Breakfast: Is it really that important?

I've heard that eating breakfast everyday can help you lose weight. However, most thin people I know skip breakfast. I always eat breakfast and I'm still fat! So, how true is this? Could it be possible that this may be some marketing ploy that the cereal companies are coming up with?

i think different things work for different people. what do you eat for breakfast?

Your friends aren't slim because they skip breakfast and you're not overweight because you eat it.

Whether you gain or lose weight depends on how many calories you eat during the day.   If you eat more than you burn up you'll gain and vice versa.  So if you want to lose weight, make sure your total calories are at the right level

Breakfast is important because it wakes up your body's metabolism (fat burning capability) after having gone maybe 10 hours since it last ate.  Gets the motor running, if you like.  If you don't eat until lunchtime you're wasting several valuable fat-burning hours.  And, since we all need more energy during the day when we're active rather than at night when we're inactive it makes sense to 'power up' early on. 

Enjoy breakfast.... but watch your portions and watch the calories.

I'm eating between 1300-1500 calories per day. I'm 5'4"and 201 lbs. I usually have either Fiber One Cereal for breakfast or high fiber oatmeal or eggs and whole wheat toast. It varies but 90% of the time it's pretty healthy. I have been losing weight consistently I was just wondering how much breakfast really impacts weight loss.

i often find that when i have a late tea/ late night snacks that i'm not hungary in the morning and so if i eat something any way it sets me up for a day of eating moe than normal, usually if i avoid eating too late i wake up hungary and want breakfast, which depending what it is lasts me fo the majority of the day.

there is lots of evidence that shows eating a slow release beakfast stops you getting to ravenous later on. my advice is to watch the amount you eat for breakfast, i never weighed my cereal or measured my milk, but my god did i get a suprise when i did, and all them extra calories add up! and trying to eat healthy and trying to lose weight are too different things! eating healthy is about nuts which have quite alot of fat in and and fruit which has natural sugar in!

my advice, check your labels on food! you'll be surprised at the savings you can make by getting lower fat versions!

breakfast jumpstarts your metabolism for the day. having a light breakfast, then maybe a small snack before lunch will keep you from devouring everything you see when lunctime comes!

The National Weight Control Registry is a registry of people who have lost at least 30 lbs and maintained that loss for at least a year. 96% of the people on that registry eat breakfast every day.

youR'e nto fat because you eat beakfast and they'Re not thin because they don't.  metabolism could be a player here.  but maybe your thin friends just don't eat much, period.  in the end, you shuldn't look to others as a basis of comparisson for how you should eat.  eat until you feel full.  eat a breakfast to jump start your metabolism, even if it's small (like a banana and yougurt), it's better than nothing.  do some more exercise, cut out the junk (except for special ocassions like bdays and holidays) and remind yourself that it will take time, but the weight will come off.  and stay off.

I say eat when you're hungry.  Some days I'm hungry at 8:00, some days I'm not hungry till close to 12:00.  Your body will tell you when it wants food. 

Eating breakfast is important. People who eat a good breakfast with the proper balance/nutrition are less likely to overeat later in the day. It is good for your metabolism and blood sugar. Your friend being thin and you being over weight is not related to breakfast. People are overweight because they eat too much, eat the wrong foods and don't get enough exercise. Balance your calories. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks if you need to. Figure out how many calories you should eat a day. Get enough exercise. At least 3 days a week or more. Mix-up cardio and strength training. Just move in general. Park in a spot furthers away from the door when shopping, walk the dog, take a walk after dinner, cleaning the house, walking at the mall, gardening. Anything that keeps you moving.

I've been trying to eat a relatively large breakfast and then smaller meals throughout the day with a dinner that is also low carb.  After some searching, I found where I read about this "reverse pyramid".  Both T-nation & Figure Athlete have good articles on nutrition.  While they're gender specific web sites, I think a lot of the nutrition advice is gender neutral (just scale total calories appropriately).

http://www.figureathlete.com/free_online_arti cle/diet_and_nutrition/think_outside_the_cere al_box&cr

Excerpt:

"the average body-conscious person is eating a moderate breakfast and lunch, small snacks, and dinner is often the biggest meal. This is considered quite optimal compared to what the general population is doing.

The average person spends her lifetime tip-toeing past breakfast, snacking through the day, and sometimes even missing lunch before filling her face with as much nutrient-deficient "food" and caffeine as possible come late afternoon. That usually does the trick until later in the day, when there's another instalment of high-calorie, no-value food at dinner.

Truly optimal distribution of calories is actually quite the opposite of the above, literally. It's known as the Reverse Pyramid, and if you think about it, it makes complete sense.

