Skipping breakfast - absolute revelation!!

[MacarenaFerreiro]

Have really struggled to lose weight over the years. Had some success with MFP in hte past and sticking to 1200 calories a day but I was always so hungry, grumpy and downright miserable.

Have realised that for me, the mistake was spending 200 of the day's calories on breakfast. Eating at 8am or 9am meant I was starving again by noon, and that continued through the day. I now skip breakfast and don't eat at all until around 12.30 or 1pm. Then I have around 500 calories - which is a decent meal - same again for dinner at around 6pm and that leaves me 200 calories spare for a snack if I am getting peckish.

Splitting my 1200 calories into two decent meals is so much easier and I've lost 3kg in a fortnight. Delighted.

Ooh I dont really eat breakfast. Not first thing anyway. Perhaps I should put it back longer. I tend to have something about half 10. Today was my first day on MFP and I failed miserably. If I skipped the breakfast thats 250 calories saved.

Im off work tomorrow and having a drink with DH before we head to the cinema, but I might give this a go Wed - Fri this week.

My problem is though, that I dont like tea or coffee so I dont have them to put me on till lunch. I just drink water. Might go with the banana option for a week then take that out.

I agree you do tend to get hungry depending on when you are used to eating. Its all about changing those habits to suit you. Only takes a couple of days to get used to new times of eating.

I don't eat anything before noon but drink a mug of hot water when I get up, followed by about 20oz of water. I usually have either a green smoothie at noon, lunch about 2pm dinner about 6pm. I consume roughly 1,000 to 1,200 a day but totally sedentary (disabled). I drink peppermint tea, rarely coffee. Had a weight loss about 2 years ago of 7.5 stone have been maintaining it since. When I was fat I always had breakfast. Now my stomach has shrunk down and I eat much less I am never hungry not eating at traditional time. This works for me.

Interesting thread.

For me it's what I have for breakfast that makes the difference.

If I have porridge I'm ravenous by 10am. Like can't think of anything else hungry.

If I have eggs and yogurt I can easily last till lunch.

Can't believe it's taken me 35 years to realise this!

And I don't think it's so much as 'saving' the calories.

Your blood sugar simply doesn't spike, reducing the likelihood of overeating!

It was a revelation to me too - and after fearing that I had developed some kind of disordered eating problems and the whole 'most important meal of the day' refrain in my head, I was very very relieved that 16:8 fasting is A Thing

There are good metabolic reasons why this kind of intermittent fasting works, to do with insulin secretion and how we lay down fat reserves etc etc.

It seems if I don't have breakfast I somehow don't 'wake up' my appetite for the rest of the day
Not snacking in the evening is still a challenge for me though. Nuts are my downfall.

Another 16:8er here it's fab I get A LOT of criticism for it though-breakfast is the most important meal of the day, your body will go into starvation mode.....
I don't tell anyone now it works for me I combine it with healthy eating but even if I have a little slip up it seems a much more forgiving way of eating.

I've just started this (this being 16:8 thing) and I was RAVENOUS by midday when I had my lunch (sandwich and veggie sticks). I'm also ravenous now and planning to go to gym and then have tea at about 7.30.

Will it get easier or should I break my fast a bit earlier? Say, banana at mid morning?

I'd like to do this but have read that you aren't supposed to drink tea or coffee whilst fasting.
Can anyone shed any light on the truth about this please ?

Margot you can eat from what ever time suits you. I eat between 12 and 8 but you could do 10-6 or what ever suits you. Drink loads of water it really helps and eat lots of protein. It will get easier but from about 11 I am hungry.
Two floors officially you can only drink black tea and coffee, but I have it with a splash of skimmed milk. I think it's fine as long as you're not having lattes!

Thanks shamoffour
Not sure I can stomach it without a good glug of milk !

