Episode 119: Breakfast... To Eat Or Not To Eat??
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Summary
There's a lot of conversation (and confusion) about the first meal of the day... breakfast.
For a long time you were told never to skip it.
Now you're told to cut it out completely.
Some argue you need it to rev your metabolism for the day.
Others would say a longer fast means more fat is burned.
What's the truth??
Well if you know me, you probably know my answer is going to be somewhere in the middle and I'm going to say it differs from person to person (I know, I know, I can hear the groan of exasperation, you just want answers).
Which is why instead of telling you what to do, I'm going to share the science (and a dash of common sense) so you can make an informed decision for yourself!
The Pro-Breakfast Argument
- People in the Blue Zones (where people live the longest and are the healthiest) not only eat breakfast, but they eat the highest quantity of food at breakfast and lunch and the least quantity of food at dinner.
- Fasting is not beneficial for women the way it is for men:
- "Some women report serious problems [with Intermittent Fasting], including binge eating, metabolic disruption, lost menstrual periods, and early-onset menopause. There’s even some evidence that missing a single meal—which, of course, isn’t an emergency by itself—can start to put our hormonal system on alert." -Precision Nutrition & Pub Med
- Estrogen affects a woman's appetite, mood, metabolism, and body fat, and fasting causes estrogen to drop. This can lead women to experience more hunger throughout the day and eat more than they would have otherwise.
- Longer fasting windows cause a stress response, stimulating the sympathetic nervous system which can lead to difficulty losing weight, digestive upset, and cravings.
- Making one healthy choice has been shown to have a ripple effect throughout the rest of your day. If you start your morning with a healthy breakfast, your chances of making other positive choices like taking the stairs or choosing water instead of soda increase.
- If you let yourself get too hungry by skipping a meal, you're more likely to overeat or reach for unhealthy carbs and sugar because it's the fastest source of fuel.
- Eating a healthy breakfast prior to working out improves performance and energy (think about it like putting gas in the car before you race it).
The Pro-Skip-It Argument
Intermittent Fasting (IF) may help regulate blood sugar, control blood lipids, reduce the risk of coronary disease, manage body weight, remove the risk of cancer, improve cellular repair, reduce inflammation, and increase longevity. -Precision Nutrition & Healthline
Although most of these benefits have been found in studies of men, and can be achieved with a fasting window that has you finishing dinner earlier instead of skipping breakfast.
When you skip breakfast, you're often skipping a meal loaded with sugar, dairy, and processed carbs if you're eating the standard American diet (think cereal with milk, bagels with cream cheese, muffins, or donuts).
Eating breakfast does not boost your metabolism as was once claimed. Your metabolism is affected by overall calories consumed, not timing of consumption. -Healthline
The Bottom Line:
"The eat/skip breakfast dilemma was recently tested in a high-quality randomized controlled trial.
This was a 4-month long study that compared recommendations to eat or skip breakfast in 309 overweight/obese men and women (
In other words:
Eat when you're hungry.
Stop when you're full.
Eat balanced, whole-food-based meals.
Don't sweat the small stuff.
And stop trying to find the 'right way' of doing things. There is no right way for everyone. Instead, experiment to find what's right for you.
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