Intermittent fasting and skipping breakfast
e_v_v
Posts: 131 Member
I starting doing a 16:8 IMF protocol about 3 weeks ago. I fast from 8pm to noon, and then eat from noon to 8pm. This is literally the only time frame that works with my schedule. It has been working well for me so far. However, I can't help but feel torn about not eating breakfast in the morning. Isn't it the most important meal of the day to fuel your body and get your metabolism going?
I guess I'm wondering if anyone could give me some insight and information on the benefits of IMF and whether it's worth skipping breakfast for or not. Also curious... since your body is fasting, doesn't it take in whatever food it finally receives and stores it as fat since your body might be thinking it's in starvation mode?
So many IMF myths! Help!
I guess I'm wondering if anyone could give me some insight and information on the benefits of IMF and whether it's worth skipping breakfast for or not. Also curious... since your body is fasting, doesn't it take in whatever food it finally receives and stores it as fat since your body might be thinking it's in starvation mode?
So many IMF myths! Help!
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Replies
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Your metabolism is going all the time, even if you don't eat breakfast.
And the idea of it being the most important meal of the day was created by advertisers to sell cereal.
Your body won't go into "starvation mode" in the course of a few hours. In fact, "starvation mode" -- as it is commonly used by dieters -- doesn't even exist.
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janejellyroll wrote: »Your metabolism is going all the time, even if you don't eat breakfast.
And the idea of it being the most important meal of the day was created by advertisers to sell cereal.
Your body won't go into "starvation mode" in the course of a few hours. In fact, "starvation mode" -- as it is commonly used by dieters -- doesn't even exist.
/thread12 -
Your metabolism works 24 hours a day, meal timing is irrelevant and "starvation mode" is a myth - and wouldn't apply in that context even if it did really exist. Eat whenever works best for you.
If you wake up in the morning and your metabolism isn't going, it means you're dead. And if you're dead, you don't have to worry about what to have for breakfast or when to eat it.
As far as the benefits of IF - there's nothing magical about it. Some people find it works better for them in terms of satiety/adherence (not being hungry, and being able to stick to their diet). Other than that, you'll lose weight in a caloric deficit whether you're eating one meal a day or ten meals a day.12 -
"Most important meal of the day" is either an old wives tale or a tag line created by the bacon and egg industry.3
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Shawshankcan wrote: »"Most important meal of the day" is either an old wives tale or a tag line created by the bacon and egg industry.
It actually seems to have been the cereal industry, as @janejellyroll said. One of several articles about it: https://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/7 -
Shawshankcan wrote: »"Most important meal of the day" is either an old wives tale or a tag line created by the bacon and egg industry.
It actually seems to have been the cereal industry, as @janejellyroll said. One of several articles about it: https://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/
Immediate stand out from that article "...product invented by men like John Harvey Kellogg, a deeply religious doctor who believed that cereal would both improve Americans’ health and keep them from masturbating and desiring sex. "
I've never felt better about skipping breakfast.24 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »Shawshankcan wrote: »"Most important meal of the day" is either an old wives tale or a tag line created by the bacon and egg industry.
It actually seems to have been the cereal industry, as @janejellyroll said. One of several articles about it: https://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/
Immediate stand out from that article "...product invented by men like John Harvey Kellogg, a deeply religious doctor who believed that cereal would both improve Americans’ health and keep them from masturbating and desiring sex. "
I've never felt better about skipping breakfast.
I trust you've replaced it with an appropriate activity.20 -
Well I have a different experience to share; breakfast is the most important meal for me - intermittent fasting did not work for me at all because of that. I tried and it really messed my internal rythme up, I wasn't hungry during my fasting period but when my feeding time came it went a bit out of control as I had cravings (I never use to have them)... so I went back to what suited me which was a huge breakfast, a very good lunch and a light diner. Thats pretty much my success story BUT everybody is different and you need to stick with something that work for you. As the IMF works well for you, stick with it and if you don't crave your breakfast and do not suffer from skipping it then don't worry about it
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I think breakfast is important for people with low blood sugar problems and children. Everyone else can skip it if they wish.7
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Alatariel75 wrote: »Shawshankcan wrote: »"Most important meal of the day" is either an old wives tale or a tag line created by the bacon and egg industry.
It actually seems to have been the cereal industry, as @janejellyroll said. One of several articles about it: https://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/
Immediate stand out from that article "...product invented by men like John Harvey Kellogg, a deeply religious doctor who believed that cereal would both improve Americans’ health and keep them from masturbating and desiring sex. "
I've never felt better about skipping breakfast.
He was definitely a kook, and pushed a lot of things for that reason. Including one of the most common neonatal medical procedures done to infant boys in the United States to this day.3 -
Skipping breakfast worked for me for quite awhile. I eat it now because I've become accustomed to it, and I'm trying to follow a 3 meals-a-day routine at the moment.1
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Alatariel75 wrote: »Shawshankcan wrote: »"Most important meal of the day" is either an old wives tale or a tag line created by the bacon and egg industry.
