Is it ok to skip breakfast?

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theledger5
theledger5 Posts: 63 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am struggling with my weight loss despite sticking to approx 1400-1500 cals a day. I am not hungry at breakfast and to be honest feel I am just eating for the sake of it. I have skipped it for the last few days but have a banana mid morning. Is this OK? For years it has been drummed in that breakfast is the most important meal for metabolism etc. I hope that I can save a few more cals by missing it and kick start the losses again. I am 50 days into logging and only 5lb down.

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  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
    edited May 2017
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    Yup! I haven't really eaten breakfast in several years. I used to be a huge breakfast person and I'd get so hungry and miserable if I didn't eat it. I don't know what changed - maybe I just wanted extra time to lay in bed in the morning - but breakfast eventually disappeared. And now I don't miss it at all.

    Now I start getting hungry around 11am and eat my lunch at noon, then dinner around 6pm. Splitting my calories into 2 meals is way easier and more satisfying than 3 meals or grazing throughout the day.

    The technical term is "intermittent fasting". Skipping breakfast usually means you're following a 16:8 schedule, meaning you fast for 16 hours (including when you sleep) and you have an 8 hour window to eat.

    PS - the whole "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" mantra was created by Kellogg to sell breakfast cereal. It's stuck around for a long time but it's simply not true. WHEN you eat doesn't matter.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Yes. I don't eat any food til about 10:00, only coffee. Why eat when I'm not hungry? It also seems to kick-start my hunger and I'm hungrier throughout the day if I eat early.
  • DJ_Skywalker
    DJ_Skywalker Posts: 420 Member
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    Can skip a morning meal .... Can't skip coffee
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
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    Technically, breakfast literally just means that you break the fast. So it can be at 6am or 5pm.. you are still eating breakfast... :p


    And the time you eat and the frequency doesn't matter.
  • RachelElser
    RachelElser Posts: 1,049 Member
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    I don't force myself to eat when I am not hungry, not even at breakfast time! Generally I take something with me and eat at 9/9:30 ( I get up 7 ish), so yeah, a banana mid morning is fine. Maybe just try to add a smidgen of protein like a boiled egg or jerky or cheese to prevent a sugar spike from the banana.
  • briohne128
    briohne128 Posts: 176 Member
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    I can't see skipping breakfast as a problem! I am always hungry when I wake up though so I do have breakfast myself however I try and make sure it is under approx 300 calories.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited May 2017
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    5lb in 50 days isn't bad.
    Yes you can skip breakfast... I would if I wasn't starving in the morning. more calories for lunch and dinner :)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,898 Member
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    It's afternoon here and I still have more than half of my breakfast smoothie left. I love smoothies for breakfast because I am not especially hungry in the AM and I can just sip on it as my appetite dictates.
  • Blitzia
    Blitzia Posts: 205 Member
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    hesn92 wrote: »
    5lb in 50 days isn't bad.
    Yes you can skip breakfast... I would if I wasn't starving in the morning. more calories for lunch and dinner :)

    This. As others have said, go ahead and skip breakfast. But you may still need to adjust your expectations for weight loss. 50 days is 7 weeks. Unless you are significantly overweight, you shouldn't try to lose more than a pound a week. If you only have a few pounds to lose, half a pound per week is a more reasonable goal. So between 3.5-7 pounds in 7 weeks is great progress and you're right in the middle of that.
  • theledger5
    theledger5 Posts: 63 Member
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    I do have quite a lot to lose! I am 190lbs and need to be closer to 150. I have no thyroid gland so losing weight can be slower for me I find. I was hoping in the beginning with such drastic diet changes that I would have lost more but still 5lb is a loss and I will keep at it!

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