Current weight: 294 lbs,
Total weight loss: 11.8 lbs.
For about the last year, I generally have not been eating breakfast. Yes – I skip breakfast.
Scandalous, I know.
Most days now, I find that I’m just not hungry in the morning and I’ll usually just start the day with a glass of water and hot tea with some cream (for some reason, I have never liked coffee).
This started last year when I first tried one of the intermittent fasting diets. I can’t remember exactly which one, but I think it was one of the 16:8 ones – meaning that you ate your meals within an 8 hour window and then didn’t eat for 16 hours. So, if my last meal was at 7pm, my next meal could be no sooner than 16 hours later — 11am the next morning.
I didn’t change my eating habits at all during this – meaning I was still eating a ton of carbs, especially the bad ones. But – the impact it had on my morning routine was interesting.
Breakfast of Champions?
Prior to this, I had breakfast every single day. After all, I always assumed that breakfast was necessary. Necessary as the most important meal of the day and part of a healthy lifestyle. And because of time constraints, my breakfast was usually a yogurt with fruit or a breakfast bar or a huge whole wheat toasted bagel with low-fat cream cheese (and sometimes a combination of these).
Looking back, I don’t remember if I was actually hungry in the mornings before eating breakfast. But I definitely remember getting hungry before lunch even though I had eaten a big breakfast. My stomach was usually growling at around 11 am ready for its next meal.
After trying the intermittent fasting program, something interesting happened and I discovered that I am usually not really hungry in the morning.
Skip Breakfast
So…I stopped eating breakfast. Hunger usually creeps in between late morning or midday, and that is when I’ll have my first meal of the day, which I guess is technically lunch.
My weight and other (good and poor) eating habits didn’t really change while I was doing this. I would still find myself overeating processed and sugary foods towards the end of the day. And sometimes it was quite a bit of sugary and starchy foods right before bed.
And I’m still obviously overweight. Even though my weight didn’t go down during this process, it’s possible that doing this kept my weight from going up (which it has tended to do). Or maybe it had other non-weight health benefits. Or maybe it didn’t make a difference at all.
But what did happen was that I received surprise and criticism from well-meaning family and friends. Even though I insist that I’m just not hungry in the morning and despite the fact that I’m clearly not underfed, people still believe that I should be starting the morning with a large, wholesome meal. Why? I’m just not hungry!
And if occasionally I am hungry in the morning for whatever reason, I have no problem participating in this time-honored tradition.
I have seen other breakfast-skippers come out of the shadows and into the public. (Fellow food deviants unite!) Last spring, I was happy to see the New York Times publish a piece on this topic – breakfast really isn’t magical. The author Dr. Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics from Indiana, also skips breakfast. He discussed the confusing and mixed data about the importance of breakfast and also the conflicts of interest in some of the popularly cited studies in favor of breakfast. An interesting read – and a great article to forward to skeptics!
16 Hour Intermittent Fast
As I was researching low-carb and ketogenic diets and the potential benefits of fasting, I decided to include skipping breakfast as one my intermittent fasting strategies during this 100 day journey. Soon I will incorporate some full day fasts which I have been reading about, but for now I will continue skipping breakfast most days as I’ve been doing.
I’ll discuss more about this in a future post, but skipping breakfast is a way to fast for at least 16 hours – that’s 16 hours of no food and intestinal rest. An easy way to fast intermittently while doing a ketogenic diet! And this will be my initial strategy during my wellness endeavor.
Have others had experience with skipping breakfast, either positive or negative? If so, I’d love to hear about it!
Day #11:
Current weight: 294 lbs
Total weight loss: 11.8 lbs
– Previous Post –
– Next Post –