We need to "break the fast" that took place overnight and provide ample fuel to tackle the activities of the day to come. Thus, breakfast should ideally be one of your biggest meals both in calories and nutrition. As the day goes on, portion size and calorie content tapers off until your last meal, which is quite insignificant."

They go on to give an example of caloric distribution:

"For a 130-pound female, it may look like this:

Breakfast: 400 calories
Snack: 350 calories
Lunch: 300 calories
Snack: 250 calories
Dinner: 200 calories
Snack: 150 calories

For a total of 1,650 calories."

I think that you should listen to your body.  If you are hungry first thing in the morning, then eat.  If not, bring a snack with you and eat it when you start feeling hungry.

 Personally, I have found that if I'm eating the proper amount of calories each day and exercising regularly, I am hungry in the morning.  I eat lunch at 11am everyday, so often I skip breakfast.  I get horribly bloated if my meals are too close together (no matter the size of the meals).  However, if I get up early and workout before work, I always eat a small breakfast directly afterwards.  Usually something like a boiled egg and toast.

I've been having more energy since I started having breakfast. I don't know about the calorie tapering thing, usually my meals are pretty even, but I try to have around 400 cals in the morning. I've also had less of a problem with being hungry at night since I started doing this. I would recommend it! I don't think skipping breakfast will make you thin. It won't make you fat per se, but it's not a good weight loss tool really, because you might find that you get hungrier later in the day, and your metabolism won't be working as efficiently.

yes, ive read many many times that eating breakfast is SO important in boosting your metabolism... you are "breaking the fast".

I always have breakfast even though I'm not usually hungry when I get up; it seems to me that eating something in the morning helps keep me from being as hungry later in the day.  I have a cup of plain Cheerios and green tea.  It's not a whole lot, but it holds me over until lunch.

This morning, on the other hand, I decided to have a pop-tart since today is a "maintenance calorie day" for me and I hadn't had one in a few months, and my stomach started hurting within a few minutes.  I think all that sugar so early in the morning was a bad idea, so it's back to Cheerios for me!

http://journals.tums.ac.ir/abs.aspx?org_id=59 &culture_var=en&journal_id=5&issu e_id=295&manuscript_id=2504&segment=e n

According to this study, eating breakfast had NO effect on metabolism, but did contribute to lower overall calorie consumption throughout the day. 

Original Post by lilborykuamami:

I've heard that eating breakfast everyday can help you lose weight. However, most thin people I know skip breakfast. I always eat breakfast and I'm still fat! So, how true is this? Could it be possible that this may be some marketing ploy that the cereal companies are coming up with?

There is a very old quote that I believe fits a weight control system very well:

Breakfast like a king

Lunch like a queen

Dinner like a pauper

And no snacking after Dinner!

Any sort of food in the morning has been shown to kick start the metabolism. So, even a piece of toast, an piece of fruit, or a protien shake can get the metabolism out of the "sleep" mode.

In regards to your skinny friends skipping breakfast, they probably skip someother meals &/or don't eat a lot of cals, so skipping breakfast probably isn't the only cause of their skinniness. It doesn't have to be a full meal, but a little something will help you focus and get going in the morning too!

I have found that sites that end in .org-.gov-.edu are more reliable, because they are regulated.

mmmmm BREAKFAST!

My favourite meal of the day - regardless of the weight loss metabolism boosting hype. But I figure it can't hurt!

Each to their own I say. Just don't skip it just because you think skinny people don't eat breakfast! ;)

I forget where the article is, somewhere on figure athlete.. but it has to do with maximal nutritional partitioning for fat loss. Essentially it's about how carb intake should revolve around timing, most usually in the morning and within 1-2 hrs of working out. I recommend you try to look it up - I know you're not counting carbs, but there's an innate argument in there either way for why breakfast is so important.

With regard to your friends who don't eat breakfast, there are so many other variables that could play into that (like other posters have mentioned) such as genetics, physical lifestyle, etc. You also need food/energy/glycogen for when you are most active throughout the day... in the evening activity levels tend to slow down.

Eating a "good breakfast" in the morning generally makes me either too sick to function, or spend 30 minutes on the bathroom floor vomitting.  So I usually go for just liquids for the first 3-4 hours I'm awake, and that works for me. 

For lots of people, not eating a moderately sized and balanced breakfast makes them much more likely to eat crappy foods (cravings for "fast energy", a.k.a. sugar and empty, rapidly digested carbs) for the rest of the day.  Also, when you sleep, you're still burning calories, but for 6+ hours, you're not eating.  Your body will slow down how fast you burn calories to account for this, which is why lots of weight-loss experts suggest eating and exercising in the morning, to jumpstart your metabolism after your fast. (: