57 replies to this topic

[Peter the eater]

I rarely eat any breakfast during the week, unless I eat it the night before. Not good.

Mon-Fri I make coffee for me, tea for my wife and get the fruit/yogurt/cereals going for the kids.

[andiesenji]

For many years I had the same bad habit of omitting breakfast - especially when I was working and had a commute of 1 1/2 hours each way and was up and out of the house by 5:30 each morning.
I was busy as soon as I arrived at work and rarely got anything to eat until at least ten, sometimes not until noon. I would then have a noticeable drop in energy and alertness about 2:00 p.m.

When I developed Type 2 diabetes, my doctor laid down the law and said I absolutely had to eat breakfast and my other meals on a regular schedule.
He was of the opinion that I developed diabetes (doesn't run in my family) because of my poor dietary habits, i.e. eating just two meals a day.

When I began eating breakfast at a regular time - usually as soon as I arrived at the office at 7:00 a.m., and spacing out my other meals as directed, I felt much better, did not have a drop in productivity in mid-afternoon and my began to lose some of the pounds I had packed on during the previous thirty years.

I have to eat breakfast now because I have medications that have to be taken with a meal.

[jsmeeker]

I skip breakfast on workdays. So, that means I am skipping a lot of breakfasts. On weekends and holidays, it's pretty normal for me to make something. Usually, eggs. Or oatmeal. Sometimes it will be pancakes or french toast or waffles. Every now and then, I have a box of cereal on hand.

I know this is a bad habit. I know I ought to eat something reasonably wholesome in the AM, not long after getting up. The main reason I don't do it on workdays is because I would need to get out of bed earlier each day.

[percival]

... Nothing ruins your day like a cup of grease churning in your belly all day.

That's how I feel about cold cereal and milk. I feel better hungry than I do with cold cereal in my belly!

I'm the same way. :)

Lemme splane. I'm very anti-grease for breakfast, but I'm also anti-cold for breakfast. You definitely need something warm, but you also need something light.

My go-to's: rice porridge, veggie/mushroom risotto, toast, bagels, etc.

[The Food Buster]

I don't skip breakfast per se, but I eat untraditional foods. For me, it's all about balance and nutrition, so I may very well eat some roast turkey and bread, or rice and beef for breakfast.

At the end of the day, it's the meal that gets the metabolism started. I just can't imagine skipping it.

[thock]

It's an odd thing but if I don't have breakfast, I can go without eating lunch, too. But if I eat breakfast, I tend to want to eat lunch, too, as if eating breakfast has primed the pump, so to speak.

Me, too. I generally eat breakfast at work, but by that time, I've been up for at least an hour. I admit that part of my problem is that I'm just not organized enough in the warmer months to eat breakfast at home (which for me would be cold cereal), but at least in the colder months, I make oatmeal for myself and my partner every morning, whether he likes it or not.

[nakji]

... Nothing ruins your day like a cup of grease churning in your belly all day.

That's how I feel about cold cereal and milk. I feel better hungry than I do with cold cereal in my belly!

I'm the same way. :)

Lemme splane. I'm very anti-grease for breakfast, but I'm also anti-cold for breakfast. You definitely need something warm, but you also need something light.

My go-to's: rice porridge, veggie/mushroom risotto, toast, bagels, etc.

I feel similarly. Whatever it is, I prefer it to be HOT. Cereal and yogurt is my least favourite breakfast, because it's cold. I eat it when time is of the essence. Otherwise, porridge or toast is what I need.

