Most fitness pros agree about the importance of breakfast for good health. They say that eating breakfast helps you lose weight, increases energy, and keeps your metabolism revving.
But is that right? Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day? Or is it all just a big fat lie?
In my opinion, the ONLY reason why breakfast is important is because:
Breakfast is the only time of the day that you can eat pancakes, waffles, omelets, bacon, etc…
That’s it.
That’s the only reason why breakfast is important. Seriously. I’m not joking.
Some of the most awesomest foods on this planet are only served during breakfast time. I mean come on, breakfast is the only time we can have foods like eggs Benedict, French toast, and cinnamon rolls.
Also, let’s not forget about all the delicious cereals that came out because of breakfast. I don’t know what I would do with myself if Apple Jacks, Frosted Flakes, or Cookie Crisp didn’t exist.
The non-importance of breakfast
So unless you’re my evil twin, I bet you weren’t expecting that. Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s the only reason why breakfast is important.
So here’s 4 reasons why breakfast isn’t important:
1) Skipping breakfast will NOT make you fat
Despite everything Quaker Oats and General Mills have told you, skipping breakfast will not wreck havoc on your body. I mean, do you honestly expect these companies to say that breakfast isn’t awesome when the majority of their revenue comes from breakfast products.
The reason most breakfast skippers are overweight is because they typically have more sporadic eating patterns and typically care less about their health.
Breakfast skippers also tend to be overweight individuals who try to skip breakfast as a means to accelerate weight loss. They mindlessly go on extremely low calorie diets, but usually end up failing and rebounding back to their original weight.
Skipping breakfast does not cause weight gain. All the research out there simply states that there is a correlation between skipping breakfast and higher body weights, but skipping breakfast absolutely does not cause weight gain.
So go ahead, skip breakfast, but make sure you watch your calories.
It doesn’t matter when you eat. The only thing that matters is how much you eat. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.
2) Breakfast is just extra calories
To me, breakfast is just extra calories. It’s simply just another opportunity to put food in your mouth.
Take a look at this study published in the Nurtition Journal. In it, researchers basically concluded that the bigger your breakfast, the bigger your overall calorie count will be. The research even suggested people to eat a smaller breakfast as a means to lower calories.
I’m guessing Kellogs isn’t going to be referencing this study.
3) Breakfast will not give you energy
I don’t know about you, but those “energy boosting” breakfasts that nutritionists always recommended never really did anything for me. Those cereals and protein shakes that promise to give you energy never quite deliver. When I eat something in the morning, I just feel like something is sitting in my stomach, but I never feel that promised burst of energy.
Most people claim that they need an energy boost in the morning, especially before a workout. But why don’t you just try working out fasted? As crazy as it may sound, you actually get more energy from working out fasted, and most of that energy will come from your fat stores. But if you really need energy, then try drinking a few cups of coffee or tea before your workout.
Just give it a shot. Don’t tell me working out fasted sucks unless you’ve tried it a few times. If you need more reassurance on working out fasted, check out Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon.
4) There’s nothing special about breakfast. It’s a scam.
Don’t believe the hype.
Seriously guys, breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. In fact, there is no “most important” meal.
There will always be new studies that show a correlation between breakfast skipping and higher body weights and you can bet your ass that companies like General Mills will reference the hell out of them.
In my opinion, breakfast is a big fat scam. As long as breakfast products remain a multi-billion dollar industry, then you will always find companies trying to make breakfast look like the good guy.
Last Words
I’ll say it again: the only reason why breakfast is important is because that’s the only time delicious breakfast foods are served.
All those research papers that you read about on the importance of breakfast are just highly misinterpreted pieces that don’t actually prove that skipping breakfast is bad for you.
So hopefully I’ve at least made you guys give breakfast a second thought. I just don’t want you to eat breakfast thinking you’re getting some sort of special health benefit.
You should only eat breakfast if:
– You enjoy it
or
– Cheesecake flavored Frosted Flakes just came out
I completely agree.
I’m a night owl so I rarely wake up in time for breakfast, but when I do, I usaully skip it or eat something very light (like some coffee and 1-2 cookies). In those rare days when I wake up early and try to be a good boy by having a regular breakfast, I don’t feel energized at all, nor I feel like I’ve stored 20% of the energy I need for the day because later on during the day, when it’s lunch time, I’m effin’ hungry anyway.
So in the end it really feels like added calories and nothing else.
Hi Kagemitsu,
Thanks for stopping by.
Yup, breakfast has never really stopped me from eating less later in the day. If anything, it stimulates my hunger even more. I have no problem waking up around 8am and not eating anything until 12 or 1, it’s just habit now.
Who says you can’t eat pancakes for lunch or dinner?
