Personally, when I open my eyes I'm hungry haha so breakfast is a MUST for me. My friend on the other hand, can't eat that early because she says it makes her sick.

BUT do what works for you

It really goes to show just how different we all are. As for me, I'm definitely a breakfast person... if I don't eat a decent meal within an hour of waking up, I am pretty much set off for a bad day in terms of food. I get lightheaded and headachey, and my self control goes out the window when I do finally get access to food. But lunch? I've found in the last months I really don't care for lunch. An optimal day for me is a decent sized breakfast and a decent sized dinner with a handful of small snacks in between.

Really a "do what works for you" type of situation..!

I used to always eat breakfast - my favourite meal of the day! I could eat breakfast for every meal - I love everything about it. Hot cereals, fruit, muffins, pancakes, coffee, breads, sometimes cheese and eggs... yum!

But I, like other people mentioned on here, tend to eat MORE later in the day if I eat breakfast. Even a small one like an envelope of instant oatmeal. So since I'm usually not ravenous in the morning, I save those cals for later in the day. I do have coffee with milk and sugar every morning, and count this as my breakfast. (75 cals). I do sometimes get a little lightheaded later in the morning, especially after exercising.. and if I do I then have 1/2 banana or apple or a piece of cheese to bridge me to lunchtime.

Works for me!

Personally the research I have read indicates that breakfast is extremely important. But I have no interest in getting in a pissing match with people who don't believe in what that research shows about the importance of not letting the body go so long without eating, so I'll simply tell you about a statistic.

I was selected for a research study that studies hundreds of people that have lost weight and kept it off. I get stats from them.

Of those in the study, 88% of people that have lost 50 pounds and kept it off more then 6 months eat breakfast. Of course that means that 12% that have kept it off don't. So statistically, it seems that eating breakfast correlates with successful weight loss. Notice I used the work correlate and not causes.

Take this as you will!

That is an interesting stat - thanks for bringing it to light. What is the name of the organization? I might add it in to a future speech.

All the research I am aware of correlates eating breakfast with better health and/or lower weight and/or lower chance of obesity which is so extremely interesting to me because scientifically it is meaningless except for the tendancy to make poorer food choices.

With the rise of obesity I can't help but wonder how breakfast plays in, if at all since culturally whether one eats a big breakfast or a little one varies quite a bit too.

It really is interesting. My personal thoughts are still what they were when I wrote that speech. That those who tend to be breakfast eaters tend to have healthier eating habits. It's lke the chicken and the egg - do they have healthier eating habits because they eat breafast or do they eat breakfast regularly because they've been told how important to health it is and they follow the rules.

P.S. - I think your idea that anyone wants to engage in a pissing match over the topic is a bit misguided. Most people here are able to discuss things without getting upset because someone said you must or must never eat breakfast.

Wow.

Please understand that not everyone is always going to agree with you.

It's insulting to describe disagreement with your views as a pissing match.

(BTW, six months of maintenance? That's not a long time.)

I know that, Maria. However in a previous thread, I had 2 people go off on me when we were discussing my ideas about breakfast, and the word "idiotic" was used. So I take that personally and pissing match is accurate as far as I am concerned.

John, I'll get you the exact name tomorrow.

I have read that the majority of those who successfully lose weight and maintain it eat breakfast. Even if that is true, so what? That doesn't mean that you must eat breakfast to successfully lose weight and maintain that loss. Years ago, I would try to get myself to fit into the mold of what was "supposed" to work. Now, though, I'm much more comfortable with accepting what works for me and what my limitations are. Even if something works for 99.9% of people, it may not work for me, and that's okay. I do still do enjoying reading studies and statistics about weight loss, but I enjoy that sort of thing about other issues as well.

As for me, I usually do eat some form of breakfast, but it's normally quite late (10:00 - 10:30) because I am simply not hungry at all when I first get up (and I get up at 5:30). Sometimes, if I eat breakfast late and then go to work, I will skip lunch or just have a piece of fruit because I'm so full from breakfast that I have no appetite for lunch.

Personally, I don't like eating breakfast most of the time. I'm not hungry, and what's the point of eating if I'm not hungry? I get no benefit from forcing myself to eat when I don't want to. I usually eat around 11-12, then again sometime between 3-5, then my evening meal sometime between 7-10.

Most of the people who lost weight probably also ate with a fork instead of their hands, but that doesn't mean eating with a fork helps with weight loss.

I'm not trying to be asinine- the 88% statistic is probably correct. But theres nothing you can infer from it. In statistics there is very little weight in variables which correlate. Even those which correlate can have nothing to do with each other. In order to properly identify a dependent relationship, control groups, random assignment, and double-blind aspects must be incorporated into the study. If the study had a large sample size of randomly assigned individuals who were told "do not eat breakfast" and an equally large sample size of "eat breakfast," the results would be useful.

There's very little you can draw from correlation, other than "a lot of people who lose weight eat breakfast" or "a lot of people who lose weight eat with forks."

I think you're making a bit of a staw argument here. Yes - you can't make any conclusions but putting breakfast eating in the same sentance as utensils is a bit over the top.

Of the research finding benefits to eating breakfast (including weight loss - but also school performance, for example), not all of it has been correlational.

Control groups, random assignment, and double-blind aspects have been incorporated into some of these studies. And many have indeed included large sample sizes of randomly assigned individuals told to eat or not eat breakfast. Some not only assigned people to a breakfast and no breakfast category, some have even assigned specific types of breakfast.


I can't remember specific studies, just that I easily found them at my University libraries (Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois State University). Any university library should have the resource to find the research (and librarians who could help you use the resources).




Applying the research to your own life however, requires as much art as science.

The study didn't find that 88% of people who ate breakfast lost- it was that 88% of people who lost ate breakfast. We have no idea what the group who didn't lose looked like- did 88% of them eat breakfast too?

There are likely great, well-founded studies on the impact of eating breakfast on weight loss. I'm not arguing that point.

All I'm arguing is that you can't look at one group of people from a study, find a pattern, and say that the pattern relates to one of the variables in the study.

I usually feel sick when I eat breakfast, but I force myself to most of the time because of my job schedule. If I work a double, I am on at 11 and don't get a break until as late as 4 or 5, so even if it makes me nauseous at the time it's best for the long run. But I agree with what everyone says--do what's best for you. My sister will throw-up if she eats breakfast, without fail. None of our family members are very big on it.

I also don't eat breakfast.I prefer to save my calories for the evening, but more than that, I get ravenous if I eat breakfast, and I simply don't stay on plan. I love breakfast for dinner though! I usually eat 3 meals a day, but not early in the day.