[heidih]

I am one of those annoying "leap out of bed and be fully awake" people. Caffeine as in coffee is not even on my morning radar. I walk the dog and exercise early and prefer not to eat before that. After it really depends on my day. I do squeeze one of my oranges into a bit of water and have that right away. If I have meetings out in the world it is not cool to have an growly tummy (mine growls when empty even if I am not "head hungry") - in that situation I have a small apple and a string cheese stick or a similar fruit/protein combo in the car on the way or in the office before the meeting. Much depends on when I ate dinner and when I arise. Traditional breakfast foods are not my preference although I enjoy a breakfast or brunch with friends as a social event. If I am at home working I prefer a nice bowl of soup as my first meal about an hour after I settle in after exercise and showering. I make a soup every few days and it is vegetable centric and contain no grains other than some corn or peas. As a child it was always just toast and jam and a glass of milk. The cereal thing is not in my culture or experience. I know about the jump start your metabolism and all of that but I have tried and settled for what works for my lifestyle and body. My tall slender son who is a runner does about the same and it was not from modeling me. When he started to add more muscle for triathalons he forced himself to add least do a protein drink earlier, but breakfast when you arise is not his thing either.

[Snadra]

... Nothing ruins your day like a cup of grease churning in your belly all day.

That's how I feel about cold cereal and milk. I feel better hungry than I do with cold cereal in my belly!

I'm the same way. :)

Lemme splane. I'm very anti-grease for breakfast, but I'm also anti-cold for breakfast. You definitely need something warm, but you also need something light.

My go-to's: rice porridge, veggie/mushroom risotto, toast, bagels, etc.

I feel similarly. Whatever it is, I prefer it to be HOT. Cereal and yogurt is my least favourite breakfast, because it's cold. I eat it when time is of the essence. Otherwise, porridge or toast is what I need.

Interesting! My objection is not so much the coldness as the sweetness, and possibly the milky-ness, although I can tolerate a latte in the morning (maybe because the milk is hot?). I like toast with avocado (or vegemite or cheese) because it's savoury, not because it's warm. When we've been travelling, I love being in a German hotel the most, because cheese and for breakfast (with a boiled egg where available) is my idea of savoury heaven. Although pancakes are permissible if served american style, with bacon and/or eggs on the side to cut through the sweetness.

But to return to the original question, I too find I can go without lunch if I haven't had breakfast, which is just as well as a day that's too busy for breakfast at my desk is a day that's usually too busy for lunch. But I tend to turn into the Snadra-beast at around 3.30 on those days, and then everyone else suffers. As much as I can make them.

[Fat Guy]

I'm curious: is there scientific research in support of the claim that "breakfast jump-starts the metabolism"?

[LindaK]

Count me among the breafast scofflaws. Black coffee always, and usually a bite of something sweet (generally a cookie, but leftover pie is nirvana). Big breakfasts are fine when they're brunch.

[Meanderer]

I saw this discussion at an interesting time, having just returned from a vacation during which I ate breakfast on the first and last two days when we stayed where breakfast came as part of the deal but did not eat breakfast during the week in between when we were in a rented cottage. Thinking back, I can recall no particular difference in how I felt or functioned on the days I had breakfast compared to the days I did not. Nor do I recall my hunger at lunchtime having been affected--I am always hungry at lunchtime.

[Kim Shook]

Somewhere, sometime Michael Ruhlman said, "Many argue that breakfast is their favorite meal and of course it's 'the most important meal of the day' (who came up with this slogan? I do fine on coffee and Crest)" - substitute diet Mtn. Dew for the coffee and add a Marlboro Light and this is me.

[suzilightning]

i had eggs scrambled hard, home fries and corned beef hash ... at about noon. does it count?

[weinoo]

I'm curious: is there scientific research in support of the claim that "breakfast jump-starts the metabolism"?

Eating breakfast is a daily habit for the "successful losers" who belong to The National Weight Control Registry. These people have maintained a 30-pound (or more) weight loss for at least a year, and some as long as six years.

"Most -- 78% -- reported eating breakfast every day, and almost 90% reported eating breakfast at least five days a week - which suggests that starting the day with breakfast is an important strategy to lose weight and keep it off," says James O. Hill, PhD, the Registry's co-founder and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Two studies in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association backed up this finding.

Click me.

[Mjx]

Eating breakfast is a daily habit for the "successful losers" who belong to The National Weight Control Registry. These people have maintained a 30-pound (or more) weight loss for at least a year, and some as long as six years.