This definitely works for me too. If I eat breakfast, it sort of flicks the hungry switch and I end up grazing and nibbling all morning. If I don't eat and just have water or coffee, I don't feel hungry or have cravings and quite easily go through to lunch. I do 16:8, fasting between 8pm and 1pm.

Never used to have breakfast and agree with the remarks above. However, I am forced to eat oats in the morning as I have an aspirin and two other tablets which need to sit on a lined stomach to prevent ulcers and bleeding. However, I found like others that once I started eating hunger pangs followed through the day.

Thanks @shamoffour - might try a banana at 11 tomorrow because I'll probably be eating tea earlier tomorrow as got to take DD to Brownies.

I'm with you @twofloorsup - I can manage not eating all morning but mess with my coffee and I'll get the right hump!

I agree about breakfast waking up the appetite. I also find that if I snack late or have a carby late dinner (after 6.30), I'm so hungry in the morning and have to eat as soon as I can.
If I eat dinner by 6.30, I'm not hungry in the morning and can last easily til about 11.

Margot that's exactly it !
If I don't eat breakfast I don't get another opportunity to eat until at least 2pm so I'm not sure if working my entire shift on an empty stomach would work.
I've done it accidentally a couple of times but permanently I'm not sure.
Although I love the idea.

Twofloorsup - some say that the milk in your morning tea or coffee is enough 'food' to break your fast. Others disagree. I've no idea which is correct, but I've started having green tea in the morning instead of my normal black tea with milk. I don't mind as long as I can still have a 'proper' cup of tea later on. Weirdly, I don't seem to be able to cope with coffee on a very empty stomach - it does funny things to my digestion.

I can drink green tea and red bush without milk so I may give it a try at the weekend. That way if I can't wait til 2:00 it's not going to be so difficult.
I'd like to crack this one but I work as a cook so am around food all morning. I don't eat whilst working anyway it's just ditching the breakfast.

I stopped eating breakfast when I was in high school, so nearly 30 years ago.

I'm just not hungry in the morning, so eating for the sake of eating seems pointless. And like many others, it kick starts my appetite and means I'm hungry again much sooner than when I go without.

I have to wonder where the 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day' even came from.

Eating three meals a day is an incredibly recent phenomenon, in human history terms.

We're meant to feast and famine - that's how our ancestors would've got by. There's no way prehistoric men and women would've risen from their floor beds, wandered through to the kitchen part of the cave, and made breakfast every day. Even as recently as 300 years ago, the vast majority of people would've only dreamt of a regular breakfast every day.

Where has this idea that it's essential come from? The answer is marketing obviously, but how has it come to hold such weight?

Breakfast cereal marketing has a lot to do with it @TheDowager
www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/how-marketers-invented-the-modern-version-of-breakfast/487130/

Interesting article!

Hi. Question to those posting about never having eaten breakfast or at least for the most part; does that mean you are healthy weights and aren't trying to loose?

I need to loose three stone. I can relatively easily go without breakfast and during periods of my life have done so, but that was probably circumstantial. I don't need to loose weight any less now that I did during those times, so that confuses me a bit.

MFP says I should have 1,200c a day to loose. I admit I find that hard too.

I tried 5:2, it's too hard for me. I can do it but even after the third or fourth week I am utterly vile on those fast days. So I'm going back to skipping breakfast.

With the above bit in mind, should I be doing both the calories control and the 16:8? Even maybe for 5 days out of 7?

alabaster I'd say the one will engender the other: you'll simply find it easier to stick to 1200c if you are eating in an 8hr window. I think 16:8ing during the week will be fine - obviously it'll be slower to have weekends "off" than it would to stick at it, but I'm a great believer in doing something you can sustain for a long time - better to lose slower than to start a diet, lose a bit, crack, give it up and then get demoralised for another few months, which is what so, so many people end up doing.

I find that if I eat breakfast it kind of triggers my hunger for the rest of the day. I'm not usually very hungry at breakfast anyway - the longer I can wait to eat the better. I do try to fast 2 days a week too (and only eat dinner).