Anyone else intentionally skip breakfast?

[Fit-ishPlum]

I actually had something to eat this morning for breakfast, as I fancied it.

Completely regret it now. I'm sitting at my desk at work and I have never looked or felt so fat & bloated and a little sick.

Reminder of why I don't eat breakfast.

Does anyone else have to skip breakfast?

I know you keep hearing oh, it's the most important meal of the day blah blah blah. But I know there have been studies of non breakfast eaters and breakfast eaters, disproving the whole theory that you're more likely to lose weight by eating breakfast everyday:

thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/to...

"Claim 1 Eating breakfast is important if you want to avoid putting on weight.

We are often told that eating a good breakfast is a simple way to control your weight. If you skip breakfast then you will get hungry later in the day and snack on high calorie junk food. Eating breakfast revs up your metabolism, preparing you for the day.

It seems a plausible suggestion but is it true?

There have certainly been plenty of studies which have compared people who skip breakfast with people who don’t and the breakfast eaters are often found to be slimmer and healthier. This could be for the reasons stated above, or it could be that breakfast skippers are generally less healthy individuals and the fact that they are a little bit fatter has little to do with when they decide to break their fast.

One way to test the merits of these claims is to take two groups of people, breakfast skippers and breakfast eaters, and make them swop habits. Get the breakfast skippers to eat breakfast and vica versa.

In a recent study, “The effectiveness of breakfast recommendations on weight loss: a randomized controlled trial”, ajcn.nutrition.org/content/..., researchers did just that. They got 300 overweight volunteers and asked the breakfast skippers to eat breakfast, while those who routinely ate breakfast were asked to skip breakfast for the duration of the trial.

They weighed the volunteers beforehand and then at the end of 16 weeks. There was high compliance with the new regimes, so what actually happened?

Well, the breakfast skippers who had made themselves eat breakfast lost an average of 0.76kgs. That is not a huge amount, but it is consistent with what breakfast advocates might expect.

Except that the breakfast eaters, who had spent 16 weeks skipping breakfast, lost an almost identical amount, an average of 0.71kgs.

The researchers concluded that, contrary to what is widely believed, a recommendation to eat breakfast “had no discernable effect on weight loss in free-living adults who were attempting to lose weight”.

A similar randomised study done years ago, but with smaller numbers, came to a similar conclusion. The researches thought that making people change their habits was what made the difference, or as they put it “those who had to make the most substantial changes in eating habits to comply with the program achieved best results”.

I like breakfast, it is one of my favourite meals to the day, and I certainly think that children should eat breakfast. If you want to keep fuller for longer then the evidence is clear that you should eat a breakfast that is rich in protein, like eggs, ham or fish, rather than sugary cereals or toast. Protein is more satiating than carbohydrates.

If you are one of those who don’t like eating breakfast and who, perhaps, find that eating breakfast first thing makes you hungrier, then there seems no compelling scientific reasons to do so.

"

[kalahuchi]

Yes, Fit-ishPlum, I intentionally skip breakfast every day and have done for a couple of months now. I know it's frowned upon in some circles, but in others it is known as 16/8 fasting because you end up concentrating your eating within 8 hours. Either way we are all different and what suits one doesn't suit another. In 8 weeks I have lost 2st 3lb so far doing this and it works for me because I don't care whether I eat or not until about mid-day but then want to eat like crazy late in the early evening. I don't eat after 9 pm so I can't have an unlimited number of suppers! Basically I go with what my body tells me and if I was a breakfast lover I probably wouldn't try it: I only do this because it feels right for me and it is only very recently that I found out it had a fancy name. Good luck.

[Anon-E-Mouse]

I also am not hungry in the morning and could quite happily wait until lunchtime to break my fast. Unfortunately I have to take medication in the morning - with food - so don't have a choice. I do, however, just have cereal or, like this morning, some fruit.

Personally I don't think it matters when you eat, it's what you eat that's more important. And yes, listen to what your body tells you 😃 Unfortunately last night mine told me to eat chocolate digestives and I listened and obeyed (8 of them)! Still today is a new day. 😁

Well done kalahuchi in losing over 2st 3lbs in 8 weeks, it's taken me over 7 months to lose 2st 2lbs and my last paragraph probably explains why 😄

Mouse 🐭

[kalahuchi in reply to Anon-E-Mouse]

Thanks Anon-E-Mouse and many congratulations on losing 2st 2lb despite the chocolate biscuits - which sound a bit too tempting for me to resist! I think slow and steady weight loss is just perfect; mine has probably gone down a bit faster to start off with because I have such a lot of weight to lose. I am just off for a nice long walk before it starts to rain. Have a great week.

[Hidden]

I only eat breakfast if I'm in the mood to do so, basically it's unusual for me to face eating early in the day. If I have a big day then yes, I eat it regardless because I want to 'set myself up' for the day ahead. Yesterday was very active but that was sort of spontaneous but even so I didn't eat breakfast yesterday. Do what feels right to you, like someone has said we're all different to some extent and what might work for you and I might not work for others. x

[Caz28]

everyone is different so it's important to do what makes you feel best. I personally would feel ill, grumpy and dissatisfied if I missed breakfast! I look forward to either porridge oats made with some muesli and ground almonds topped with fruit, or poached egg on wholemeal toast or Skyr yoghurt and fruit. Once I've had that I feel satisfied and don't want another thing, except water till lunch time. 😊

[Aussiegirl270416]

I eat breakfast during the week when I am going to work but at the weekends I can quite easily get to lunchtime before I have anything. It depends what I am doing and how engrossed I get into the job at hand. Seems to work for me!

[IndigoBlue61]

I eat breakfast, but not early and certainly not first thing. However, I have found, over the last 12 months, having changed my eating habits to eating main meal earlier in the day and no late night snacking I am hungrier in the morning, 😊

I guess it's whatever works for you 😊

[MW50]

For me personaly, eating breakfast awakens my apetite and by mid morning I am craving a doughnut with my coffee. While when I don't eat breakfast (which is most days) I can quite happily go till lunchtime without feeling hungry, craving a snack, or overeating at lunch. This flys in the face of the research results so I guess I'm just weird!

[Osiris275]

I function better with breakfast. I have an active morning and need food to give me the energy. But what works for some doesn't for others 👍

[timetoact]

Breakfast helps to kick start our days-was given some helpful recipes for different breakfasts by my fresh start lady................ring the changes maybe so it doesn't feel monotonous.