Potential Benefits of Eating Breakfast

Chances are you’ve heard the phrase, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” 

However, with the rise in popularity of intermittent fasting and many of us not having time to sit down for breakfast in the morning, you may be wondering how important eating breakfast actually is. 

So, let’s take a look at what the research says about this ongoing debate. 

Is Eating Breakfast Important for Weight Loss? 

Observational studies have found that those who regularly eat breakfast tend to have a lower BMI compared to individuals who regularly skip the morning meal. 

However, other studies have also found that those who eat breakfast tend to consume more calories overall during the day. 

So, on one hand, you have research saying that skipping breakfast is associated with having a higher BMI, yet on the other, you have studies saying that eating breakfast may also cause you to consume more calories, which you’d think would mean weight gain and a higher BMI. 

So what’s going on? 

Issues with current research on breakfast and weight 

Let’s first address one of the major difficulties with studying the effect of breakfast on health: consistency. 

What constitutes as “breakfast” varies greatly between studies.

There’s no one breakfast that we all eat. For some, breakfast may consist of eggs and vegetables, while for others, it could mean eating a pastry.

And as a result, not having a consistent definition of “breakfast” between studies makes it hard to compare data. 

Another difficulty with this topic is that a lot of the research is either observational (meaning you can show an association but not prove cause and effect) or it’s a short-duration controlled trial.

Overall, this means that it’s really hard to definitively say what the benefits are or aren’t when it comes to eating breakfast in the long term. 

Let’s talk about the potential reasons why breakfast has been linked with a lower BMI, as well as other possible benefits. 

Potential Benefits of Eating Breakfast

1. Breakfast can provide important nutrients 

Observational studies have found that kids, teens, and adults who regularly skip breakfast are less likely to meet their nutritional needs for the day. 

Now again, it’s important to mention that what you eat for breakfast will play a major role in this. 

If you’re talking about eating a breakfast like a jar of overnight oats, a cup of Greek yogurt with berries, or a slice of avocado toast with an egg, then I’d say it makes sense that eating breakfast would help in meeting your macronutrient and micronutrient needs for the day.

However, if your breakfast is a bakery-style muffin with a cup of coffee, you’re contributing calories but not necessarily many essential nutrients to your day. 

Think of your breakfast as an important opportunity to provide your body with the energy and nutrients it needs to power you through your morning!

2. Eating breakfast has been linked with benefits for heart disease 

Observational studies have also shown a link between skipping breakfast and an increased risk of heart disease. 

One review of 200,000 adults from the U.S. and Japan without heart disease at the beginning of the studies found those who skipped breakfast were 21% more likely to develop heart disease.

Similarly, another review of nearly 300,000 adults also found skipping breakfast to be significantly associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease. 

So why is this? While there are likely many factors at play, skipping breakfast has also been linked with an increased BMI and risk of type 2 diabetes – both of which are risk factors for heart disease. 

Additionally, research also suggests that individuals who regularly eat breakfast tend to be already more health-conscious and physically active, which makes them also less likely to develop heart disease. 

Overall, while breakfast may play a role in heart health, other lifestyle factors are still just as, if not more important.

3. Skipping breakfast may negatively affect your circadian rhythm 

Science has shown that our circadian clocks help to regulate sleep, hormone release, body temperature, blood pressure, and eating behaviors. 

And in 2017, scientists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms that control these circadian rhythms. This area of research is often referred to as chronobiology. 

Chrono-nutrition is a growing area of nutrition research that takes the research of chronobiology to examine how our circadian clocks may be affecting energy balance, metabolism, and weight. 

Essentially, the theory behind chrono-nutrition is that the timing of our meals can greatly affect the natural rhythm in our bodies, which in turn can then affect hormone and insulin levels, appetite, body composition, and weight. 

The studies

For example, one study found that skipping breakfast disrupted natural circadian rhythms in both healthy individuals and those with type 2 diabetes.

And in those with type 2 diabetes, this disruption in circadian rhythm resulted in increased glucose levels and reduced insulin action after breakfast. 

Furthermore, when breakfast was skipped, glucose levels were also higher after lunch than they were on days when breakfast was consumed. 

While it’s just one study, it suggests that skipping breakfast could get your body off rhythm for the rest of the day. Which in turn means that your insulin, appetite, and other hormone levels could also be affected. 

