Breakfast is often referred to as the most important meal of the day, and for good reason. It serves as the first source of energy after a night of fasting, helping to kickstart your metabolism and set the tone for your day. A wholesome, protein-rich breakfast is also known to promote weight loss. Eating breakfast can boost your metabolism, regulate hunger hormones and support healthy eating patterns. However, Vivek Rajpoot, a social media user who lost 20 kg in six months, claims that he has not eaten breakfast in the past six months. He says that this change has contributed to his weight loss journey.

Skipping breakfast for weight loss: Is it safe?

Along with weight loss, Vivek claims that this habit has helped him maintain healthy cholesterol levels, reduce fatty liver, and improve other health indicators.

In an Instagram video, he revealed that he consumes only two meals a day: one around 2 PM and the other around 8 PM. "For the last 6 months, I've been focusing on better nutrition, a healthy lifestyle, workouts, intermittent fasting, and improving my overall health," he wrote in the caption of the video.

Skipping breakfast is not the magic fix

Skipping breakfast is not the ultimate formula for weight loss, as its effectiveness depends entirely on your overall daily calorie intake. While it can reduce overall calorie intake throughout the day, in most cases it has no effect or can backfire by causing intense hunger, leading to overeating later in the day.

How skipping breakfast can backfire

  • Intense cravings

When you skip your morning meal, your blood sugar levels may drop sharply, leading to intense cravings later in the day. This often results in reaching for quick energy sources that are typically high in carbohydrates and sugars, such as snacks or fried foods. These choices can derail your healthy eating intentions and contribute to increased calorie intake.

  • Overeating at lunch

Missing breakfast can lead to extreme hunger by the time you reach lunch. This intense hunger may impair your decision-making abilities, making it more likely that you'll overeat. You might find yourself consuming much larger portions than you normally would, which can easily negate any calorie deficit you might have aimed to create.

  • Unfavourable metabolic shifts

Skipping breakfast could lead to negative metabolic changes. It can disrupt your body's regular hunger signals and may affect insulin sensitivity, making it harder to manage weight effectively. When your metabolism is thrown off, it may lead to increased fat storage rather than fat burning.

Also read: Man Ate 7 Whole Eggs Every Day: Here's What It Did To His Cholesterol, Doctors React

For those doing intermittent fasting, skipping breakfast might help

It is very common to skip breakfast while doing intermittent fasting (IF) for weight loss. In fact, skipping breakfast is the foundational mechanism of the popular 16:8 method, where you fast for 16 hours, usually from 8:00 PM to 12:00 PM the next day, and eat all your meals during an 8-hour window in the afternoon and evening.

While skipping breakfast works well with this fasting schedule, its success still depends on how you manage your eating window.

How it works for intermittent fasting

  • By skipping breakfast, you maintain lower insulin levels in your body for an extended period. This prompts your body to transition from using dietary glucose to tapping into stored body fat for energy.
  • Eating all your daily meals in just two sittings, lunch and dinner, along with a snack, makes it simpler to maintain a calorie deficit without experiencing a significant sense of deprivation.

When to adjust your fasting window

Intermittent fasting doesn't have to mean skipping breakfast. If you experience any of the following, you should consider shifting your eating window to an earlier time:

1. You wake up feeling extremely hungry, or you suffer from morning dizziness, headaches, or severe brain fog.

2. You prefer to engage in heavy, high-intensity workouts early in the morning and find that you lack the strength to train on an empty stomach.

3. Your work or lifestyle demands peak mental alertness before noon, and fasting is negatively affecting your focus.

Ultimately, weight loss depends on maintaining a consistent calorie deficit. If skipping breakfast leaves you feeling energised and helps you eat less overall, it can be a useful tool. If it leaves you starving, cranky, and binging by lunchtime, you are much better off eating a high-protein, high-fibre breakfast to keep your appetite stable.



Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.