It actually seems to have been the cereal industry, as @janejellyroll said. One of several articles about it: https://priceonomics.com/how-breakfast-became-a-thing/
Immediate stand out from that article "...product invented by men like John Harvey Kellogg, a deeply religious doctor who believed that cereal would both improve Americans’ health and keep them from masturbating and desiring sex. "
I've never felt better about skipping breakfast.
If you haven't, you should read Road to Wellville (there's a movie too, but I have not seen it). The old NYT review is still assessible: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/08/home/boyle-wellville.htmlIt is 1907 and the reader is invited to contemplate the inventor of cornflakes, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek, Mich., a paragon of clean living who prescribes for the patients in his sanitarium not one but five enemas every single day, as well as a diet featuring nut butter, grapes, milk, a mysterious substance called Protose and a drink called kumyss (which, according to one reluctant diner, "smelled like a wet dog"). The patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium (known to devotees simply as the San) include the usual gaggle of the wealthy and influential: "On the horizon were visits by Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison, Admiral Richard E. Byrd and the voluminous William Howard Taft." It does not escape the doctor that his fortune and power owe much to their faith in him. But Dr. Kellogg is a man of convictions, too, and part of Mr. Boyle's purpose is to explore the workings of such deeply held beliefs.
EVERY religion needs a skeptic, and for the religion of "biologic living," the author provides Will Lightbody, a wealthy young man from Peterskill, N.Y., who follows his wife, Eleanor, to Battle Creek, partly to protect his marriage and partly to seek relief from his own affliction, a gut that sings with pain every time he takes a bite. Will is a victim of earlier misguided home medication: in an attempt to wean him from drink, Eleanor has been surreptitiously dosing him with Sears' White Star Liquor Cure, which turns out to be tincture of opium. To break himself of his narcotic habit, he goes back to Old Crow. By the time he arrives at the San, Will is "just one more sick man in a wheelchair," watching his wife flirt with her doctor. Kellogg diagnoses Will's problem as "autointoxication" and prescribes a regimen of fasting, exercise, enemas and "sinusoidal" baths (wherein an electric current is passed through the patient's body while his hands and feet are immersed in water)....2 -
I hardly ever eat breakfast unless I actually wake up really hungry. Usually don't feel the need to eat until 11 or 12, even if I get up at 8. Eat when you like.0
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There is no magic to IF. If it helps you stay on track with your intake, then it works. If it doesn't help, then it doesn't work. For me, it lines up well with my natural preferences (I prefer to work out fasted, I prefer to eat more in the evenings, I prefer bigger meals and feeling full) and I like having the degree of structure it gives.
I'm not smart enough to comment on some of the claims made by IF people about manipulating insulin and how that impacts muscle gain and/or fat loss.7 -
I just feel better all around if I don't eat before exercise, so by time I get to that first meal it's after 11 at the earliest. I found it helps decrease my appetite for the remainder of the day postponing that first meal. All for I.F.1
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Breakfast = Break - Fast. There's no time allotment.5
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I haven't eaten breakfast in over 15 years. During the best shape of my life , I skipped lunch too, so I could save all my calories for dinner. Meal timing is not important. Calorie in and out is what matters. And nobody starved from skipping breakfast. Or even 24hrs fasts.9
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Works for you go with it.0
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Yep breakfast importance is a myth, like the eating timing. I don't know the benefits of IF but for weight loss the only considerable variable is the CICO.
Starvation response only activates over long periods of low calorie restriction like a survival situation so you shouldn't worry about it. You can eat 1 meal a day like Ironandwine69 and still have a healty metabolism.
There are many studies about the food timming and weight lost. I posted this recently http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2014/06/04/ajcn.114.089573.abstract0 -
Actually, I have heard that nutritionists now tend to view breakfast as almost a kind of misconception, actually.
Your caveman ancestors had no refrigerator. So they had nothing to open when they rose in the morning.
So, if they woke up and wanted to eat, they would spend some time gathering or hunting first.
The idea now is that that is the most natural way for the first meal -- after some kind of activity, not before.
In addition, though some here have said that "your metabolism works 24 hours a day," your blood glucose levels do rise during the night, anticipating that you are not eating for a while. Nutritionists say that, therefore, first thing in the AM might be the worst time to eat: when your relevant hormone levels are low, your blood glucose is high, and you have been inactive.
Unfortunately, I do not have a good reference for this. But I have seen it discussed a few different places.