"Most -- 78% -- reported eating breakfast every day, and almost 90% reported eating breakfast at least five days a week - which suggests that starting the day with breakfast is an important strategy to lose weight and keep it off," says James O. Hill, PhD, the Registry's co-founder and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Two studies in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association backed up this finding.

. . . .

While I'm not arguing with the fact that not eating tends to be accompanied by a shift to the lower end of one's metabolic rate-range (and eating, if you're hungry, shifts it up; not exactly 'jump starting', however), this still doesn't make it clear whether it is the actual eating of breakfast that supports weight loss, or whether the weight loss you see with this pattern is an artefact of a certain kind of disciplined thinking/behaviour.

I often delay breakfast until 10.00 or 11.00, and just have coffee before that. Sometimes, nothing until lunch. Lots of reasons for this: I'm often not hungry until late morning (eating when you're not hungry is seldom advised), and I don't eat before, or immediately after I work out. Also, traditional breakfast foods pose a bit of a problem for me: I don't like eggs, am lactose intolerant, and become very drowsy and fatigued when I eat most starches, which is not the best state in which to start the work day.

If I do eat something before lunch, it's generally fruit or almonds. I work at home, so I could make something more complex, but don't usually feel very enthusiastic about that. By 11.00 I usually start some sort of lunch thing, unless I've got a pressing deadline.

If I start the day eating small, it tends to set the tone for the day. The way I look at it, part of losing weight (I need to lose about seven kilos to get to a healthy hip:waist ratio) is eating less. To accomplish this consistently, you have to be realistic and honest about when and how you can best accomplish this, which means identifying when you are more or less hungry, and planning accordingly. This makes breakfast optional for me.

[weinoo]

The way I look at it, part of losing weight (I need to lose about seven kilos to get to a healthy hip:waist ratio) is eating less.

By jove, you've got it!

[Mjx]

The way I look at it, part of losing weight (I need to lose about seven kilos to get to a healthy hip:waist ratio) is eating less.

By jove, you've got it!

Oi! No need for sarcasm... That was simply the indisputable starting point for my scintillating argument.

[weinoo]

The way I look at it, part of losing weight (I need to lose about seven kilos to get to a healthy hip:waist ratio) is eating less.

By jove, you've got it!

Oi! No need for sarcasm... That was simply the indisputable starting point for my scintillating argument.

But isn't it unfortunate that many don't get it? The simple equation is calories in < calories out = weight loss. How many billions have been made in an attempt to convince us otherwise?

Of course, there are proper ways to do it, and any program should include at least moderate exercise...

[dcarch]

------and of course it's 'the most important meal of the day' (who came up with this slogan? I do fine on coffee and Crest)[/i]" - ------------

Cereal makers?

I never eat breakfast. Just lunch, dinner and a big snack before bed.

I have been in perfect health all my life. No weight issues and very energetic.

We are all different.

dcarch

[gfweb]

I've never bought that "most important meal of the day" stuff. It comes from the same people who constructed that silly (and incorrect) food pyramid. The studies that support it are pretty shoddy if the ones I've seen are typical.

I hate breakfast unless I've been up for an hour or so.

[Mjx]

. . . .

But isn't it unfortunate that many don't get it? The simple equation is calories in < calories out = weight loss. How many billions have been made in an attempt to convince us otherwise?

Of course, there are proper ways to do it, and any program should include at least moderate exercise...

I guess you can't build a profitable industry on common sense, and people seem to adore gimmicks: I know several who, every morning, weigh their diet bread and put a 'diet spread' or two on it, accompany it with egg replacements and bacon-identical (apart from composition and flavour) strips, put imitation cream and artificial sweetener in their coffee, and finish it off with 'lite', 'fruity' (not fruit; 'fruit flavoured') yoghourt. To me, that makes way less sense from every standpoint than grabbing an espresso and half a dozen almonds, but they seem to enjoy their ritual mortification of the tastebuds.

[NiceSpoon]

I don't usually eat breakfast in the morning unless it's my day off.

