Fat For Breakfast

Association between skipping breakfast in parents and children and childhood overweight/obesity among children: a nationwide 10.5-year prospective study in Japan

I learned of this study from episode 494 of Iron Radio.

So, basically, what I want to say is, they've got the association flipped. People do not get fat because they don't eat breakfast. They tend to stop eating breakfast as they get fat. Why?

Sleep is a period of fasting. If you have an excessive number of calories stored, your body will liberate some of that fat and burn it for fuel. You will awake less hungry than your skinny little next door neighbor. The neighbor has fat stores too, because the body always wants some fat stores, the difference is in degree. Thus, the neighbor is more strongly urged, via hunger and cortisol, to go find food, while you may not find yourself hungry for a while.

This is a piece of the puzzle I learned back in my fat loss days- don't eat when you are not hungry. A lot of these breakfast studies, as well as some of the circadian rhythm studies tend to encourage people to draw conclusions, which basically come down to getting people to eat breakfast, eat most calories earlier in the day, etc...

No. Lose the weight first, then do those things.

Depending on what you eat, if you eat breakfast, you'll probably be hungry again more quickly. If you wait until you genuinely feel hunger, and then eat something (preferably low-carb) you've burned fat the whole time you haven't eaten, you've shortened the window in which you will be eating, and you've reduced the likelihood that you will increase hunger.

It isn't just calories, or carbs that you need to worry about, but the interplay of flavor profile and calorie/nutrition payload. The reason processed food is so fattening is that it is a consistent flavor and a consistent payload. Although it is a simplification, generally speaking- more flavor equals more hunger.

But, again, this changes. As you become successful, you become hungry in the morning because you no longer have as many fat stores. If you are successful you'll probably catch yourself trying not to eat- trying to keep the habit that made you successful. It is important to be aware of the need to change- and this is were I think these breakfast stories are useful- yes, the healthier, thinner people eat breakfast- they have to. It is very likely that you will have to too, once you are thin, because you won't have all those extra calories around your waist.