Like many other things in the news lately, the question of whether or not eating breakfast is healthy has been up for debate. Most of us have been told for the majority of our lives that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, and one that we couldn’t miss.
Now however the trends are saying otherwise, especially those who believe in the effectiveness of intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting revolves around the idea of depriving your body of food for a period of time in an effort to switch your body’s energy usage from carbohydrates to fat. This means eating an early dinner and avoiding breakfast altogether, which has shown to be effective when trying to lose weight.
So should you be eating breakfast or not? We are going to take a look at the benefits of eating breakfast, versus the benefits of avoiding it to determine what is better for our health overall.
What Are the Positives to Eating Breakfast?
If you are one of those people who tend to avoid breakfast but have problems binging on food late at night, you may want to consider eating breakfast instead. Avoiding breakfast for some people causes a bad chain reaction that continues throughout the day.
Whether the person is just starving or if the person thinks they can over indulge because they missed breakfast, in most cases the option they choose for lunch is unhealthy and loaded with calories. Eating this kind of lunch can leave you sluggish for the rest of the day causing you to resort to things like energy drinks which can further cause spikes in blood sugar levels.
For these reasons, breakfast is considered to be a very effective tool in the fight against weight gain and obesity. Evidence exists that eating breakfast may help to boost metabolism as well which is one of many reasons why many people choose to eat breakfast on a daily basis.
Do You Really Need to Eat Breakfast Though?
Just like there are many reasons to eat breakfast, there is evidence that skipping breakfast can be beneficial to our health also. There are also studies out there that show that there is no evidence linking eating breakfast with increased metabolism, which leads us to believe that a lot of this is dependent on the individual’s own biochemistry.
Intermittent fasting has shown that it can be effective in reducing weight by reducing blood sugar levels, which helps to reduce the chance of getting type 2 diabetes as well. Intermittent fasting also comes along with other health benefits as well, like reduced blood pressure, maintenance of a healthy weight and healthy cholesterol levels as well.
So What Is the Verdict? Should I Eat or Skip Breakfast?
It seems here that one of the most important aspects to how our diet affects our weight is not only how much we eat but when we eat. Eating within certain windows of time can cause our bodies to use different sources of energy to fuel our bodies, one of them being fat which obviously helps us to reduce body fat.
Basically it is going to take some trial and error to see if eating breakfast is the most beneficial for you or not. If you are eating breakfast and are having problems losing weight, you should consider skipping it for awhile to help your body get in to that ketosis fat burning mode.
Conversely if you are skipping breakfast and are having problems losing weight, you should try eating a healthy breakfast that consists of a high amount of protein, fiber and healthy fat to help reduce your cravings throughout the day and night.
Your activity level and when you exercise is something you need to consider as well. If you are someone who likes to get a workout in early on in the day after breakfast, you may not want to skip it because it can negatively affect your performance during those workouts. Tailor your workout schedule around your meals if your schedule allows you to do so.
If you choose to eat breakfast make sure you are choosing the right foods. If you want pancakes, waffles, cereal, toast, bagels or any other grain stick to whole grains. They will fill you up faster and keep you full because of all that fiber they contain. Also eat a lean protein like eggs or yogurt to help keep yourself going the whole day.
