22/02/14 Breakfast, eat it to help you lose weight

There are many health benefits to eating breakfast every day. However, there is still a large percentage of the population that continues to skip this important meal.

Research shows that people who eat breakfast have a healthier weight and have more nutritious diets than people who skip breakfast. Breakfast skippers tend to crave high GI foods and develop sweet cravings later on in the day. They are more likely to binge eat at the next meal time. 

Eating before exercising in the morning has also been shown to burn more total energy. It is a common fallacy that exercising before breakfast is better for weight loss. In a starvation state you do burn more fat as a percentage of energy; however, in absolute terms, you burn less energy. You perform better and at a higher intensity after eating breakfast.  This allows you to burn more total energy than if you did not eat breakfast. Exercising at higher levels of intensity will help you build more muscle, get fitter faster and lose weight quicker. Eating within sixty minutes of waking also aids to boost the metabolism to peak levels for the rest of the day.

Breakfast literally means breaking the fast from sleep time. During sleep time your metabolism is lowered because you are in a resting state. During this time glucose stores are used and your body is in a starvation state. It is important that in the morning the starvation state is broken. This will kick start your metabolism and keep it fired up for the rest of the day. 

Not only will breakfast help you train better and burn more energy, it will give you the mental edge. Eating a healthy breakfast helps to improve alertness, concentration, mental performance and memory. 

Breakfast is the best opportunity to get your daily intake of calcium. Typically, most people consume cereal with milk in the morning. Research has shown that for teenage girls this may be the only intake of calcium for the entire day. For most adults, cereal contributes to a large amount of their fibre intake; particularly if this is a high fibre cereal. Fibre is important to keep bowel movements regular. 

Starting the day with a healthier meal will provide you with a variety of nutrients and pave the way for a healthier intake. Wholegrain breakfast cereal with low fat milk or yoghurt and some fruit provides many important nutrients including dietary fibre, carbohydrate, protein, calcium, B and C vitamins and iron. This is a quick and nutritious way to start the day and provides energy that will last throughout the morning. 

The most common excuse people have when skipping breakfast is that they don’t have time. Breakfast on the run can still be nutritious. If you are in a hurry, try a fruit smoothie by blending fresh, tinned or frozen fruit with low fat milk and yoghurt, or grab a glass of milk and a piece of fruit. In addition to this, it is a better idea to wake up a little earlier so that you are not in a rush and stressed before you arrive at work. Second, go to bed earlier so you can accumulate eight hours’ worth of sleep. People who are sleep deprived tend to over eat and crave energy dense foods as a pick up. 

Another common nutrition no-no is drinking juice for breakfast. Try replacing juice for an actual piece of fruit. This is a great way to increase dietary fibre and reduce sugar in the diet. In doing this it will make you feel fuller for longer, so you will be less likely to over eat. Start by adding grated apple to your morning porridge. 

If you do not feel hungry enough in the morning to eat breakfast, this means you have eaten too much the night before. Try and reduce your dinner portions so you wake up hungry. If you still do not feel hungry, delay rather than skip breakfast. Try postponing breakfast for thirty minutes and consume a small mouthful of food to boost the metabolism.

Curb the excuses and eat breakfast to aid with your weight loss efforts. Include nutritious foods to optimise your dietary intake of minerals and vitamins. Careful planning of dinner meals and sleep routines will help you improve your health and get you to your weight loss goals faster.