Why Breakfast May Be The Most Important Meal Of The Day

As a personal trainer in Balaclava, one of the most common conversations I have with clients is about breakfast. If you are trying to optimise your weight loss, muscle gains, as well as your physical and mental performance throughout the day, a very simple yet overlooked factor may be to just start eating a good breakfast every morning. Breakfast was given its name because you are literally "breaking the fast" from the last 8 or so hours you have been sleeping. This is the reason it's often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Let me just state clearly that for the purpose of this article, breakfast is counted as the meal you eat within 45 minutes of getting up in the morning, breakfast is not counted as just the first meal of the day.

I have touched before on meal frequency and its importance in maintaining or losing body fat, that when your body goes for too long without food, your metabolism slows down in an effort to preserve the fat and muscle on your body. Whilst the preservation of muscle may sound pretty good, unfortunately it will be the first to go when starving yourself so you will be left with a higher ratio of fat to muscle in the end, which is not what we want. After not eating for 8 hours or longer, it is very important to eat a meal to get your metabolism kick started for the day and to also provide your body with the much needed nutrients it requires after so long a gap since you last fed yourself. It has also been shown that individuals who eat breakfast in the morning are also far less likely to over eat throughout the day and less inclined to snack on 'junk' food.

If you workout, eating breakfast will also help with this, as this requires energy. The higher your energy levels the more intensity you can put into your workouts and the more effective they will be. If you are going to the gym and doing a workout after not eating for maybe 8-10 hours because you haven't had breakfast, then it is a certainty you are not optimising you performance and getting the best out of yourself. Along with the physical energy you will get, people who eat breakfast are more mentally alert as well, and this cannot hurt at all!

When we are trying to lose or maintain low levels of body fat, speeding up our metabolism, cutting out unhealthy snacks, increased energy and having effective, efficient workouts are obviously a necessity, which can all be helped along by the very simple and often very enjoying little process of eating breakfast.

Some good ideas for what to include in a good breakfast:

- Fruit free muesli + protein shake
- Oat bran + protein shake
- Eggs + veggies
- Lean meat
- Fruit + protein shake
- Veggies + protein shake

(+ 2 or 3 fish oil capsules with any breakfast)

It is good to always eat some sort of fruit and veggies, as well as a good mix of protein, carbohydrates and good fats. What gives you the most energy and makes you feel the best may not be the same as somebody else which is why it is good to try out a few different things and go with what works best for you, however stick to the general guidelines as mentioned above.

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