so "they" always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, & I wholeheartedly agree. But where is the cut-off? What time is too late to reap the metabolism-boosting effects of breakfast?

I don't believe there are metabolism (calorie burning) boosting affects to eating breakfast. Certainly digestion burns calories, and will therefore well, burn some, but whenever you get around to it, you get around to it.

I believe the reason *they* say it is the most important meal of the day is because SO many people that skip it, wind up overeating to compensate for being so hungry when they do finally get around to eating.

It is also a good way to get some nutrition and energy going into your body and keeps your sugar levels at a good place.

Some also say it should be your biggest meal of the day. Nothing could be further from the truth for me.

For me, personally, ALL my meals and snacks are equally important. I don't want to skip or miss out on any of them.

Breakfast is definitely a good idea. It will get you going. But, you've got to learn and decide what time is right for you, but not because you will supposedly burn more calories due to it, just when it fits in with your schedule.

I know it won't burn extra calories, lol. And I also knew that it's mostly to stabilize you so that you don't overeat later.

I just wanted to know if there was a cut-off time. Like if you eat breakfast too late, will your body already think it's in starvation mode & have your metabolism slow down?

I really don't thing missing a meal, or delaying a meal, will throw your body into the much dreaded (and possibly over-stated) "starvation mode" so don't sweat it. Lots of people successfully use intermittent fasting and don't eat for periods of 24 hours and still lose weight.

So, one less thing to worry about!

No, there's no cut off time. There is no too late.

Your metabolism is running throughout the course of a day. You're always burning calories.

Your body will not think it's in starvation mode after a missed meal or G-d forbid, a missed week of meals. If it even ever thinks it all. Your metabolism doesn't get damaged, ruined. You can't affect and manipulate in that short of a time frame. It's not this highly fragile thing. Though it does change throughout the course of a lifetime, which is to be expected.

What you CAN do to a rev up your metabolism - muscle training/strengthening. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn even while at rest.

Stay within your calorie budget, exercise. Eat and eat well, when it works for you. To try and micro-manage such details isn't necessary and you needn't focus on it. Focus on, well, like I said - eating well. Day in and day out. Consistency.

I think a lot of it has to do with how early you're up. I'm rarely up before 8am, so my body is just used to eating on a different time-table than someone one who is up at 5am.

In my experience, the key is just not to let myself get over hungry in the morning. Typically, if I wait more than about an hour to an hour and a half after waking up, I have issues with being hungry the rest of the day. Sometimes, that hour falls at 9am and sometimes, its noon. Its not like your body knows "hey, its 12 noon, its lunch time! time to turn off the breakfast switch!". As long as I'm eating a meal within an hour of being up, I'm not as hungry the rest of the day.

I personally don't eat breakfast. I drink my coffee in the morning, and that's it until noon or later. On some days, I eat my first meal at 2 or 3pm. If I eat ANYthing in the morning, no matter how big of a meal it is or what fiber/protein/fat ratio it is, I will be hungry with food on the brain for the rest of the day. Even when I was overweight, I was never hungry for breakfast, I forced myself to eat it for a few weeks and it just didn't jive too well with me.

I agree that breakfast is important to some people because they will overeat to compensate for their hunger. I calorie count, and everything is counted no matter what time of day it is. I personally prefer to skip on breakfast and save the calories for bigger later meals. I tried hard to do the 5-6 evenly sized meals throughout the day and hated it. Instead, I eat 2 or 3 big meals usually around noon, 5pm, and 7pm. Basically, I get to eat dinner twice

I'm with mkendrick on this one. I find that when I force myself to eat breakfast, I think about food all day long and end up over eating. I usually wake up around 7am and very rarely am I hungry before noon.

I'm usually very hungry about an hour after I wake up evey morning, so breakfast is a must for me. My husband has always been more of a coffee-in-the-morning type. He says he is never hungry in the morning, so he usually skips breakfast. He also typically gets hungry after dinner late in the evening, so I suspect that it all evens out.

I am glad you posted this I have been doing the same thing lately by just having coffee for breakfast but I felt guilty about not eating. Its good to see that it works for others as well. I am usually not hungry before noon and I like seeing a nice low number on my food log to work with for lunch.