Good stuff, man.
I understand that it is primarily how much you eat, and not when. However, I assume it is still important to eat something after lifting, right?
Hey Mike,
Unless you just started lifting weights, then it’s really not necessary to eat post-workout. This is especially true if you are trying to lose weight, since not eating after a workout will actually help raise your HGH levels which can help with fat burning.
And if you’re trying to build muscle, then just make sure you eat a tiny bit over your maintenance calories, but it doesn’t matter when you eat.
Yes, think I have enough muscle and am more interested in losing weight and getting definition. Thanks for the tip. Did not know this until now.
From my experience, skipping breakfast has its advantage in fact. It gives the body more time to digest what’s left in your body – kinda cleansing effect. But do ensure to eat mindfully at lunch should you have skipped breakfast else you will be throwing junk back to your tummy again.
Breakfast, lunch or dinner is really just the same formality of putting food into your body I believe, No big deal about it. Having said that, I am curious and is trying to find out if there is any research or ancient saying to proof that our stomach absorb better in the morning.
Just thinking aloud here mate.
Hi SC,
You’re right. If you skip breakfast, then you have watch what you eat for the rest of your day, otherewise you’ll just end up overeating.
As for your question, there is no research that I know of regarding better absorption rates when eating breakfast.
Eating breakfast is just a conventional wisdom and the importance of it is a myth. Breakfast is what prevents many people from getting and staying lean.
Agreed with you 100%, Great article, keep it up.
Greg
Hey Vaclav,
Thanks, glad you like it. And yes, I agree with you. I think that if people just try skipping breakfast, and try to forget all the so called negative aspects of doing so, then they will have a higher chance of successfully losing weight.
I don’t know, I’ve always thought it was far more important to eat breakfast than any other meal. Often times at dinner people eat heavy carb meals like pasta and rice. Eating later in the evening is the worst time of the day to eat because you’re usually doing less physical activity and going to bed. I never skip breakfast but hey, that’s just me.
Natalie,
Have you ever tried skipping breakfast. If not, just give it a shot. You might be pleasantly surprised at how well it works 🙂
And it’s fine to eat carb heavy meals at night, just as long as you watch your overall calories.
Of course in the evening you are less active and that is why it’s a great time to eat! As you relax you’re digesting your food better. People got this thing backwards.
Good thinking! And I agree: Your body knows when it needs food, and it tells you by being hungry. So eat when you want to.
Great article. I recently re-ad a free e-book written in 1922 by Swarmi Mukerji called “Docrtine and practice of yoga” and he espouses to have 2 meals a day and for breakfast have a glass of cold water and them lunch and dinner to be meals with the highest nourishment content e.g. A bunch of peas versus a piece of bread.
I have been trying this and I have more energy and I seem to be losing weight very gradually and I do not miss breakfast. If anything the supposed healthy muesli I had every morning have my body a mild insulin reaction which is the bringer of all disease to the body. As you can guess I am pretty anti sugar or anything that brings about insulin resistance.
So try skip breakfast, you will be sunrises how much energy you carry over from dinner the night before.
So nice to see this! I almost never eat breakfast, and I am tired of the horrified reactions when I mention it to people. I simply am not hungry in the morning, even if I felt hungry when I went to bed.
I am stunned to hear that some people can’t work out until they have had breakfast. I am an avid runner, and eating anything before a run is unimaginable. I need several hours’ fast (water excepted) before I attempt any kind of run (usually first thing in the morning).
And, as far as the propaganda of “breakfast” meaning “breaking fast,” that’s just what it means in English. Other languages don’t translate it this way, often it is the same word as “lunch.”
Thanks GM. I’m with you, when I mention to people I don’ t eat breakfast, the only have negative things to say. And I never knew about the meaning “breakfast fast” in other languages. Good to know!
Ah, come on! There’s no law saying you can’t eat waffles at 6 p.m. ^_^
But seriously, I decided today to stop eating breakfast, putting off my first meal of the day until 12:00. My healthy weight range is between 60 and 80 kilograms, so I’m going for the happy medium of 70. I’m at 82 now. I’ve found that I’m not really hungry in the morning, since I’m a grown man (age 43), not a growing boy. I used to be a rail thin 60 kg twenty years ago, but then I fattened up in university. ;_; My mom, who believes all the sloppy so-called “research” claiming that breakfast is necessary for weight loss, claims I’m gonna make myself fat. I work out to burn off 3000 kcal a day, keep my intake below 2000 kcal and I’m making myself fat? It doesn’t add up.
Haha, you’re right, waffles at night are awesome too!