PS This is not a reference. But it is an article that discusses breakfast and intermittent fasting, and the authors conclude there may be benefits. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042085/5 -
I am feeling a lot better about skipping breakfast after reading these post. I do break the fast with coffee. I just like to kick back and enjoy quiet time with dear husband with a cup of coffee. Coffee on the deck in the morning or around the campfire with friends. I have to think the last time I had cereal in the morning. I do like frosted mini wheats when driving or if you want a snack. Replacement for high sugar item because it is a high sugar item. No milk I like them dry. I too don't really eat till 10 or 11 and then I could have a pc. of fruit.1
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Alatariel75 wrote: »who believed that cereal would both improve Americans’ health and keep them from masturbating and desiring sex. "
well, it's hard to do with a spoon in one hand.
i've been both ways. i used to be able to get up and go until past lunchtime on coffee (with lots of milk), but lifting killed that. now it's more like 'food must be eaten, or else.' otoh, these days i take a huge pile of food in to work and just eat all day long to get through it all, so i only make dinner a few times a week.
not a policy i.f.-er, but it seems to be happening indirectly just as a side-effect of my current life.
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GiddyupTim wrote: »Actually, I have heard that nutritionists now tend to view breakfast as almost a kind of misconception, actually.
Your caveman ancestors had no refrigerator. So they had nothing to open when they rose in the morning.
So, if they woke up and wanted to eat, they would spend some time gathering or hunting first.
The idea now is that that is the most natural way for the first meal -- after some kind of activity, not before.
In addition, though some here have said that "your metabolism works 24 hours a day," your blood glucose levels do rise during the night, anticipating that you are not eating for a while. Nutritionists say that, therefore, first thing in the AM might be the worst time to eat: when your relevant hormone levels are low, your blood glucose is high, and you have been inactive.
Unfortunately, I do not have a good reference for this. But I have seen it discussed a few different places.
PS This is not a reference. But it is an article that discusses breakfast and intermittent fasting, and the authors conclude there may be benefits. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042085/
That was very interesting, thank you!
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Like previous posters have said, it all comes down to the individual as to if it is effective for you or not. Don't buy into the breakfast is the most Important / starving mode *kitten*. To put it simply IF has proven to work and not work depending on the individual, so I recommend sticking with it to see if it works for you. for me personally it fits my lifestyle great and yields results.0
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I think breakfast is important for people with low blood sugar problems and children. Everyone else can skip it if they wish.
Unless you have reactive hypoglyceamia, then eating breakfast and skipping lunch is a nightmare.
I just start eating when I get hungry. Sometimes I have breakfast and sometimes Not, often my breakfast will actually be a banana at 11am.
Find your own routine that works for You, and stick to it.1 -
GiddyupTim wrote: »Actually, I have heard that nutritionists now tend to view breakfast as almost a kind of misconception, actually.
Your caveman ancestors had no refrigerator. So they had nothing to open when they rose in the morning.
So, if they woke up and wanted to eat, they would spend some time gathering or hunting first.
The idea now is that that is the most natural way for the first meal -- after some kind of activity, not before.
In addition, though some here have said that "your metabolism works 24 hours a day," your blood glucose levels do rise during the night, anticipating that you are not eating for a while. Nutritionists say that, therefore, first thing in the AM might be the worst time to eat: when your relevant hormone levels are low, your blood glucose is high, and you have been inactive.
Unfortunately, I do not have a good reference for this. But I have seen it discussed a few different places.
PS This is not a reference. But it is an article that discusses breakfast and intermittent fasting, and the authors conclude there may be benefits. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042085/
It is true that your blood sugar levels ruse before dawn. This is known as the "dawn phenomenon" to diabetics, where their sugar is high in the morning despite no food, sometimes higher than when you go to bed.
Your blood sugar drops at night and then a couple hours before dawn your liver dumps glucose into your blood stream to prepare you for the energy intensive act of waking up and starting your day. Healthy people this is fine, but it can be a problem for a diabetic.
I can provide links on the subject of anyone wants more info. I don't have any handy, but I can find them again. A nurse told me this when I was a hospital one and my sugar was high one morning for no reason, and Google searches seemed to confirm that it's a thing.0 -
I personally have been fasting from 7pm-11am and love it!! Im not naturally hungry in the morning so its not a problem and I enjoy eating all of my food in a shorter window because Im hardly ever hungry. Ive lost weight with and without IMF but I find this to be a more comfortable eating pattern and my losses didnt slow down when I stopped forcing myself to eat breakfast 0
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I never really consider what I do as fasting, but I try not to snack after supper...so I am essentially fasting from 6:30 PM until about 6:00 AM. Snacking after supper puts on the pounds for me.
P.S. Drinking wine or bourbon during this time does not count against fasting ;-)1 -
I am keto carb and intermittent fasting. I have lost 60 lbs so far and need to lose at least that much more. My hubby has been able to drop all blood pressure pills and all diabetes (8) pills as a result. I am committed as there is less inflammation for me and less pills for hubby.1
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