Great post from Garrett Serd RD
"Many nutritionists, health "experts" and even Cap'n Crunch himself claim breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially if you want to lose weight...
Their reasoning?
1 - It "speeds up" our metabolisms
2 - Our bodies will have the "rest of the day" to burn off what we've eaten
3 - It makes us feel more full, we'll eat less and thus, lose more weight
Unfortunately, they're all mistaken.
Here's why:
Point 1:
It's not "when" or "how often" we eat that affects our metabolic rate, but rather the total NUMBER of calories we consume. It's called the thermic effect of food (TEF) and it accounts for 5-10% of the amount of energy we expend regardless of whether we eat 2 meals or 12 meals. Want to burn more calories through eating? Eat more. # itsthatsimple
Point 2:
Our metabolism NEVER stops and it doesn't "slow down" during times of inactivity such as when we sleep (it actually increases). Secondly, your body isn't a walking clock and has no sense of time. It has no preference to whether you eat all your calories evenly spread throughout the day or all at night. What matters MOST is your net calorie balance for the day/week (total calories consumed vs. total calories burned). Consume more calories than you burn? Bam. Weight gain. Exact opposite for weight loss. high low dresses wedding guest # gogetemtiger
Point 3:
While satiety is highly dependent on food choice (i.e. eggs and high fiber toast vs. cereal and milk) research shows breakfast skippers lost MORE weight than breakfast eaters. Their hypothesis? Despite eating bigger meals, the morning meal skippers weren't able to make up for the lost calories in that missing meal (i.e. they had a smaller eating "window" compared to those eating breakfast).
What should you do?
Find an eating pattern you enjoy the most and that can you can stick to.
If eating breakfast works with your busy schedule and you enjoy it, eat breakfast. If not, skip it.
Lastly, there isn't one meal that is considered more important than another and don't let anyone convince you that your success will depend on any one meal. It doesn't. THE most important variable for weight change is held within the confines of the energy balance equation (calories in vs. calories out) regardless of whether that includes or doesn't include breakfast."
Be sure you give Garrett a follow!