I almost never eat breakfast but I noticed something interesting that when I do my food throughout the day seems to burn off MUCH faster rather than sitting in my stomach like a brick. I'm going to experiment with this and see if it makes a difference. I think I will be better off spreading my calories out over 3 meals rather than 2....not exceeding my allowance of course. I feel like this will be better for my metabolism and hopefully get the ball rolling a little faster. Right now my weightloss is at a snail's pace.
Interesting. Breakfast, no matter how wholesome, has no impact on delaying my appetite. Even if I have 20 eggs and a massive beefsteak at 9 AM, I'll still be beasting for lunch at 1-2 PM.
For this reason I stick to 2 big meals daily and enjoy brunch on weekends
I always eat a hearty breakfast for the simple reason that I love breakfast foods. If I skip breakfast I tend to get hungry and irritable well before lunch. My mother was even more extreme. She could not skip breakfast without becoming physically nauseated.
If I skip breakfast it messes up my whole eating schedule (I get hungrier sooner). Also I can't complete my workouts if I don't have a protein-packed breakfast.
So I eat breakfast! Every morning! Usually two eggs and some veggies. I'm a creature of habit I love starting my morning that way.
I'm more like Krampus - small breakfast or large, I am still usually hungry at the same rate by midday. So if I am choosing breakfast (I find skipping works better unless lunch is going to be severely delayed by events beyond my control) I go for something light like two eggs fried in some butter and half a grapefruit - less than 300 calories and filling, energy packed, tasty
its so unhealthy to do, you need energy to start your day and of course it gets the ball rolling, it helps your metabolism to start working and your digestion to start going. small meals throughout the day only promote that too.
If I skip breakfast it messes up my whole eating schedule (I get hungrier sooner). Also I can't complete my workouts if I don't have a protein-packed breakfast.
I can't even imagine not eating breakfast. Not only is it my FAVORITE meal of the day, but I am ravenous when I wake up. If I go more than like 45 minutes maximum between waking and eating breakfast I get extremely nauseated.
Luckystreak - It's not "unhealthy" to skip breakfast. Yes, there have been links made between those who eat breakfast and certain health benefits, but nothing definitive stating that breakfast in anyway "increases metabolism" (and the same goes for meal frequency during the day).
Meal timing and frequency is one of those things that comes down to personal preference, and THAT is what the benefits stem from. Someone like Krampus who is not a breakfast eater doesn't do well trying to eat small meals 6 times per day. She ends up being hungrier throughtout the day, having more cravings and therefore eating more "unhealthy" foods. Her weight management has been largely as a result of her IF style of eating.
At the end of the day, whatever style of eating helps the individual adhere to a lower calorie, higher-nutrient diet is going to be the one that is healthiest for them.
its so unhealthy to do, you need energy to start your day and of course it gets the ball rolling, it helps your metabolism to start working and your digestion to start going. small meals throughout the day only promote that too.
I used to think like that for years probably because I never really questioned the statement "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" I never really looked to the studies supporting that theory or the promoters of those studies.
For me all through school, HS, university I always had breakfast whenever I woke up and did not eat lunch until 2 - 3 which is the normal lunch time in Spain. Hunger did not bother me much as long as I was busy. In my class I always was one of the slender ones with an athletic body I weighed around 120's pounds.
Now that my mornings are not so busy I discovered myself eating breakfast plus a snack before lunch. I started reading about IF and decided to give it a try. It works very good for me in my situation now and I still maintain a healthy weight.
In the end for me it did not really make a difference eating breakfast or not but total amount of calories I consumed during the day surely did. So I would say that a good approach is to make your meals fit your routine and change if it does not work well and experiment a little bit. See how you feel eating breakfast and tell us about how your experiment is doing.
its so unhealthy to do, you need energy to start your day and of course it gets the ball rolling, it helps your metabolism to start working and your digestion to start going. small meals throughout the day only promote that too.
I dunno, I have great poops every morning with a little help from my friend "coffee," my workouts never suffer and I sleep like a happy baby for 8 hours a night. If this is "unhealthy" I'm fine with being less-than-optimal
I've never been a breakfast person for as long as I can remember. I've always drank my cup of coffee and then have my first meal later. There's a couple times I've eaten lunch at work, skipped dinner at home (get caught up in house work) and don't eat again until 24 hours later. I'd last a very long time on an island but I'm sure my metabolism is crap.
its so unhealthy to do, you need energy to start your day and of course it gets the ball rolling, it helps your metabolism to start working and your digestion to start going. small meals throughout the day only promote that too.
Better research a little more thoroughly - the most current studies undermine both the small, frequent meals-as-metabolism-stoker theory and the skipping-breakfast-leads-to-unhealthy-bodyweight one, too. There are confounders for both conclusions that render them as overstatements, to put it kindly. As part of a healthful diet, the division of meals and timing of them makes almost no difference in overall metabolic rate, weight loss, and general health. It is truly an individual thing, different for each of us based on our bodies, habits, and schedules.
Last edited by Arctic Mama; 08-28-2012 at 08:38 PM.
When I saw Krampus say she never ate before 9 am, I about fainted.
But her schedule and job may be way different than mine, so it works for her.
I roll out of bed at 5 am. Have 2 cups of coffee, put out the dogs, watch some news and talk to the hub. Around 5:20 I fix his breakfast and lunch and toss it in his box and he's out the door at 5:45. Then I may toss in a load of laundry, check in here, etc. about 6:15 I hit the shower, dress, fix my breakfast and lunch and am out the door at 7 am.
The vet tech and I check the days schedule and make a game plan while eating our breakfast, about a 10 minute deal, then we are off and running. By 9:30 I'm into a snack!
It's just different for everyone. For myself, I average 15000 steps a day, I have to eat. Plus I have blood sugar, (hypoglycemic) issues, so I can't go to long with out food.
What it boils down to is, you do what works for you!
I've really gotten into eating breakfast as part of my weight loss (before breakfast was a chocolate bar and a soda!) and I couldn't imagine not having it now. Personally though I eat more during the day when I do eat breakfast, I seem to be hungrier!