While research is ongoing, chrono-nutrition studies hope to shed light on why several studies have found benefits for weight, appetite, and glycemic control when you eat a greater percentage of your calories at breakfast vs. at dinner.

Some of these studies include: 

• An observational study found that individuals who were obese were significantly more likely to consume the majority of their calories for the day within 1 hour of melatonin onset (which kicks off your body’s biological night phase) compared to lean individuals. 
• A study in women found that when calories were held constant, those who consumed the majority of their calories at breakfast lost more weight and had greater reductions in waist circumference, fasting glucose levels, and insulin levels. They also reported greater feelings of fullness during the day than women consuming a low-calorie breakfast and high-calorie dinner.
• Another study found that people who eat the bulk of their calories in the morning don’t lose more weight than those who eat more calories at night; however, those who ate bigger breakfasts might feel less hungry during the day.
• A crossover study in men found that the rate of energy burning after a meal was twice as high after a high-calorie breakfast compared to a high-calorie dinner. 

However, not all studies have found the timing of meals to make a significant difference in weight outcomes.

While a 2017 review of controlled trials did find an overall trend for higher BMI and large evening meals, the relationship was not significant. 

So what does this mean for you?

Overall, much more research is needed to assess how the timing of our meals could affect our hunger hormones, insulin levels, and weight. 

Of course, it’s also important to consider socially what this means as well. For some, eating a big breakfast and a small dinner may not be realistic due to work schedules or social commitments. 

However, if it is feasible and you feel like your weight isn’t budging, it could be a good experiment to try to eat a bigger breakfast and smaller dinner for a month and see if it helps. 

What About Intermittent Fasting? 

There are many different versions of intermittent fasting, with time-restricted feeding being one of the most popular.

While you can read more about it in our previous post, with time-restricted eating, you only have a small eating window during the day. 

While the exact number of hours varies by diet plan, a common form of time-restricted eating is to allow calorie intake for 8 hours of the day (say from 10 am to 6 pm) and then fasting for the remaining 16 hours. 

Oftentimes, the feeding window is later in the day, meaning that breakfast is often skipped. 

While time-restricted feeding has been linked with benefits for glycemic control and weight, there’s a growing interest as to whether early time-restricted feeding in which dinner, rather than breakfast, is skipped could have even greater benefits. 

One study did find that early time-restricted feeding (with an eating window of 8 am to 2 pm) did result in a significant increase in fat burning, lower levels of ghrelin (a hunger-promoting hormone), increased feelings of fullness throughout the day, and an overall reduced desire to eat. 

However, the study only compared early time-restricted feeding to a more typical, 12-hour eating day rather than a late time-restricted feeding pattern.

As a result, it’s hard to say if these benefits were due only to time-restricted feeding or if the timing of the eating window also played a role.

Still, while we’re waiting for more studies to come out, if you are a fan of time-restricted feeding, it may be worth experimenting with moving your eating window earlier to see if you notice any differences. 

What You Eat Is Also Important  

Before we get to the bottom line, I also want to throw out there that even if eating breakfast is important for maintaining an optimal internal clock, what you eat is still important for overall health. 

Eating a bowl of sugary cereal or a pastry every morning is not the same as having a bowl of oatmeal with fruit or scrambled eggs with vegetables. 

As discussed in a previous post, research has shown that eating a high-protein breakfast is linked with an increase in lean body mass, improved weight loss, and reduced cravings throughout the day. 

The Bottom Line 

There’s still a lot we don’t know about the role of breakfast in overall health and weight loss. 

However, research suggests that eating breakfast can be an important source of nutrients and may help keep the natural ebbs and flows of our hormone levels and appetite on track. 

Plus, it can help give you energy to power through your morning.

Still, while breakfast may be helpful for weight loss and metabolic health, that doesn’t mean we should all sit down to a big stack of pancakes and bacon every morning. 

In fact, breakfast doesn’t have to be a big meal at all. It could simply be a plain Greek yogurt with fresh fruit and nuts or a hard-boiled egg and a piece of fruit.

The key is focusing on including a source of protein, healthy fats, and fiber. 

Eat most of your calories at night? If realistic for your lifestyle, it may be worth shifting your calorie intake to earlier in the day for a few weeks to see if it makes a noticeable difference. 

And don’t forget to use your Lose It! App to help keep track of when and what you’re eating during the day!