For years I told people that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. I published the advice in three books, referenced the smartest minds in nutrition, and the tip was generally accepted as “the right thing to do” for your health.
Turns out “the right thing” really depends on whether you want to eat early in the morning. Two recent studies found that eating breakfast has no direct impact on weight loss. We’re not talking observational studies—this was a direct comparison of an early meal versus no early meal. The results had a simple message:
“From a physiological perspective, there’s nothing special about eating early in the mornings and triggering weight loss.”
In one of the studies, which looked at more than 300 people, participants were split into two groups. One ate breakfast and the other did not. While there were some small differences, the bottom line was that there was no significant difference in weight loss between the breakfast eaters and the breakfast skippers. In fact, both groups lost weight, and this occurred without the researchers telling participants what to eat (or not eat) for breakfast.
Believing that one meal is the foundation of success can be detrimental to your healthy-living goals.
If there’s one thing that needs to be understood, it’s this: breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. But neither is lunch, dinner, or snacks. This isn’t meant to be puzzling or a letdown to those of …