When I'm working I'll just have a coffee or a redbull and hold out until family meal.

[Katie Meadow]

I do need to eat something in the morning, but it is typically a small thing, a neutral carb, such as half a bagel or, most likely, a piece of buttered toast with a minimal amount of marmalade. Protein such as meat or eggs doesn't appeal, nor does a heavy dose of acid, like orange juice or grapefruit. And I don't much care for sweet pastry or coffee cake, either. I like steel cut oats maybe once or twice a week, and every so often I get a hankering for popovers, but that's about as much cooking as I can tolerate in the a.m. I'm not wild about pancakes, but I eat them if someone else is willing to stand over a hot stove flipping and fussing. No one in my house is.

Truthfully, the only reason I eat apple pie for breakfast on the day after Thanksgiving is because I'm afraid if I don't there won't be any left by lunchtime. Pathetic.

[ChrisTaylor]

As I kid I used to eat massive amounts of stuff in the morning. Hit my mid to late teens or so and then I just ... couldn't. For about the first hour or so, anything I ate I'd want to, er, recycle. Feel the same way now, generally. I don't want to eat for a hour or so (meaning I don't get to eat before leaving the house). Have to work on that as I know it's bad.

[emilyr]

I was reading this articlethis week, and it really made sense to me. I'm naturally not a "breakfast before leaving work" kind of person (I'm generally just not hungry then), but when I was on various diets or eating plans (ESPECIALLY Weight Watchers) the importance of eating breakfast was pounded into my head. I always tried to make sure, when on those plans, to eat something for breakfast (usually leftovers). But I was still hungry enough to be distracted at 10:30 or 11, so I ate a snack. Then lunch at noon or 1 and dinner as usual. If I ignore the advice to eat breakfast before I leave, I generally have a small snack around 9:30 or 10 (3-4 hours after I wake) and then the rest of my day is as normal. I think (though without any real proof) that I was eating more when I was "making time" for a full breakfast. I don't feel any hungrier now. My general schedule is to make a packet of oatmeal when I'm making my morning tea at work. Our coffee maker has a boiling water spigot on it; both are too hot to consume right away, so they sit on my desk for 30-45 minutes. Usually right around the time I'm hungry enough to notice, they're ready. Or I'll eat a yogurt and a piece of fruit at 10.

Kids are kind of a different story. I know there are all kinds of studies that show that kids do better at school when they're not hungry, and I think that's completely true. I have NEVER been a breakfast kind of person and used to fight quite loudly with my mom and dad about eating a whole bowl of cereal. By the time I hit 4th grade, they just let me do whatever I wanted. My elementary school had a REALLY early lunch (grades 1-4 started lining up at 10:45 and grades 5-8 at 11:20), so I was always more ready to be truly hungry at lunch than be forced a full breakfast, not eat a whole lunch, and be really hungry before the end of the day (when I'd run straight to the c-store and buy cupcakes or beg my grandmama for an after school cookie). Most of the time I'd eat half a peanut butter sandwich or some toast. My brother, on the other hand, needed to have at the least some cereal and some protein (peanut butter, egg, cheese) or he wouldn't be able to keep his mind on his work until lunch. It's really all about knowing what your kid needs.

[Kouign Aman]

Mostly-carb breakfasts knock me out about an hour later. High protein breakfasts do good work til dinner.
Dont want food til at least an hour after achieving consciousness. That means I usually break the fast at work.
Food intake does increase one's metabolism over fasting levels; I think coffee, milk and sugar do a nice job of pretending to be food for that purpose.

[alex james]

I love breakfast.

My problem is the calories consumed as has been mentioned above.

I now feed my cravings at weekends only. Weekday intake is a traditional English breakfast ie a mug of tea, a read of the paper and a smoke. Not to be confused with a full English breakfast which is of course bacon, eggs etc.

The peculiar thing about it is that I seem to have trained my metabolism into being aware of what day of the week it is. I rarely wake up hungry on weekdays; I quite often wake up hungry at weekends.