One of the biggest mistakes that people who are trying to lose weight make is by skipping meals. They think that by missing out on a meal they are reducing their calorie intake. Whilst in some cases this may technically be true, the overall picture is that skipping meals is not the way to lose weight.
The most popular meal to skip is breakfast. People think that if they don't have breakfast and start to eat at lunchtime then they've got all their calories left for the day and less time in which to consume them - therefore chances are they'll eat below what they're entitled to and so lose weight faster. As logical as that sounds, it doesn't work that way. One reason for this is that you are so hungry by the time you do eat that you are more likely to make unhealthy food choices rather than healthy ones. But the main reason is that skipping breakfast means you miss out on 5 hours of fat burning time. Your metabolism slows down overnight because there's no food going in, breakfast is a kick-start to the metabolism, a reminder for it to get moving. If you don't eat breakfast, then your metabolism is going to continue to "sleep" and not engage in its normal fat burning activity until you wake it up at lunch-time.
Breakfast time is usually one of the most chaotic times of day, especially if you have a family with school age children or younger. However by not sitting down and spending just a few moments to eat a healthy breakfast, then you are preventing your body from getting a good start on its fat burning day. Not to mention the fact that you are sending an unhealthy message to your children about the importance of breakfast to a healthy eating lifestyle.
Another reason to eat breakfast is to keep your blood sugar levels at a healthy level. Failure to eat at breakfast time can result in having an attack of the munchies mid morning because you feel sluggish and need a "sugar boost". It's likely that you're in the middle of something at work when this hits and so will grab whatever's at hand - usually some kind of empty nutrition item that will give you the immediate sugar rush that you need to get through until lunch-time but nutritionally will do nothing for either your body, or the healthy eating plan you're trying to follow.
So plan ahead. Identify something to eat that's easy to prepare, easy to eat and is nutrition-rich, and put this on your grocery shopping list. Make sure that you get up in time to eat breakfast before you start your day, even if you have to get up 10 minutes earlier than you do now. It'll be worth it in the long run because you'll find that those 5 fat burning hours between your 8am breakfast and 1pm lunch will make a massive difference in your weight loss efforts.
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