Breakfast jumps starts your metabolism? Explain that please.

The reason you don't understand it is because it's a lie. You do not need breakfast to "jump start" your metabolism. There have been numerous studies done showing meal frequency has little or no impact on weight loss though it is correlatively linked to higher BMI (not causative).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22173575
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21123467

Many more studies are linked to these on the right side if you want to read more.

Eh. I don't really care what a study says - I eat as soon as I wake up because:

a) I'm starving

b) I've found eating right away and eating often helps keep my blood sugar level. A level blood sugar keeps me from binging.

I will say I never ate breakfast when I was overweight and had a serious binge eating problem. So, I truly believe for ME - it helps control that... which makes breakfast important to me.

I don't know about how accurate that statement is but when I was fat I NEVER ate breakfast. I think people that skip breakfast tend to eat more calories during the rest of the day then people who eat a good breakfast. I wake up every morning starving now so i have to eat as soon as I get up!
also not everyone is as blessed with an awesome metabolism as you

it's a total lie, but i always eat breakfast anyway now because if i wait til lunch, i do tend to eat more than if i were to eat breakfast or at least a snack. plus my stomach starts yelling at me if i wait til 1pm which is usually about when i lunch.

I noticed that all the 'naturally' thin members of my family eat breakfast... and all the 'less thin' ones don't. It might be a coincidence but I've included a regular breakfast in my new lifestyle and it seems to work for me.

Eh. I don't really care what a study says - I eat as soon as I wake up because:

a) I'm starving

b) I've found eating right away and eating often helps keep my blood sugar level. A level blood sugar keeps me from binging.

I will say I never ate breakfast when I was overweight and had a serious binge eating problem. So, I truly believe for ME - it helps control that... which makes breakfast important to me.

The studies do not comment on preference, which is what you are talking about. It says simply that eating the same number of calories per day regardless of whether they are divided into separate meals or in one large meal or somewhere inbetween is all that matters. Simply put, if you eat the 1300 calories per day in one big meal, you'll lose just as much as someone who divides it up into multiple smaller meals. Of course, waiting to eat all your calories at dinner doesn't work for everyone, so that is really up to you.

I don't know about jump starting your metabolism, but I know I've lost weight since I started eating a good breakfast everyday.

I teach preschool and I used to snack with the kids and pick at junk food all day -- when I eat breakfast, I show up to work full and have no desire to pick at the snacks we provide. Because of this, I'm also able to eat lunch later, so I'm not hungry and snacking later in the day either.

Eh. I don't really care what a study says - I eat as soon as I wake up because:

a) I'm starving

b) I've found eating right away and eating often helps keep my blood sugar level. A level blood sugar keeps me from binging.

I will say I never ate breakfast when I was overweight and had a serious binge eating problem. So, I truly believe for ME - it helps control that... which makes breakfast important to me.

The studies do not comment on preference, which is what you are talking about. It says simply that eating the same number of calories per day regardless of whether they are divided into separate meals or in one large meal or somewhere inbetween is all that matters. Simply put, if you eat the 1300 calories per day in one big meal, you'll lose just as much as someone who divides it up into multiple smaller meals. Of course, waiting to eat all your calories at dinner doesn't work for everyone, so that is really up to you.

And I simply stated - that I don't give a hoot what a study says. I really don't. I don't know that eating in the morning has a metabolic effect or not.

I do find it ironic that a lot of heavy people will tell you they don't eat breakfast though.

I don't see a metabolic or weight loss difference whether I eat breakfast or not. However, I do choose to eat a little breakfast now because I have found that I can curb cravings by eating 5-6 mini meals throughout the day. If I start with a light breakfast and then eat at regular intervals I am less tempted to binge, to reach for unhealthy options, etc. But with anything, its different strokes for different folks. Do what comes natural and is easy for you. Eat breakfast, don't eat breakfast, you choose.

Do i have to eat as soon as i wake up from a nap to jump start my metabolism too?

LOL...that's funny, i'm sure your metabolism slowed waaay down

and i had to reply just so I could drool over your pic again..so sue me, it's a Monday

I'm like you..I need to eat often and a lot of protein otherwise I'm too sick and shaky to function.

EDIT: that was in reply to Suz btw

I've read so many times and places, that you should eat breakfast because it "jump starts your metabolism".... That it "breaks-the-fast". I just don't understand this mantra.

I've stopped eating breakfast for several months now, and my metabolism seems fine. I can still go out and run 6-8 miles on an empty stomach, I'm not "dragging @ss", and my weight hasn't suffered from it.

I'm not talking about feeling hungry or not, or feeling energized or not. If everyone marches by this cadence, what am I missing? How would I know if it didn't "jump start" my metabolism?

Blanket statements like this make the mistake of assuming that everyone's metabolism is the same. It's not. For some people (including myself), it is very important for them to eat something first thing in the morning. The body wants to remain in "sleep mode" unless it receives food to stimulate it to "wake up." Personally, I can't think straight until about 30 minutes after I've gotten some food in my belly. If I don't eat breakfast first thing, I stumble around & try to brush my teeth with facial cream or shut the cat in the closet. But other people don't have that problem at all, they can wake up & be instantly alert & energized.

For some people, their metabolism works best if they split up their calories among 6 small meals per day. Otherwise, their blood sugar keeps spiking & crashing. For other people, their bodies are more efficient in both storing and accessing calories. So they don't have to worry, they could eat all their daily calories in one sitting, just have one big meal a day and it would have no adverse effects on them, their bodies would automatically ration out the calories as needed.

If you're one of the lucky ones with an efficient metabolism, congratulations. Just do what works for you & don't worry about what does or doesn't work for someone else. Everyone's metabolism is different due to gender, age, genetic ancestry, hormonal cycles, all sorts of things. So just figure out what works for YOU, and go with it!

I've been just thinking about the fact that I don't eat a whole lot during the morning. I'm wondering about eating more earlier in the day so that I have a chance to work more of it off with my exercise. I do stay on a much more even keel when I eat a little something here and there. If I don't eat right away, I can get busy doing other things and not eat until many hours later. I want to keep working off the food I'm eating with my activities and workouts.

I think the main goal should be to try to spread out your eating across the day more evenly. If I do not eat breakfast, tend to start foraging for anything edible until lunch, since my lunch time is at a specified hour of the day because of work. Hopefully, you're not eating in your sleep during that 7-9 hour break in the day. ;P It helps keep your body from bouncing between no food and LOTS of food to no food again. If you're fortunate to keep within your calorie count over the day even if you can put more distance between meals, count yourself lucky that the hormonal shift between normal and digestion doesn't kick you in the seat.

I'm not positive, so please don't butcher my comments if I'm not perfectly clear....but from what I've always understood and read: I think eating breakfast jumpstarts you BMR. Your BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate ( I may be incorrect on what it stands for, but I think this is correct). This is the amount of calories your body burns when you aren't doing anything. So if you skip breakfast, you may still have energy to do things (ie- running), but when you aren't exercising, you may not be burning as many calories as you could be. For example, sitting at a desk...someone who ate breakfast will most likely be burning more calories than the one who skipped breakfast because the food gave them calories (energy) and their body is using that energy through the BMR since you aren't doing something else that will burn them off. I think it also explains why some people skip breakfast and aren't hungry until lunch. Yet others who eat breakfast are "starving" by mid-morning. Their body has been been burning more off than the one who skipped breakfast and so they feel hungrier sooner. Of course other considerations are resting heart rate and exercise is a factor there, but I think you can get the idea...