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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think it quite normal to skip breakfast

150 replies

McHappyPants2012 · 22/04/2012 19:16

Settle an argument for me.

My dh thinks it is not normal for people to skip breakfast, he thinks I am weird because I have never had breakfast.

OP posts:
DialsMavis · 23/04/2012 12:46

I also find that the more I eat, the hungrier I get mid morning

Kewcumber · 23/04/2012 12:46

cross posted with head fairy there.

Stealth - no of course eating breakfast doesn't mean you will lose weight - it certainly wasn't a panacea but it does show why having breakfast is more sensible than not.

But no I don't think its weird skipping breakfast. Wearing your pants on your head is wierd. Skipping breakfast is a bit misguided not weird IMO.

StealthPolarBear · 23/04/2012 12:47

thanks - yes, I can see that would be the case.

Ephiny · 23/04/2012 12:47

I eat breakfast if I'm hungry first thing, otherwise I just have a cup of tea. Usually if I skip breakfast I find I want a snack by 11am though!

Unless you have some medical reason for having to eat at regular intervals, I would just go with what you feel like. Don't see the point of forcing yourself to eat if you're not hungry, or how that could help with weight control.

I have heard the statistic about overweight people more likely to skip breakfast, there are various explanations for that though, e.g. maybe it's because they eat a lot in the evenings?

StealthPolarBear · 23/04/2012 12:48

that was in response to your prev post which I thought was a reply to me
aaargh :o

LookAtAllTheseFucksIGive · 23/04/2012 12:48

TMI but if I have lots to do I don't eat breakfast as it erm... kickstarts my metabolism. I can get away with a brew but food has me doing at least two shites which annoys me and slows me down.

Kewcumber · 23/04/2012 12:49

I don;t think you have to eat loads Mavis, I have milk (or milky coffee) and a bit of ham slapped on a piece of bread, or just some cottage cheese from teh tub. Or if I'm being organised porridge.

I don't find it makes me more of less hungry later but then my hunger mechanism is truly screwed afetr years of poor eating habits. Sometimes I'm really thirsty when I feel hungry, sometimes I'm not really hungry I just want to eat and think I'm hungry, sometimes I'm hungry becasue its lunchtime and my brain knows it should be getting food!

LookAtAllTheseFucksIGive · 23/04/2012 12:52

I'm paraphrasing or perhaps I imagined it but wasn't there a study recently that proves if you eat cake for breakfast (on a diet) you lose more weight? That would be great if true. I bet they meant a sliver of some nasty health store fruit loaf rather than the huge slab of toffee sponge I have my eye on! :o

Kewcumber · 23/04/2012 12:53

Epiphany as a previously morbidly obese person and breakfast skipper I feel qualified to answer you! I was used to not having breakfast (stopped in my teens) and therefore didn't particularly feel hungry.

Lots of very overweight people don't have very effectively functioning appestats (regulation of appetite).

People rarely become morbidly obese because they are hungry. In fact as a society we are moving away from eating when we're hungry.

Kewcumber · 23/04/2012 12:57

I think its a nice idea lookat but the research actually said that people who ate a high protein high carb breakfast were better able to stick to their diets than those eating a low carb low calorie breakfast.

The cake thing was the newspapers take on it! I don;t think the adice was eat your days calories in cake at breakfast!

Kewcumber · 23/04/2012 12:58

SO think scrambled eggs and toast or porridge (made with milk) with dried fruit rather than black forest gateau

Ephiny · 23/04/2012 13:03

I used to eat chocolate biscuits for breakfast, as a skinny teenager. I guess some 'breakfast pastries' come under the cake definition!

Interesting about regulation of appetite not working properly in very obese people, I guess there are cases where 'eat if you're hungry, stop when you're full' isn't enough.

Kewcumber · 23/04/2012 13:05

no, probably in the very early stages of overeating it would work but not once you're obese (IME). Even now that I have lost 7 stone and am in the more "normal" overwieght category I can't really tell when I'm hungry except when I'm really really starving having not eaten for maybe 24 hours.