And I’m sorry if I don’t understand, but did you say that you’re having trouble losing fat by burning 3000 kcals and eating below 2000 kcals? Are you sure you’re tracking your intake accurately since that sounds like a good starting point to lose weight.
I’m a 51 year old woman about 40 lbs overweight. I swim about 5 days a week, for about 30-40 minutes and I’m pretty healthy other than the extra weight. When I was younger–and thinner–I rarely ate breakfast. I recently started back into that habit and I’ve lost 4 lbs in a short time. I drink more water and vitamin water, if I feel hungry, I drink a little and turns out I wasn’t hungry, I was thirsty! I just feel better without food in me for those first hours of the day. (I swim in the morning.) The more i eat in the morning, the hungrier I feel all day. So I just put of eating anything until I really need it.
Suzanne,
I’m with you. Not eating in the morning makes me feel better and I have more energy, if I do get hungry, I’ll probably just have some coffee or water.
I like Suzanne, I used to be thin, then I was convinced breakfast was good for you, so I fell into it… but recently I had no appetite in the morning and so I didn’t eat until I was hungry, which was late morning. Then I would just eat a little granola. I didn’t change anything else in my diet or exercise… in just a few short weeks I have lost five pounds… so now I am researching this. My husband is 60 and skinny as a rail and rarely eats breakfast.. he is pretty healthy.. By all accounts he should be heavy and have high cholesterol… he eats doritos or convenience food for lunch almost every day and eats beef regularly and drinks Guiness every night… The only thing he does different than most people is he doesnt eat breakfast!
I do not quite agree with you on this matter, you see, this subject is diferent to each one of us, for me for example, even though i heard the “breakfast most important etc etc” speach thousands of times, i found out that when I started eating Breakfast i had my head clear and I wouldn be thinking about food in my first class of the day and i noticed this quite a few times, my atention level and receptive info center in my brain do not quite work well when all i think about is food. I think it defently is important to eat breakfast to some people, especialy young students like me. Infact not only i could see and feel the diference in myself i algo could see how it afected my class mates because 50% of them who could not eat at 07:00 when they get up were thinking about food at around 8:30 or 9.
Hey Paul,
If you’re under the age of 18, then eating breakfast may help. But if you’re not, I don’t see any point in eating breakfast unless you enjoy it.
Hi,
I see that this is an old article, but I must comment on it anyways!
I am a student from Denmark at the age of 17 and I don’t eat breakfast. I run 1 km every morning at 7, go to school at 8, and then I eat lunch at 12. Me and my friends often discuss the topic breakfast, and I get excited because I know that breakfast isn’t the most important meal. They just don’t get it. They all stick together against me, so it’s hard for me to get the message out. I am 160 centimetres tall and my weight is about 45 kilograms. I am
But I totally agree with you and I can proberbly use something from this article to convince my friends that there not more healthy just because they eat cereal..
Hugs from ya danish mate Rebekka.
Awesome, hopefully I can help convince your friends. Thanks Rebekka.
I still feel like this article is very subjective. In the same way that vegans will talk about dairy.
I am a morning person. I like working out in the morning (fasted, if you must know), then eating. This is my bias because I am obsessed with breakfast food and will eat it for almost every meal (if it’s that kind of day), but I feel like there should have been more of an emphasis of “you do what works for you” kind of thing. Otherwise, you’re just gathering up an army of people that look down on breakfasters.
Honestly, the reason why I hold that breakfast is the best meal is breakfast food. And breakfast dates with the friends are the easiest way to meet up and enjoy company (for me).
Note: I cannot “fast” until lunch, probably because I have low blood sugar. I have passed out because of the choice to hold off breakfast, so I would be careful about how much emphasis you put into what you advocate. So it’s not just that I “enjoy breakfast,” I just really can’t survive without it, or at least some sort of sugar to replace it. And I am not under 18.
Great article. Couldn’t agree more. The idea that people find breakfast important because breakfast is associated with delicious foods like eggs benedict is quite insightful. Haven’t thought about it that way before but it likely explains the emotional/visceral attachment to breakfast.
Thanks randy 🙂
I usually gain weight when i keep eating breakfast.
Also it makes me sleepy and feel bloated.
I won’t eat breakfast for the rest of my life.
Good points.
To have a breakfast was my problem since school time.
Today I have my breakfast at work, so 3 hours after i wake up.
And there is no problem.
I think, at
– first, the body needs to wake up
– second, on the way to the work, you could walk, drive a car or a bicycle, you need the blood in your brain and legs, not in your guts
– third, i don’t know any warm blooded animal, or a (4000 year) old human culture, which start their day with a “important breakfast”
You have to hunt or gather, before you can eat something !
good points, Andy. I think finding what works best for you is key.