It is impossible to overstate the importance of a healthy breakfast when it comes to losing weight. The right breakfast will give you the energy you need to take on the day, power through your workouts, and burn calories to shed those extra pounds. However, “correct” is the operative word here; Not all breakfasts are created equal, and there are some bad breakfast habits that could be slowing down your metabolism and keeping you from reaching your goal weight.
To learn more about why breakfast is crucial to your overall health, and to discover some of the worst, metabolism-Decreasing breakfast mistakes, we spoke with a nutrition expert. Anastasia Gialouris, MS, RD, CDN. She told us that you should never skip breakfast or protein. Find all of her perspective below!
1. Skipping breakfast
Although you may think that eat as little as possible is the best way to lose weight, Gialouris tells us that this is far from the truth. It turns out that one of the worst things you can do for your metabolism is to skip breakfast altogether. Your body goes a long time without eating when you sleep at night, which means you need to nourish it when you wake up.
“Your metabolism has been resting all night and is already low when you wake up from the lack of work it had to do in the hours before, when it didn’t have to digest any new food coming in,” explains Gialouris. “So, eating breakfast can jump-start your metabolism and get it going again. On the other hand, if you skip breakfast, your body stays in this ‘fasting’ state, causing your metabolism to slow down due to lack of energy.” stimulus (also known as food)”. Oh! This is just one of the many reasons why starting your morning with a hearty, nutritious meal that can keep you satiated and energized throughout the day is a crucial healthy habit, especially when it comes to losing weight.
2. Not eating enough protein
Well, you promise to eat breakfast every morning. It’s a great start, but it’s only half the battle. It is vital that you choose the foods you eat wisely; Well balanced meals are crucial to your weight loss journey. “Another habit that may be affecting your metabolism is eating an unbalanced breakfast, specifically one that is low in protein,” Gialouris tells us. In fact, eating a proteinBreakfast on the go is one of the best things you can do to speed up your metabolism. “Protein not only contributes to satiety (also known as feeling full after a meal), but it can also increase your body’s ability to burn calories, more so than carbohydrates and fat,” she says. “This is due to something called the ‘thermic effect of food,’ or TEF, which is a slight increase in metabolic rate after ingestion of food.”
How does that work exactly? Gialouris gives us a summary: “When you eat, your body must expend some energy (ie, burn calories) to digest, absorb, and store the nutrients in the food you just ate.” And when it comes to high-TEF foods, protein is best. For this reason, Gialouris says that “including a source of protein at breakfast, such as eggs, yogurt, nuts, to name a few, can help speed up metabolism.” Perfect!
The bottom line
Whether or not breakfast is the most important meal of the day, there’s no denying that it’s extremely important, especially if you’re trying to keep your metabolism high and lose a few pounds. So, make sure you always give your body the food it needs in the morning, and make sure you always add a little protein to the mix!
