What’s the deal with breakfast?
You often hear people say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but what are the reasons behind that statement? Many people skip breakfast or substitute coffee simply because they don’t have time to eat properly due to the morning rush to work. Therefore, it is important to really understand how skipping breakfast can affect your health, but also your weight.
what do you mean? How might skipping breakfast affect my weight? I’m eating less so I guess it will help me lose weight, right? Not quite!
Skipping an important meal like breakfast, let alone any meal, will actually slow down your metabolism. When the body does not get enough food, it goes into starvation mode, which slows down metabolism and therefore reduces energy levels. The best way to maintain a healthy weight is to keep your food supply at a steady rate. Do not eat a large breakfast, but a meal that gives you enough energy to get through much of the morning. You may need to have a snack a little later in the morning to keep your metabolism running at a steady level until lunchtime. This is the smart way to control your food intake.
If you don’t maintain a stable metabolism, when it’s time for lunch, you starve and tend to overeat. When you have too much food in one sitting, the body cannot use all of it and it will turn the excess food into fat and store it in your hips, stomach, legs, or other area where it may or may not want fat. The key point here is that smaller meals that are eaten more frequently are a good tactic for weight management. It keeps your hunger in check and keeps your metabolism running at an optimal level.
You may think that sleeping is a lazy activity, but your body is working on repairing muscles and nerves and also working on detoxification and the expulsion of waste from cells. For this reason it is necessary to eat to replenish the energy that has been used during the night.
You can also lose a lot of water overnight, so it’s important to replenish those fluids with water (not coffee). Freshly squeezed orange juice is great, but drink it quickly to get the most of the enzymes in that juice. Remember, the body is largely made up of water and needs at least 2 liters a day to function properly.
Eating breakfast is a start, but what do you have for breakfast? You can forget about 90% of the breakfast cereals available. These are highly processed foods full of sugar and refined carbohydrates that quickly turn to sugar in the bloodstream. These types of foods will put on weight and also provide a quick energy fix and then energy levels will plummet. Breakfast should contain complex carbohydrates, proteins, and unsaturated fats. These will maintain a constant release of energy throughout the morning.
