You’ve heard it before. Your mother told you, your doctor told you, and you have investigated it yourself. You may believe what you read, but how much difference does having breakfast REALLY make? I’ll tell you!

If you were planning strategies on how to GAIN weight, I would tell you to definitely skip breakfast! This will prevent your body from speeding up its metabolic function. You should keep it as low as possible to conserve all your precious fat stores. You’d do what sumo wrestlers do: eat a big meal before bed and skip breakfast in the morning. Then you would exercise / work out and develop a strong appetite for lunch while keeping your metabolic rate as low as possible. Now eat a large meal followed by a period of relative inactivity. Save those calories! You may eventually exercise again (or maybe for the first time of the day) and of course eventually follow it up with a big heavy meal and then sleep. Nice job! You are rising in the world of sumo.

Not what you are looking for? Then take this seriously. It is true that eating breakfast will help you lose weight and not regain it. It is one of the 2 most important practices to be a successful loser. (the other is regular exercise). So:

1. It takes your body back from “fasting” mode to “abundance” mode. During fasting (sleep) mode, you are operating at your lowest metabolic rate of the day. His breathing slows down, his body temperature drops, and he doesn’t move much. In the morning, unless you give your body some new fuel, your body assumes that it must now operate under fasting conditions, as if it were in a famine. Intellectually, you may know that there is a lot of food to eat, but on a biological level, your body is functioning as if it doesn’t know when the food will arrive, and you better do your best to conserve your resources. Remember, the success of a living organism is measured by its ability to survive in times of scarcity and under adverse conditions, not by how lean it can be!
2. Increase your physical and mental energy. It’s true. When you’ve eaten, you’ll signal your “engines” to rev and you’ll have more energy. As a result, you will move more even if it is to run, run errands, work around the house or exercise. As a result, you will maintain your muscle mass more effectively and, as we all know, it is muscle that burns fat, 24/7! Your thinking will also be clearer and more focused.
3. It will control your appetite. For some people, eating breakfast right off the bat will give them more energy, curb their appetite throughout the day, and give them more energy. Eating the right breakfast will raise your blood sugar levels, although not too fast, and is low enough on the glycemic scale that you don’t experience a drop in blood sugar after an hour or two.

For some people, eating in the morning will make them feel hungrier during the day or make them sleepy and exhausted, or both. I used to be one of these people! I cannot stress enough how important it is to eat the right breakfast. People are different. They have different activity levels, different metabolic types, different food sensitivities, and different lifestyles. Finding the right formula for breakfast may take a bit of effort. After all, we didn’t come with instruction manuals. With a little trial and error, and maybe a little help, it is possible to find a breakfast solution that works for you.