As meals go, breakfast stirs up controversy like no other, even among nutritionists. What I’d like to do in this blog is clear up why breakfast is controversial, and in the process, offer some pointers for how to account for what you eat and use the info to create your own personal eating plan for life.
If you’re experienced at trying to lose weight, you’ve no doubt been counseled over and over about the importance of starting the day with breakfast. And the advice is backed up by some evidence: A large study of people who lost weight and succeeded in keeping it off found that most successful maintainers eat breakfast. That these findings were based on people telling us what they ate weakens the findings a lot (because we tend not to remember too clearly or report too accurately what we ate when asked). But breakfast also seems like a nonnegotiable to most nutritionists, because it supports what we’ve been taught about how the body works. When you wake in the morning, you’ve fasted for at least 6 to 8 hours if not more; it seems logical that your body, and especially your brain, would need energy (meaning calories) and protein to get going. What’s more, the thinking has been that skipping breakfast should set you up for increasingly uncontrollable hunger that will up your chances of downing a whopping amount of food at midmorning or at lunch and maybe not making the best or most calorie controlled choices (think vending machine snacks, the donuts your boss brought in because…, or the 5-course cafeteria special).
But studies have not consistently shown that folks who eat breakfast necessarily consume fewer calories later in the day, at least few enough to offset the breakfast calories. Studies also have not been consistent in showing that people who skip breakfast necessarily consume that many more. WHY??? Because we’re all individuals! Before I started working out in the morning, I would faithfully eat breakfast every day, and many days, I would be ravenous by 11:00 AM! Now that I work out every morning, I sometimes eat breakfast, and sometimes not. And sometimes, I’m ravenous way before lunchtime, regardless of whether I’ve eaten breakfast. Maybe whether or not I’m dying for lunch within hours of eating breakfast depends on how busy and distracted I am…or maybe it depends on what and how much I ate for breakfast.
A huge problem with assessing the value of breakfast eating is that at least in the US, typical breakfast foods tend to be the nutritional equivalent of candy bars! Many popular breakfast cereals, not to mention donuts, muffins, quick breads or white bread, toaster pastries, croissants, pancakes, waffles, breakfast cookies, and even presweetened yogurt and flavored oatmeal are laden with sugar, other highly refined carbs, and fat with little protein, or much needed fiber, vitamins, or minerals. Granola, which many think is a healthy choice is loaded with sugar, fat, and calories. If these have been your typical breakfasts or the breakfast you contemplate, better off skipping!
Whether you’re a current breakfast eater or not, start tracking your prelunch eating, including drinks and morning snacks, or lack thereof; whether or not you work out in the morning (and what you do); and whether/when you start feeling hungry. Since breakfast is usually one of our smallest , or at least simplest, meals, it’s a fairly easy way to start practicing tracking your eating and activity. If you drink juice, measure/note how much, at least the first couple times (those calories add up quickly). Same with the milk/cream you add to your coffee or tea, the number of sugar packets, how many cups of cereal and the total calories (remember, the box lists the calories per serving and what they consider a serving size, which is pathetically small)! One or two eggs in your omelet (or three?)? Cheese? Assume a couple of ounces at 100 calories per ounce. And you can assume your omelet was cooked in a tablespoon or two of butter at 100 calories per tablespoon. The calorie contents of items from fast food chains are listed on their menus or websites. Or try out one of the calorie counting apps like myfitnesspal, if you’ve been curious. But I’d suggest using your Notes app or a little notebook that lets you track when you start feeling hungry.
After a few days or a week of recording, start looking for patterns. Do you plan to skip breakfast but then feel drawn to the gourmet donut shop on your way to work, famished by midmorning, or lured by the smell of the cinnamon rolls in the cafeteria…? Do you plan to eat breakfast but then forget to plan what, when, and where? Do you down a bowl of Sugar Bombs and nonfat milk, only to find yourself hitting the vending machines by 10? Do you eat yogurt or oatmeal or whole wheat toast three days in a row and then feel bored and stop for one of those 1200-calorie grand slam breakfasts? Do you do better with the same breakfast foods every day and go crazy with too much variety or do you need variety? Would you feel more satisfied with nontraditional breakfast foods (like vegetable soup or salad) than with the usual oatmeal? You need answers to these kinds of questions—answers that only food records can give you—to start planning more nutritious, satisfying, less boring breakfasts, or feeling ok about skipping breakfast entirely!
If you decide breakfast is for you, even if only on some days, use this meal to get needed fiber, vitamins and minerals, and protein, and choose filling foods that will stay with you ‘til lunch. Bon Appetit Magazine launched a two week eating plan this month, called the Feel Good Food Plan, that has a couple of ideas for simple, healthy (low in refined carbs, high in protein and fiber) breakfasts that you can make as repetitive or as variable as you like. And you can increase or decrease their calorie contents by adding more or less of the ingredients. I urge everyone to check out this plan.
Even two weeks into the new year, it’s not too late to get yourself off to a great start!