers still have breakfast.

I would also add to this that how your performance is fasted or not can change from day to day. I like to run early in the morning in the summertime before it gets too hot. Some days I can get right out of bed and go and do great and some days if I do that, I lose energy really quickly. It probably also has something to do with how you eat the day before and maybe even hydration levels..but that's just speculation. Someone else probably knows a lot more about this than me.

When I was heavy, I started trying to skip breakfast to save my calories for larger dinners and evening drinks. That backfired on me because once I ate lunch it was like the dam broke and I was ravenous which led to snacking on junk all afternoon and still being hungry for dinner. For me, it's much better to spread meals out throughout the day to keep my blood sugar level and keep me from getting too hungry.

So, do what works best for you. As far as weight loss is concerned the only thing that matters is calorie balance.

Some people report increased mood and focus when they eat breakfast. Others react the opposite. Some people find that they stay fuller longer when they eat breakfast. Some are hungrier after eating in the morning.

Meal timing will not affect your weight loss. It may affect your gym performance, concentration, and hunger levels throughout the day. Eat it if you want. Skip it if you want.

Agreed! When I was younger, no kids, and slept in, I rarely ate breakfast. I usually would get to work at 8am, drink coffee, and then a little while later eat a granola bar or something. But now I have kids, drink coffee in the car, and am starving when I get to work so I always bring my breakfast with me and eat when I get to work. It really depends on you. If you're hungry, eat. If not, don't.

I have never heard any opinions that you shouldn't eat breakfast. You should absolutely eat breakfast.

She has obviously never met Steve! BTW Where is Steve?? I have one more page to catch up on, but thought for sure he would have surfaced by now!

The studies have shown that eating breakfast is highly necessary to get your metabolism started.

Link one peer reviewed study showing that breakfast is highly necessary to get metabolism started. Metabolism runs 24/7. If not, one would be deceased.

If you were to rank the 3 main meals, breakfast should have to most calories, then lunch, then dinner. It takes energy to digest the food. So if your body has to get to work right away, it is already working as your day gets started.

TEF (thermic effect of food) is equal regardless of what time of the day you eat. It DOESN'T increase at breakfast and decrease at dinner.

If your body is scared it will not get food, the metabolism will naturally be slower as a self protection mechanism. That's why any sort of "starvation" method is ineffective. The body always fights to stay alive and survive INCLUDING slowing down all metabolism in the absence of food.

You do realize that ANY calorie deficit (even a slight one) will lower metabolic rate? If one assimilates needed calories per day (regardless of time) metabolism regulates pretty evenly.

Peer reviewed clinical studies are better sources for reference rather than fitness/diet industry articles the submit to information that sounds good.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I'm never really that hungry in the morning, so I just make a green shake before I head to work. That way my metabolism starts working and I don't have to eat. Works for me.

You could skip the shake and your metabolism would still work just fine. By all means, if you want or need breakfast then you should eat or drink it. But it's not doing what you think it's doing.

I can not find any studies that support skipping breakfast will help you loose weight at this time.

Here you go:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1550038

Fifty-two moderately obese adult women were stratified according to their baseline breakfast-eating habits and randomly assigned a weight-loss program. The no-breakfast group ate two meals per day and the breakfast group ate three meals per day. The energy content of the two weight-loss programs was identical. After the 12-wk treatment, baseline breakfast eaters lost 8.9 kg in the no-breakfast treatment and 6.2 kg in the breakfast treatment. Baseline breakfast skippers lost 7.7 kg in the breakfast treatment and 6.0 kg in the no-breakfast treatment.


A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition