how does eating breakfast in the morning will help me lose weight?

Question

ive never understood this. if i eat breakfast im putting in more calories than when i dont eat breakfast. if i have 300 calories for breakfast, the only calories ill lose from exercising is the calories i just put it. i dont see how im going to lose weight by doing this. can someone please explain this to me?

Answer 1

The answer is that it gets your metabolism going. The body is kind of like an engine. When you put in food, the metabolism gets going and stays up until it has been fully digested. If you wait too long in between meals, your body starts to idle and goes into starvation mode. When this happens your body thinks that it is going to be a while in between meals so the next time you eat it tries to hold onto everything it possibly can (i.e. more fat storage). The best way to keep your engine running at a high pace all day is to eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day.

Also, regarding the calories-exercise portion of your question. Your body is constantly burning calories. When you wake up in the morning and haven't eaten anything, your body is burning fewer calories than it will at any other point in the day because it has entered starvation mode over night. Exercise actually makes up the smallest portion of the calories that a person burns during the day. Your resting metabolic rate makes up the largest (this is the amount your body burns just to survive) and other daily activities (walking around, typing, digesting food, reading, watching TV, etc.) make up the second largest chunk of calories.

Don't focus on burning off what you have eaten via exercise because exercise makes up such a small portion. Your best bet is just to focus on getting 30-45 minutes of exercise during the day and eating small, healthy meals 5-6 times a day. This will help your body feel satisfied and keep your metabolism up all day. Comfortable weight loss comes from eating slightly fewer calories than your body needs. By eating small healthy meals during the day, you should not feel hungry.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Your body fasts during the night going normally 8 to 10 hours without nourishment. Eating breakfast boosts the metabolism and sort of kick starts your body to begin burning calories again. Eating 6 small meals a day boosts the metabolism further and thus when you exercise or remain active your body burns more calories because you've fueled it all day and it hasn't gone into a fasting state where it stops burning calories.

When you eat breakfast in the morning, try exercising first...do so at a rate that gets your heart pumping, then wait 40 minutes to eat and eat a healthy breakfast then eat the smaller meals (includes fruits/salads only for 2-3 of these meals, considered snacks). You'll soon find yourself losing weight at a healthy rate, about 2-3 lbs per week. Since doing this, I've lost about 15lbs and have about 5 more to go to get to my ideal weight.

Good luck

Answer 4

It isn't an immidiate thing - over time it will boost your metabolism and help you burn calories more efficiently. Weight loss is a tricky thing.

In November I decided that I needed to lose 15 lbs. I went to the doctor yesterday and he said that since Nov. I have lost 30 lbs - I had no idea! It's all about what you eat and how you work out. All I've been doing is eating in moderation (maybe only half of my meal instead of all of it) and walking for 45 minutes after work. It also took a few months to get started. The first few months I was discouraged because I hadn't lost anything and my pants were still fitting the same - but after 2 months of eating right and walking the weight started to come off - and FAST

Answer 5

Eating breakfast in the morning, alone does not necessarily help you to lose weight, but eating at least 3 meals a day does.

When you skip meals, it slows your metabolism and can even cause you to go into starvation mode, which means that your body will store anything that it is fed once you do eat.

Eating 3 well balanced meals and healthy snacks in between keeps your metabolism at a healthy rate and your body will learn to digest the food better.

Eating breakfast is also good for your brain, especially if you are in school, it helps you to think better.

Answer 6

The body is ideally supposed to get 5 small meals at evenly-spaced times a day. This means that your hormones and body sugars will go high and low in a nice, gentle cycle (like waves) at predicted times.

Whenever you suddenly eat a lot after not eating, it really messes up your body. If you do this all the time for many years, it can lead to obesity.

Eating breakfast means that you give your body some food after a long night's fast. It's much better to help the body at breakfast rather than starving it even further until lunchtime, when it gets really desperate for food (that's bad). Breakfast is the 'spacer' of calories that you want to start out with when you wake up, it helps the body maintain small amounts of food, not sucking up a ton of food later.

Answer 7

Your brain (and central nervous system) run on glucose — that's the fuel you need to think, walk, talk, and carry on any and all activities. Let's say that the last time you eat something at night is at 10 or 11 PM (not optimal, just an example). The following day, you don't eat breakfast but wait until about noon or so to eat — you've gone thirteen or fourteen hours with nothing in your system. Your poor brain is surely deprived — and your body has to work extra hard to break down any stored carbohydrate or turn fat or protein into a usable form for your brain to function. That's a lot to ask for when you're sitting in a classroom, trying to concentrate on reading, or doing any other work. Eating breakfast has been proven (many times) to improve concentration, problem solving ability, mental performance, memory, and mood. You will certainly be at a disadvantage if your classmates have eaten breakfast and you've gone without. On average, they will think faster and clearer, and will have better recall than you. School or work can be tough enough without this extra added pressure.

Breakfast skippers also have a harder time fitting important nutrients into their diet. Many foods eaten at breakfast contain significant amounts of vitamins C and D, calcium, iron, and fiber.

Some people believe that skipping breakfast may help them lose weight. Not so! Skipping meals often leads to overeating later in the day. Becoming overhungry often leads to a lack of control and distorted satiety signals (meaning it's hard to determine when you're full). This can result in taking in more calories than if one had an appropriate breakfast. As a matter of fact, it's easier to control one's weight by eating smaller meals and snacks more frequently. (post from http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/1483.html. Go to link for full article)

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I thought this was a great explaination. I know from experience that skipping breakfast is not good for the long term. I now stuggle with losing weight because of skipping breakfast (lunch sometimes too) when I was teenager. It slowed down my metabolism which makes it harder for me to burn calories. So do yourself a favor, don't skip breakfast. Make it the MOST important meal of the day. :)

Answer 8

Eating breakfast is key to getting your body nutrients at the start of the day. Too many people are eating the wrong things for breakfast like donuts and other kinds of junk food instead of opting for a piece of fruit or muffin or even a bowl of cereal. If you see people looking sluggish then you know they ate the wrong thing for breakfast. I would eat fruit and try to limit your breakfast to a small amount of cooked food and cut out the junk food like danishes and donuts and drinking fruit juice and no pop since I see a lot of pop being consumed early in the AM and by lunchtime folks are sluggish and sleepy. Also you can consider a nutritional drink like boost or ensure to keep midmorning hunger down since people tend to overeat when they eat the wrong things in the morning because your body starts getting hungry before lunch because it's not nurished and getting the nutrition the body needs to be healthy.

Answer 9

Your body is like a furnace ... You need to stoke it to get it fired up so it burns efficiently all throughout the day... Breakfast is the meal that does this. That's why you can eat more calories at breakfast than virtually any other meal. It billows up your metabolism and keeps it at a steady burn through the day... When you sleep your metabolism slows too , the whole body regenerates during sleep. Breakfast wakes it up and gets it rolling again....

Answer 10

Breakfast is the most important meal. Our bodies are still on "caveman" time. What is supposed to be good, is to exercise before eating breakfast. Then eat a good breakfast. Personally, I think that for lunch we're supposed to have a light snack but it got turned into this HUGE meal--don't eat a lot of lunch! Supper isn't supposed to be big, but bigger than you're lunch. If to lose weight, exercise after supper. I've also heard that we're supposed to eat like a king in morning--prince in afternoon--and a pauper at night.