According to Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., “Research suggests that regularly eating a healthy breakfast may help you lose excess weight and maintain your weight loss in the following ways:
- Reduced hunger. Eating breakfast may reduce your hunger later in the day, which may make it easier to avoid overeating. When you skip breakfast, you may feel ravenous later and be tempted to reach for a quick fix — such as vending machine candy or doughnuts. In addition, the prolonged fasting that occurs when you skip breakfast can increase your body’s insulin response, which in turn increases fat storage and weight gain.
- Healthy choices. Eating breakfast may get you on track to make healthy choices all day. People who eat breakfast tend to eat a healthier overall diet, one that is more nutritious and lower in fat. In contrast, people who skip breakfast are more likely to skip fruits and vegetables the rest of the day, too.
- More energy. A healthy breakfast refuels your body and replenishes the glycogen stores that supply your muscles with immediate energy. Routinely skipping breakfast is associated with decreased physical activity.
So, if you skip breakfast — whether you’re trying to save time or cut calories — you may want to reconsider, especially if you’re trying to eat a healthy diet and manage your weight.”
✔ Do you have a love-hate relationship with breakfast?
✔ Does the idea of breakfast make your stomach turn?
✔ Does your “breakfast menu” look more like the “dessert menu”?
✔ Does the word “Coffee” call to mind mountainous clouds of whipped cream or flavors you’d find in your Thanksgiving pie?
If you answered YES to any of these questions then read on about Three Must-Eat Breakfast Foods to Help Promote Fat Loss:
We’ve probably heard it a hundred times, YES, “Protein” is supposed to help us lose weight, but how is that supposed to happen exactly?
Eating protein at each meal helps in several ways:
- It regulates your blood sugar by slowing the emptying time of your stomach (Yup! Proteins take longer to digest
- It increases your metabolic rate, that is, it takes energy aka “calories” to digest Proteins. Research performed at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center found that those who noshed on normal- and high- protein diets (15 and 25 percent, respectively) stored 45 percent of the excess calories as muscle, while those on the low-protein diet (five percent) stored 95 percent of the excess calories as fat.
- It makes you feel fuller longer, so you’re less likely to overeat.
How does knowing all this affect YOU?
Well, for starters, regularly consuming more Protein at breakfast can help you not only start your day out on the right foot, it can supply your body with the amino acids it needs to help promote muscle growth. And if you didn’t know it already, because muscles are metabolically active, they themselves burn calories just by existing!
So let’s talk about some yummy foods that can help you start your day off on the right foot!
Breakfast Food #1: Eggs
Yes, eggs are the “quintessential” breakfast food and for good reason!
While egg whites are mostly a cholesterol-free source of protein, the yolks are the real nutritional powerhouses! The yolks of an egg are the “food source” for growing chicks (it’s not the chicks themselves) and well, if yolk can grow baby chicks, it does even more for people! Yolks contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and healthy fats.
Eggs have been shown to help you feel full, keep you feeling fuller longer, and help to stabilize blood sugar and insulin.
Not to mention how easy it is to boil a bunch of eggs and keep them in the fridge for a “grab and go” breakfast when you’re running short on time.
While people who have difficulty controlling their total and LDL cholesterol or diabetes may want to be cautious about eating egg yolks, egg whites are a great alternate source!
Breakfast Food #2: Nuts and/or Seeds
Nuts and seeds contain protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Nuts and/or seeds would make a great contribution to breakfast. In fact, a single 1 ounce serving of unsprouted pumpkin seeds has 8g of Protein…that’s as much Protein as a single 1 Tablespoon serving of all natural peanut butter!
Don’t be fooled by “candied” nuts, sweetened nut/seed butters, or chia “cereals” with added sugars – I’m talking about the real, whole, unsweetened food here. Just be sure to pay attention to serving size! While nuts are a fabulous source of protein which is rich in heart-healthy fats “they also have a well-deserved rap for being ridiculously addictive, and most of us don’t stick to the recommended daily serving size, or just one measly handful of nuts. What that looks like in real time is pretty small, or about 24 almonds, 18 cashews, 15 pecan halves, 14 walnut halves, or 8 Brazil nuts”, so PAY ATTENTION! Use nuts to your advantage!!!
Nuts and seeds are the ultimate fast food, so if you’re prone to running late in the mornings or just can’t stomach the idea of a big meal, grab a container of unsweetened Greek Yogurt, like #Siggis, topped with a serving of fresh blueberries, and a small handful of almonds, walnuts, or pumpkin seeds and you’ve got the perfect “grab-and-go breakfast!
Hint: If you like a creamy latte in the mornings try making one with nut or seed butter. Just add your regular hot tea and a tablespoon or two of a creamy nut or seed butter into your blender & blend until frothy.
Breakfast Food #3: Veggies
You already know you should get protein at every meal including breakfast but there’s another type of food you might not automatically equate with “Breakfast”.
Veggies for breakfast aren’t just for my Vegetarian or Vegan friends (Hey Friends)! Vegetables (just like their fruity counterparts) are full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, fiber, and water.
You can’t go wrong adding them into every single meal of the day, so if you don’t already you should definitely try them for breakfast!
There’s no need to have a salad or roasted veggies for breakfast if you don’t want to (but you totally can) and omelets aren’t the only way to enjoy them. You can mix a couple of handfuls of spinach in your breakfast smoothies, make egg-muffin cups filled with carrots, peppers, onions, or mushrooms or switch things up and have spinach greens with fresh raspberries, blueberries and my homemade Olive Oil and Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette!
I promise, you won’t be breaking any “official” breakfast rules or anything like that, in fact in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, things we consider lunch or dinner “only” foods are routinely eaten for breakfast (which reminds me of the first time I went to Germany and they offered me cold-cuts and cheese for breakfast…but that’s another story)! 😉
References:
- http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/expert-answers/food-and-nutrition/faq-20058449
- http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/protein-for-weight-loss
- https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/eggs/
- http://www.precisionnutrition.com/eggs-worse-than-fast-food
- http://www.precisionnutrition.com/encyclopedia/food/eggs/
- https://authoritynutrition.com/eating-healthy-eggs/
- https://authoritynutrition.com/12-best-foods-to-eat-in-morning/