Is Breakfast Really Good for You? What the Research Says ...

Psychgrrl
Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
edited January 2019 in Health and Weight Loss
Sadly, I'm not at all surprised some of the studies touting the importance of eating breakfast were funded by cereal companies, just like the studies funded by tobacco companies saying cigarettes were safe ... :neutral:
time.com/5516364/is-eating-breakfast-healthy/

Edited because I couldn't spell "cigarettes" correctly.
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Replies

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    ive lost 120 pounds and rarely eat breakfast. sometimes i will have a light something, but not usually. i get up around 5 am and eat lunch around 11 or so
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    I only read part of it, but meal timing doesn’t matter for weight loss. Calories are king. You want breakfast? Eat it. Don’t want breakfast? Skip it. Stay with mom your calorie goals and the results will be the same either way.

    Yup.

    And whenever someone says "I know I have to eat breakfast, but I am not hungry" on MFP the "breakfast is the most important meal" thing gets quickly debunked, and it is noted that that was popularized by Kellogg's.

    I like breakfast and eat it most days now, but if that changed and I started not wanting food in the morning again (as I did at one point), I'd stop eating it.
  • zeejane03
    zeejane03 Posts: 993 Member
    Sharon_C wrote: »
    Breakfast is whenever you decide to eat your first meal of the day

    Yep, it literally means 'break fast' :)

    OP-meal timing and meal frequency are preference things and don't matter in terms of weight management.
  • thepainmaker88
    thepainmaker88 Posts: 365 Member
    edited January 2019
    if breakfast is the most important meal of the day then dinner must be the the least important? I dunno...I never felt there was logic to that statement. I don't think someone who eats first thing in the morning is going to be any healthier then the person who doesn't eat till lunch time...just my 2 cents
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,349 Member
    I don't know if eating breakfast is really good for me, but without a doubt, me eating breakfast is good for my co-workers!
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    Meal times are a preference, I generally eat breakfast because if I don't it aggravates my IBS and that is not a good day for me.
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    Meal times are a preference, I generally eat breakfast because if I don't it aggravates my IBS and that is not a good day for me.

    ^^^ this is a good reason to eat breakfast in the morning. I eat breakfast in the morning 1 day a week because it is a family outing with my 80 year old father and sister. If it weren't for that outing, I would never eat breakfast in the morning.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Stay within your calorie goal... won’t let me edit the typo for some reason.

    Interesting - the edit gear isn't working for me either. Glad to know it's not just me. The Notifications button isn't working for me either.
  • Phirrgus
    Phirrgus Posts: 1,894 Member
    Is breakfast good for me? Why would it be worse than any other meal? I choose to not eat as much bacon and eggs as I can, or used to lol, but that applies across all my meals. Plate push-aways are hard, but they work.
  • SirMxyzptlk
    SirMxyzptlk Posts: 841 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    I only read part of it, but meal timing doesn’t matter for weight loss. Calories are king. You want breakfast? Eat it. Don’t want breakfast? Skip it. Stay with mom your calorie goals and the results will be the same either way.

    Yup.

    And whenever someone says "I know I have to eat breakfast, but I am not hungry" on MFP the "breakfast is the most important meal" thing gets quickly debunked, and it is noted that that was popularized by Kellogg's.

    I like breakfast and eat it most days now, but if that changed and I started not wanting food in the morning again (as I did at one point), I'd stop eating it.

    Meal timing was always one of those discussion items that when someone mentioned I immediately know I can discount a lot of what they say following it. Usefullness of calories is completely about energy stores and expenditures. So if you exercised and ate a huge meal before bed to replace any lost energy storage, a breakfast isn't going to do anything more in terms of useable energy. Seems like people think at midnight your body's slate get's completely wiped clean and you start every day in need of calories just to get you through.

  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    MikePTY wrote: »
    An important part of successful weight loss is figuring out what your body responds to and what it doesn't

    But that is just personal for me. If you find that you are the type of person who doesn't need breakfast to help you stay on track, then there is no benefit to having it vs. not having it.

    ^^ really good points and I agree totally.

    The so called “experts” seem to change their minds frequently. Telling us what’s bad, good, and indifferent,

    Finding what works best for each of us is common sense, and we know ourselves better than anyone else. As long as are getting proper nutrition and calories what and when we eat should be decided individually.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    If it is published by time.com, that clues me in to suspect that they responded to some advocate with a paper from arXiv.org. No, thanks. Sometimes I have solid food with my keto coffee, sometimes I don't. I've no need of eating on someone else's schedule.
  • neugebauer52
    neugebauer52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    In our modern times we can have breakfast / lunch / dinner / a snack whenever we want to. We just open the fridge / freezer / cupboard / store room / tin can / plastic bottle / cardboard box / you name it. A million years ago our ancestors had to make a fire first and go out and kill an elephant / goose / some fish / or whatever they enjoyed eating. I find it hard to believe, that they had something to eat first thing in the morning... So now we are told that "breakfast is good for us.... I am sure for some it is, for some it isn't. What counts for me is the total calories eaten - drunk / consumed by the end of the day.
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    hljjb2019 wrote: »
    I was under the impression that the purpose for breakfast is to feed the brain after having 8 hours of sleep

    Your brain is "fed" constently, even when you're sleeping. If someone doesn't feel the need to eat in the AM, their brain will work fine until they have their first meal.

    My brain seems to never work fine:)
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    I push breakfast as late as possible, usually around 9:30 after getting up at 3:45. Once I eat, my appetite "starts". If I eat earlier, I just get more hungry and eat more calories throughout the day.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Stay within your calorie goal... won’t let me edit the typo for some reason.

    Interesting - the edit gear isn't working for me either. Glad to know it's not just me. The Notifications button isn't working for me either.

    Couldn't flag spam last night, can't see notifications today. (Granted, didn't have notifications yesterday, so no idea if it's an increasing problem or it's been this way since it started.)