Big Breakfast, Big Win
July 19, 2023 | Words by Gabe Yanez
Big Breakfast, Big Win
Breakfast — the most important meal of the day. Or is it?
With intermittent fasting gaining popularity over the past few years, breakfast was pushed to the side and became more of an afterthought than an actual meal.
For a little while, fitness influencers preached the benefits of skipping breakfast altogether or starting the day with just some butter in your coffee. So what’s really the deal?
Let’s dive in.
The Latest On Breakfast
Before we get into this, let’s clarify one thing — if intermittent fasting works for you, then great! Keep at it. As long as you feel yourself moving in the right direction and you feel that what you are doing is sustainable, that is all that matters. Why fix something that isn’t broken?
That said, a couple of recent studies (this one and this one) suggest that breakfast might be critical for effective weight management.
More specifically, individuals who consume a larger portion of their daily calories during the morning hours may have a heightened ability to lose weight compared to those who ingest their most substantial meal later in the day.
A comprehensive review of nine separate studies supported this theory. Participants who consumed a majority of their daily caloric intake in the morning experienced more substantial weight loss and demonstrated marked improvements in cholesterol and blood sugar levels. This was in contrast to individuals who concentrated their calorie consumption in the evening hours.
We still don’t know why this is the case, but some experts suspect it could be due to the effect on ghrelin, the hormone that regulates hunger, and leptin, which signals satiety. An evening concentration of calories tends to increase ghrelin and decrease leptin, a combination that can increase overall caloric intake.
Another reason might be that we all have less impulse control at the end of the day, so if we are hungry because we didn’t eat enough at breakfast, we are more likely to overeat or choose calorically dense, processed foods.
We’ve all been there. We skip breakfast, have a small lunch, and then come dinnertime, we end up raiding the pantry and having way more snacks than we should.
It’s a recipe for disaster that could be easily avoided.
One Thing To Try
Don’t skip breakfast. Prioritize a bigger meal to start the day, and make sure to include a serving of protein and veggies to round out a proper, balanced breakfast.
Are you still as hungry later in the day? How are your energy levels throughout the day? Did you feel more or less likely to reach for a snack after dinner?
Who knows? A bigger breakfast might just be the key to reaching your weight loss or body composition goals.
