Vegetarian Weight LossWhy Skipping Breakfast Cannot Lose Weight?
I used to believe skipping breakfast can help me lose more weight. I was wrong.
You'll only gain more weight by skipping breakfast. Why?
Studies show that people who eat a healthy breakfast control their weight better by choosing healthier food and keeping up their metabolism, gain better concentration and become more productive throughout the day.
Why is breakfast so important?
Let's say your dinner ends at 8 pm and you go to bed at 11 pm without eating anything else. Next morning, after you wake up at 7 am, you don't have the appetite yet so you decide to skip breakfast and plan to eat at lunchtime. You practically leave your body without fuel for more than 12 hours.
"But isn't the food I ate for dinner last night going to last me till lunchtime?"
Fat chance it will. Even while you sleep, your body still burns calories for various bodily functions like breathing, digesting, perspiring, heart beating and dreaming. Hence, it uses up your blood sugar which then drops to all-time low when you wake up.
Skipping breakfast causes your metabolism to slow down and your blood sugar to drop further. By 10:30 am, you start to feel light-headed, moody and irritable while trying to concentrate on your tasks and fighting off the rumbling in your stomach.
Your willpower becomes extremely vulnerable at this point. And you succumb to any food that comes along (usually the unhealthy kinds) and wolf them down without a second thought. Even if you manage to hang on till lunch, you tend to over-indulge as you're starving.
You end up overloading too much calories than you need for the day, which eventually turns into fat. That's why most people who skip breakfast wind up becoming even heavier than before.
What makes up a healthy breakfast?
Well, it should provide you with at least 1/3 of your daily needs, consisting of essential nutrients like complex carbohydrates, proteins, a little fat, fiber, minerals and vitamins.
Complex carbs - Whole grains such as a bowl of wholegrain cereals or oatmeal, whole-grain rolls or bagels, low-fat bran muffins, crackers or whole wheat toast.
Proteins - Peanut butter, soy milk, tofu, black beans, lentils, quinoa etc.
Vitamins and minerals - fruits and vegetables, preferably organic. Once you manage to eat one or two servings at breakfast, you'll find it easier to fulfill your recommended intake for the rest of the day.
Fiber - Milled flaxseeds, fruits and vegetables provide plenty of fiber.
Make your breakfast interesting by trying out a variety of foods within each food group. Running out of ideas?
Then grab some good recipe books like Fat Loss Veggie Diet (which includes 250 over recipes) to learn how to whip up different delicious yet nutritious, high-energy meals for your breakfast so you won't feel bored having to eat the same stuff every morning. More importantly, you'll lose weight when you don't skip breakfast anymore.
