Top Breakfast Myths – Debunked!

The belief that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is now a thing of the past, as mounting research continues to support the benefits of intermittent fasting, a dietary pattern that promotes longer bouts of fasting by limiting your food intake to a specific timeframe.

Here are some common breakfast misconceptions that were proven incorrect by a study from the University of Alabama, Birmingham:

• Eating breakfast helps you lose weight – In an effort to find out whether eating or not eating breakfast truly had an impact on weight loss, researchers divided 309 overweight and obese but otherwise healthy adults into two random groups. Some were told to eat breakfast, while the others were told to skip it. After 16 weeks, the researchers found no difference in weight loss between the groups. 
  
  In essence, it didn't matter if they ate breakfast or not. However, it's important to note that they didn't control the food intake of the participants involved. The reason why there may be no significant weight loss between the two groups is that all of them may have been eating a standard American diet – refined carbs and processed fructose – which hinders your body from effectively burning fat.
• Eating breakfast improves your metabolism – In an article by Time magazine, it was revealed that eating your breakfast regularly does not improve your metabolism. Disputing the previous notion that eating breakfast will actually prevent you from overeating later in the day because their metabolism was boosted earlier, many people find that eating breakfast leads to feeling hungry again soon afterwards, which can lead to unnecessary snacking.
  
  Again, this may have something to do with the type of food the participants in the said study were eating. Typically, you will find that eating a carbohydrate-rich breakfast will make you hungry again far sooner than a low-carb, high-fat breakfast will. The reason for this is that if your body is using sugar as its primary fuel, it will need a "refill" at regular intervals, as sugar is a very fast-burning fuel.