We’re partial to breakfast at the BKFST club, and for good reason. There’s been so much back and forth on breakfast in the past few years- is it good for you, does it make you hungrier all day, would it be better to skip breakfast and go straight to lunch? Does working out fasted aid in fat loss? All of these questions have been swirling around the last decade. But what hasn’t changed is the basic needs of female physiology. And according to that data, you still need breakfast, and it’s still the most important meal of the day.
Breakfast is subjective but its effects are objective.
Do you like smoothies, or oatmeal? Eggs or toast? Everyone has a different, and usually extremely specific, preference. And what’s great is that all of those options can fit into a breakfast that works FOR you rather than AGAINST you. (Now, if you’re dealing with an extenuating health circumstance such as PCOS or obesity, extended fasts may be beneficial to you- with the supervision of a professional.)
Metabolically, studies show that everyone across the board exerts less energy in the morning when remaining in a fasted state as opposed to breaking the fast. Another meta analysis showed that regularly skipping breakfast was, in fact, correlated with overweight and obesity.
But let’s take it a step further....
Women are more in need of breakfast due to the evolutionary purposes of their physiology- the ability to create life. Women in their reproductive years have an innate need for calories to signal to the hypothalamus that they are not stressed, and have enough sustenance to provide not only for themselves but their potential offspring. Further, when in the luteal phase, after the possibility of pregnancy has passed, all energy goes to tissue building (the endometrial lining) and if you’re not providing energy (calories) the body will hold onto and use everything it has. The catch- this is rarely fat burning but more likely free fatty acids and muscle glycogen. Your body will start breaking down muscle for energy.
That’s a thick concept to wrap your mind around. But all that to say- breakfast is still #1. Especially for the girls.
So let’s make breakfast a thing. If you want some help figuring out what to eat and when to eat it in support of your goals, book your free session now.
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CITATIONS
Betts JA, Chowdhury EA, Gonzalez JT, Richardson JD, Tsintzas K, Thompson D. Is breakfast the most important meal of the day? Proc Nutr Soc. 2016 Nov;75(4):464- 474. doi: 10.1017/S0029665116000318. Epub 2016 Jun 13. PMID: 27292940.
Ma X, Chen Q, Pu Y,
Guo M, Jiang Z, Huang W, Long Y, Xu Y. Skipping breakfast is associated with overweight and obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Res Clin Pract. 2020 Jan-Feb;14(1):1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.orcp.2019.12.002. Epub 2020 Jan 7. PMID: 31918985.
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