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Why eat breakfast, you ask? Think about it. The last meal you ate was the previous night's dinner. When you rise and grab your first cup of coffee of the day, you likely haven't had a morsel for at least 12 hours. Believe it or not, eating breakfast helps you lose weight or maintain your current healthy weight! Grab something to eat at least an hour after you've risen for the day. You'll find that you'll function more effectively, your concentration will be better, and you won't be as irritable and short tempered as when you skip breakfast.
Plus, if you eat breakfast, research shows that you're more likely to enjoy a nutritionally balanced diet overall.
Increasing your energy and metabolic rate
Overnight, your body uses energy, even while you're sleeping. Your body needs to replace some of the stores of energy it used during the night in the form of food in the morning. Whatever your lifestyle, whatever your age, wherever you live, mornings usually begin with a bang. You're out of the gate full blast and don't understand why you seem to slow down and occasionally get a headache around 10 a.m. Breakfast is the energy you need to stand up in the morning and make it to lunch.
 | Expecting your body to shift into full gear without stopping to refuel is like assuming your car will run on empty. Even if you try to catch up by eating a balanced lunch, you never regain the energy you would've had if you'd taken ten minutes to eat some breakfast. |
A big reason to make breakfast part of your low-carb lifestyle is to kick-start your metabolic rate. Your metabolism slows down at night like everything else, and the boost of breakfast gets your body off and running again. When you increase your metabolism, you burn fat, and you know what that means — you maintain your desired body weight.
Avoiding cravings and increased hunger
Eating breakfast has been the mantra for many years. It's important not only to your overall health but significantly important to your low-carb healthy lifestyle. Eating breakfast will help you stave off cravings and hunger pangs. Coupled with eating healthy snacks and grazing, eating breakfast is a priority.
Eating a healthy breakfast is one way to evenly distribute your day's calories and nutrients and help maintain a steady blood-sugar level and energy level. Irregular eating habits cause a wide fluctuation in blood sugar and insulin levels that affect your energy level and give you hunger cues. Eating four or five small meals a day or snacking on good carb snacks is a great way to keep your blood sugar from spiking and sending you on a hunger roller coaster ride.
- Studies have actually linked low blood sugar levels to poor memory, concentration, and learning ability.
- Ironically, people who skip breakfast in an effort to cut carbs and calories often do more snacking later in the day and overeat at evening meals.
- Increased hunger isn't caused by eating breakfast but by other eating habits. Take a look at the foods you choose for breakfast. Sugary food, even the kind with natural sugars, such as a fruit salad or toast and jam, triggers an insulin response and raises brain levels of serotonin, leaving you hungry and sleepy within two hours.
Laying the foundation for your day
Breakfast is a very personal meal that's all about how your body works. You don't have time notto eat it. Breakfast is a huge part of any healthy lifestyle, especially your low-carb lifestyle. Experiment and figure out what works for you time-wise, palate-wise, and preparation-wise. And remember, variety is definitely the spice.
| Breakfast menus vary with country, locality, and even occupation — not to mention with your healthy low-carb lifestyle of choice. Expand your horizons with common sense. If something is low in carbs and ultrahigh in fats and calories, how much of it do you think is wise for you to gobble down? Consider this rule the common sense rule. You can apply it to any food or any meal you want — not just breakfast. |
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