The Breakfast Debate

Most health, diet, and fitness books and websites will all recommend eating a healthy breakfast to support weight loss. Depending on who you ask, there are conflicting opinions and studies on this. (Read this article for a quick synopsis). Other studies have determined that eating breakfast has no effect on weight loss and may in fact cause weight gain. So, what's a person to do?

My personal opinion is this- I recommend that most people eat a healthy breakfast as part of their daily routine.

Why? Your body has been fasting for 8 -10 hours overnight, sending your metabolism to a nice slow pace for conservation. Several people wake up hungry and eating a healthy breakfast with a balance of protein, carbs, fat (and don't forget fiber) can set the mood for healthy eating and curb starvation pangs for the rest of the day. 

Now some people argue eating breakfast makes them hungrier for the day. Well, yeah, if you eat cereal chock-full of 20g of sugar like Raisin Bran (yes, this cereal is bad for you!), you will feel hungrier an hour later. But if you eat an egg, piece of plain whole grain toast,plain oatmeal, or low sugar cereal with unsweetened milk, you probably won't experience that annoying blood sugar spike. Making sure you have fiber also helps feel fuller longer. Eating a muffin the size of your head will indeed result in hunger pangs an hour later as well. It's all about what you choose to eat!

There are some folks that are adamant about NOT eating breakfast. Lets say for example, you are one of those people who hate eating breakfast, so you typically don't. Or perhaps you are someone who ate a ginormous dinner the night before and you simply don't "feel hungry" for breakfast. So this describes you and you typically skip breakfast, do you find yourself starving at midmorning or lunch time? Does this sudden hunger attack lead to stuffing yourself?

If so, you should probably reconsider eating breakfast. If you end up reaching for donuts in the break room, downing half a jug of coffee creamer, or consuming a 1,000 calorie lunch, you probably aren't coming out ahead by not eating breakfast (even if you think you are!).

On the other hand, if you find that you can still stay on track with your personal calorie targets and healthy meal habits for the entire day, despite not eating breakfast, than by all means do your thing!

It's just that there is typically an association of behaviors - typically people who don't eat breakfast are more overweight. Typically people who do eat breakfast are at healthier weights. This doesn't mean one causes another but the behaviors are associated. Something to think about! 

My fav breakfasts:

• Nonfat Greek yogurt (sweetened with stevia or fruit) with chia seeds
• Egg white scramble (spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, egg whites)
• Whole grain toast with peanut butter
• Plain Oatmeal with half apple cut in chunks and cinnamon (all microwaved together to cook apple)
• High protein/fiber cereal w unsweetened almond milk
• Nonfat cottage cheese w a tbsp no sugar added jam