Is Breakfast the Most Important Meal of the Day?

Is Breakfast the Most Important Meal of the Day? As a child, I was always told breakfast was the most important meal of the day. I never questioned it, even as an adult with close to 30 years in the fitness industry, I never took the time to research whether or not that statement was true. I often found myself repeating the phrase to my clients, I would say, “don’t forget to eat a healthy breakfast, it will jumpstart your metabolism and help you to focus better at work.” It wasn’t until I interviewed PhD Weight Loss Founder, Dr. Ashley Lucas, who shared with me that while she has her clients eat breakfast if they are hungry, breakfast really is not the most important meal of the day, the Kellogg family coined this phrase to sell more cereal. There is no research to support the fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it is if you’re trying to sell more cereal. You can listen to this very informative interview here or watch it here.

Immediately following my interview with Dr. Lucas, I did my own research on the topic and to my surprise, Dr. Lucas was 100% correct. We were bamboozled by a cereal company’s desire to sell more products and make loads of money off of the less informed. I am no longer in the breakfast is the most important meal of the day camp.

What does the word breakfast mean? It means we are breaking a fast. Our bodies are in fasting states as we sleep and it’s not until we awaken and have our first meal of the day, that we actually break the fast, hence “break-fast”. We can break the fast in the morning, afternoon, or night, anytime we choose.

This is why intermittent fasting is such a powerful tool for weight loss. Fasting is nothing new. For thousands of years, it has been utilized as a healing and spiritual practice. However, in recent years, fasting has taken a new direction, one that has its focus on accelerating fat loss. Most people are under the impression that intermittent fasting is another form of dieting, but that is not the case. Intermittent fasting is basically time-restricted eating. In other words, you only eat during a specific time or window. Let’s say you choose the 16:8 intermittent fasting method, this means you are limiting your intake of foods and calorie-containing beverages to a set window of 8 hours per day. You abstain from food for the remaining 16 hours, though you’re still allowed to drink water and other no-calorie beverages, like black coffee or tea. You can choose to start your fast at 8:00 p.m. in the evening and fast until the next day at 12:00 p.m. for a total of 16 hours, after which you break the fast with a light meal. You can actually choose what time to begin and end the fast.

What if the 16:8 intermittent fasting method doesn’t work for you because of the long fasting hours? I would suggest you try [12:12], in other words, try fasting for 12 hours and have an eating window of 12 hours. Over time your body will adjust to longer fasting hours such as [14:10], 16:8.

Intermittent fasting places your body in fat-burning mode during the fasting phase. Remember, the first nutrient your body uses for energy is carbs, followed by fat, then protein in that order. When you limit the amount of carbs for 16 hours, your body will seek out the next energy source which is fat, and that is why this type of weight loss program is so effective. It will make your body “fat adaptive,” and if you really wish to lose weight while intermittent fasting, try doing your workouts in the morning during the fasting state.

But, I digress, let’s revisit breakfast and why it’s not the most important meal of the day. We choose to eat our breakfast out of habit, whether we’re hungry or not. We train our bodies to want to eat first thing in the morning and what happens if we don’t feed that craving? We become irritable. Try drinking water instead of eating breakfast and see how easy it will be to quiet those cravings and if you are overweight or have some belly fat, try intermittent fasting, it may be just what you need to get your beach body back!

What say you? Do you agree that Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day or do you believe it is the most important?