Well it looks like in this case, mother does know best. A study in the April 2010 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, which was based on a survey taken in Taiwan, found that the odds of developing obesity for those who skip breakfast were 95%! According to the survey, “the prevalence rate of obesity decreased as the frequency of breakfast consumption increased.”
When you sleep, your body goes into a hibernation mode, and you stop burning as many calories as when you’re awake. Upon waking, if you don’t eat breakfast, your body will continue to burn a fewer amount of calories because you are still fasting. Get it? That’s why they call it break FAST! You are actually breaking your overnight fast. Without doing this, your body will burn fewer calories throughout the day.
Skipping calories will help me lose weight, you say. Not so. Chances are that if you decide to skip those calories in the morning, you’ll end up consuming them later on. By midmorning you’re famished, which leads you to the easiest thing you can find—junk food from the vending machine. Once you’ve made one bad choice, it’s easier to order the pizza instead of the salad for lunch, and the burger instead of the fish for dinner. Eating breakfast is also associated with an increase in energy and concentration levels.
But just any breakfast won’t do. You can eat bacon, eggs, hash browns and toast some mornings, or go for my favorite, the breakfast burrito, but that just won’t cut it on a daily basis. The amount of calories you should eat in a day varies by person, but roughly 20-25% of those should come from breakfast. Try eating a healthy meal to reap all the benefits of jump-starting your day with breakfast. For example, whole grain toast with peanut butter and an apple on the side or instant oatmeal with a banana are two of my favorites. Another that I always grab if I’m on the go is a cheese stick with a handful of almonds.
breakfast burrito... yummmm!
If you need help calculating how many calories you should be eating daily, here’s a men's calorie calculator and a women's calorie calculator.
A healthy breakfast doesn’t mean you have to spend hours in the kitchen cooking, it just means you have to make a few changes. However, if you do have the time to make a big, healthy breakfast, here are some great recipes from epicurious.com: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/everydaycooking/family/backtoschoolquickeasyhealthybreakfast
What about you? Do you eat breakfast every morning? If so, what are some of your favorite healthy breakfasts?
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