LookAtAllTheseFucksIGive · 23/04/2012 13:08

I knew it was too good to be true :o

FredFredGeorge · 23/04/2012 13:17

Excluding comfort and similar eating which is less likely to apply to breakfast So the trigger for hunger is when your blood sugar is low, after a fast over night, your blood sugar is being maintained by the reserves stored in the liver. How large your stores are in the liver and how full they were at the start of the fast is what will control how hungry you are in the morning. If you have small stores or go to sleep with them depleted (say last meal at 5pm) then you'll get hungrier quicker than if you have large stores and ate late.

Your metabolism does indeed change if you have breakfast - but only if you start doing some physcial things, the glucose that starts arriving in the blood from breakfast is used directly encouraging sugar burning at a lower intensity of exercise than if you'd not had (where you'd've just used fat for the energy required)

It's not actually unhealthy or otherwise to not have breakfast, however if you're someone who normally needs breakfast (because of your smaller store in the liver.) then you will become much more likely to then become very hungry and reach for the very quick fix calories that are often unhealthy.

If you regularly don't have breakfast, your body will adapt to carrying more calories in the liver - that's how the body works - so it will become more and more self fulfilling and the people won't need breakfast. Exercise also increases storage in the liver.

As others have said, some (but far from all) obese people do have problems with hunger and satiety and what's motivating them to eat is different. But in general not being hungry for breakfast is perfectly reasonable, as long as it doesn't cause very low blood sugar later because when you are hungry, food isn't available.

LookAtAllTheseFucksIGive · 23/04/2012 13:25

FredFredGeorge thanks for that info. Its very interesting. I'm obese and rarely eat before 11am. I eat quite late and also have a sweet tooth. When I had to do the GTT when pg it was no bother to me. The other mums were complaining about being hungry. :o

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 23/04/2012 13:31

I think it's v common, and it doesn't feel fair of me to say it's not 'normal' ? but I don't understand how people can.

I generally wake up hungry, and even if I don't, by the time I've done my yoga or had a shower I'm ravenous. On the rare occasions when I haven't eaten breakfast I've run out of steam by 11am, been ratty and lethargic, and even after eating didn't quite 'recover' properly for the whole day!

I generally eat breakfast around 8 or 9am and then am hungry again by 11 anyway though, and I'm a 5 foot 10 and lanky size 6-8, so I wonder if I've got a fast metabolism? Although I've never been quite sure if there really are different metabolisms or if it's just a bit of a myth.

MooBaaWoofCheep · 23/04/2012 13:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SocietyClowns · 23/04/2012 13:44

lady strange that us lanky ones are ravenous a lot of the time... Smile
look I refused the GTT in two pregnancies because there was no chance I would have been able to get to the antenatal clinic without having had breakfast

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 23/04/2012 13:46

I don't understand it. I have to eat every 2-3 hours.

What's the GTT?

noinspiration · 23/04/2012 13:47

So long as you have a healthy diet, and relaxed attitude to food I don't think there is anything normal or abnormal about not having breakfast.

Personally I'm a breakfast eater, and turn into an evil monster if I miss it. I'm a size 8, and suspect that eating breakfast stops sugar craving. I have never yet felt the need for an elevensies bar of chocolate.

SocietyClowns · 23/04/2012 13:52

GTT - glucose tolerance test in pregnancy. means going in after not eating since the previous evening, having blood taken, having to drink sickly sweet stuff, waiting a few hours and then having bloods taken again. In my area they get all women to have the test because it flags up those who may be developing gestational diabetes.

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 23/04/2012 13:57

noinspiration, I can report that in my case at least, eating even a good breakfast doesn't get in the way of chocolate/sugar cravings at all Smile. My elevenses most days is some crisps, tea, and a chocolate biscuit or cake or five.

Society, I've done a similar thing, a fasting blood test, although without the drinking sickly stuff. I can't have an appointment any later than about 8.15am or I run the risk of going all Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Grin

SocietyClowns · 23/04/2012 14:04

Lady - I managed a fasting blood test recently but only because they gave me a 8.15 appt and the GP surgery is very close... I felt quite proud to get there conscious! Wink (slight exaggeration, but when pregnant I really would not have made it to the antenatal clinic a good 15 minutes drive away, with appt starting 9.30)

Hownoobrooncoo · 23/04/2012 14:05

Always have breakfast, usually just toast, croissant or cereal - nothing big. Helps balance out my eating to three meals a day spread out through the day.