How bad is skipping breakfast?
 

I don't usually eat breakfast. It gives me a stomach ache even when i eat food with protein and little sugar. When I must eat breakfast for morning classes i just shove it in my mouth even though it makes me sick, so i don't feel hungry during class. If i don't have class i wait until lunch which i have early. Does not eating breakfast a bad idea?

No reason whatsoever to eat breakfast and more and more research is stating that as a fact. You should eat when you are hungry. I don't eat at all until noon, and it's only a small snack. Then I eat a huge dinner and nothing else and it works for me.

My husband is starving in the morning, so he eats a big breakfast, a smallish lunch and a big dinner.

My teen son doesn't get hungry until about 1 pm. He eats then, then a decent dinner, and then a lot between 10pm and midnight.

It just works for us and that's what you should concentrate on.

There are different schools of thought on this. Some studies seem to indicate that some people who skip breakfast become be over-hungry and eat more than they normally would for lunch and dinner. Your body doesn't like being hungry.

For me, because I need to lower my calories to lose weight, eating three 400-500-calorie meals meant I was hungry ALL the time. Never satisfied. That's a recipe for binging for me. So I've started intermittent fasting 16:8 (stop eating at 8 pm and don't eat again until after noon the next day) -- basically skipping breakfast. I find I do much better with two 600-800 calorie meals on the satisfaction scale. The tummy-growls in the morning aren't so bad.

I was a little nervous about trying this because I'm pre-diabetic, and I've been told over and over that diabetics shouldn't skip meals. Since I'm not on specific meds, a meal missed isn't going to mess with my medication regime. However, I was concerned that my blood glucose would rise... for many diabetics, their fasting blood glucose upon waking is high, and then drops when they eat something non-carby. I was afraid mine would be high and get higher without food, because that's a pattern I've read other diabetics discuss. So I did a lot of blood testing the first week I did IF and skipped breakfast. But I found that my BG, while still elevated when I first wake up, goes down even in a fasting state until I eat at lunchtime.

So it works for me. It's very satisfying food-wise, because I can eat a bit more for lunch and dinner and not feel like I'm cheating. And I'm satisfied with 600-800 calorie meals when I just never stop being hungry with 400-calorie meals.

So for me, skipping breakfast is a great tool in my weight-loss toolbox.

Like synger, I do a 16:8 intermittent fast.

I find that eating breakfast usually set me up for a carb-binge throughout the day; now I wait until lunch, eat a satisfying meal, snack here and there if necessary in the afternoon, eat a satisfying dinner, and am done until the next day.

I don't calorie count, but I do eat a whole foods, low carb, no-processed-sugars diet, and the few times I have counted calories, I'm consistently eating about 1600-1800/day. I really struggle to get more calories than that into my belly. But most of the time I'm focussed on nutrition, and am happy that I'm giving my body everything it needs.

I think that if you skip breakfast mindfully, listen to your body's cues and ensure when you do finally "break the fast" in the day, you don't over-eat, you'll be fine. If I recall correctly, the studies that show skipping breakfast is bad for you were (1) funded by breakfast cereal companies and/or (2) following people who didn't skip breakfast on purpose/mindfully.

Additionally, with an intermittent fast, the 16 hours between meals means your body is burning fat for energy after your last meal has been digested. I have lost quite a few inches very quickly doing this since July.

I see no reason to force yourself to eat if you're not hungry. I'm with those who say it's total calories that matter.

It's interesting how we're all different: Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, and if I don't have it I can't function well. (My mother was worse -- she became nauseated if she skipped breakfast and violently ill if she skipped breakfast and lunch). I would rather do without supper than breakfast and don't have an issue with evening snacking -- it's during the morning and daytime that I crave most of my calories.

F.

I could not live without it. But I skip dinner every night and most people can't live without that. So, no it does not matter.

The total amount of calories of the day is what matters. How someone divides their calories up is a personal preference.

I have friends that eat one large meal a day at night and have lost and maintained their weight and other who eat 8 or 9 times a day and start eating as soon as they wake up and doing great as well.

Personally, I am not hungry in the mornings plus I prefer eating bigger balanced meals so eating 2 - 3 times a day with no snacking starting late morning/early afternoon until evening on most days. This works great for my lifestyle and I have been able to maintain my weight with ease.

Listen to your hunger cues and I wouldn't force myself to eat if I wasn't hungry.

Good luck!!

I'd say eat when your body tells you to, I.E. hunger. I think the problems arise when we make rules... You must NEVER eat breakfast, you must ALWAYS eat breakfast. This week I had breakfast half the mornings and no breakfast for the other half, simply because I was or wasn't hungry. I maintain a healthy weight and eat a balance of good foods and treats. Usually, when I don't have breakfast, I'm hungrier earlier and have an earlier lunch.

This. It's the total at the end of the day that matters whether you eat 2 or 3 meals. I eat 2 most of the time.

I will 2nd what Ian says, that skipping dinner always gave me the best weight loss results (when I didn't exercise) but it's harder for me to do in recent years. I workout at night so then I'm starving. I'd probably have WAY better results if I could work out in the early AM, eat a huge breakfast, decent lunch, and no dinner...or liquid dinner. ;) I can't exercise early, I don't know how people do it. I'm not even human until after noon.