Eating breakfast is something that I absolutely dread to do. Although, speculations are such that having breakfast can lead to weight loss and is therefore recommended. Despite growing up hearing the same old saying, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," I have always decided to rebel against it and leave home without eating anything in the morning. The reason partly being that I'm not a morning person but am still trying to pursue that classic route.
Nowadays, when my hypothalamus signals my stomach to undergo some type of "hunger game," I resort to eating a granola bar or some saltine crackers before leaving for work or class. However, some days I still stick to my lifelong routine of not eating breakfast in the morning if the "hunger hormone," Ghrelin does not kick into my system.
The conventional saying and nutritional guideline, "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper" goes a long way. Nevertheless, I'm someone who reverses this protocol to something more like "Eat breakfast like a pauper, lunch like a king, and dinner like a prince."
But to my pleasant surprise, there is absolutely nothing completely unhealthy or wrong about my mantra. In fact, a recent study led by Dr. Flavia Cicuttini, professor of Epidemiology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia published by BMJ revealed that eating breakfast does not necessarily lead to weight loss and it is not mandatory for everyone to eat breakfast if they don't feel hungry. This scintillating scientific breakthrough truly made my day as it further reaffirmed my rationale behind skipping breakfast as something slightly beneficial to the human body.
Moreover, their main objective was to underpin the correlation between breakfast consumption on body mass and metabolism in people from high-income countries focusing primarily on the U.S. and UK. In addition, their study was implemented by analyzing the data and results from 13 clinical trials distinguishing breakfast-eaters and non-breakfast eaters.
As a matter of fact, their study concluded that eating breakfast is not directly related to weight loss and skipping breakfast does not necessarily lead to weight gain. In other words, people are prone to consuming most of their calories while having breakfast thus leading to increased weight gain.
So is it really OK to not eat breakfast every day if you are not hungry? As long as you are able to eat when your "hunger hormone" tells you to, you should be good to go! Essentially, the ideal way to lead a healthy and balanced lifestyle is to keep constant track of how many calories you consume in a single day and to actively follow a diet chart in order to lose or even maintain constant body weight.
Ultimately, you are the only person in full control of your appetite and can best decide when to eat heavily and when to not. To all breakfast-eaters, strive to balance your calories throughout the day instead of always eating breakfast like a king!
