Posted on June 23, 2020 by Jenny Cromack

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Right?

When it comes to dietary and weight loss advice, being told to eat breakfast is probably one of the most common we get. Usually, with little reasoning too, apart from ‘it kickstarts your metabolism’ but we want to know the truth behind it and why it is such a huge deal! Is it important to eat breakfast?

So, first things first, is it true does it kickstart our metabolism? Get us fired up and ready to burn more fat throughout the day?

Unfortunately, not. Eating breakfast does not affect basal metabolism or ‘kickstart it’ (whatever that means!)

But hold right onto your Weetabix because eating breakfast DOES provide us with some great benefits and reasons why to include it rather than skipping it.

Benefits of Eating Breakfast

Studies show that:

  • Eating breakfast does actually help reduce impulsive snacking throughout the day as well as a reduction in dietary fat intake.
  • Having breakfast can have an influence on daily energy expenditure, providing us with more fuel to improve physical performance and complete more daily tasks. It also improves cognitive function.
  • It’s also another great opportunity to reach your protein or even macro-nutrient goals.

Now on the flip side, skipping breakfast isn’t a bad thing either. Although skipping breakfast can reduce physical and endurance performance throughout the day, it has some benefits too. So, we are going to look at skipping breakfast for a positive reason!

Benefits of Skipping Breakfast

  • First off, if you just aren’t a breakfast eater then isn’t that great news! You don’t actually have to force yourself to eat breakfast if you simply cannot eat it! Hold off until you’re hungry.
  • Pushing back breakfast provides more room for bigger meals throughout the day and actually helps people who are in a calorie deficit to eat their foods when actually hungry.
  • It also provides a bigger window for a calorie deficit resulting in weight loss.

So, is it important to eat breakfast? There is no right or wrong answer as long as you are eating or not eating breakfast for the right reasons. It all comes down to personal preference.

Some points to make clear though…

  • I would not recommend skipping breakfast if you have a busy or demanding day ahead.
  • Skipping breakfast is still skipping a meal so it’s important to make sure you are still getting a good amount of micro and macro-nutrients throughout the day.
  • Finding what works for you is key, if breakfast improves your thinking and work then it would be obvious to include it but if breakfast makes you feel lethargic and brings negative affects then do not include it.

We are all individual and unique and so are our dietary demands and preferences. There is never one size fits all! Do what works for you.

Image taken from Pixabay.