Question of the Week: Is Breakfast for Champions?

Sorry about going incommunicado for a week, Nerd Herd. I was in stunning Nixa, Missouri visiting my sister. I brought my Mac and was planning in doing a little writing, but to my astonishment, the midwest proved to be action-packed. Somewhere between the combination Mexican/Chinese restaurants, mini golfing in 100 degree heat, and the Yakov Smirnoff Dinner Theater, the week escaped me.

But I'm here now for you, babies.

This week's question comes from long-time Nerdist Alex:

Is skipping breakfast bad or good if you eat normally for the rest of the day? I rarely enjoy bkfast and have been skipping it during the week. Research?

I'm not sure if you're asking this from a weight-loss perspective or a sports performance perspective, so I'll answer both. Short answer, Alex, is that you should probably eat breakfast. Your body is in a fasted state. It's primed to accept nutrients. Why not take advantage of that? That said, there's some nuance involved and, as you know, I'm Mr. Nuance, so let's take a closer look.

Much of the research on breakfast is funded by the cereal industry, which creates some really annoying bias. Because of this, a lot of the studies point out the importance of complex carbs, as opposed to balanced nutrition in general. That, in my opinion, is a load of Craptain Crunch. Yes, I believe some carbs are a wise idea in the morning in order to restore blood sugar after a night without food, but no amount of research in the world is going to help you decide what works best for you in the morning in terms of macronutrient balance. Some people might need that bowl o' bran. Others might benefit from a more protein-based meal, which can promote satiety longer. Personally, I like a big bowl of fresh fruit smothered in goat yogurt.

There are also some super-healthy people who just don't like breakfast at all. (My buddy Steve Edwards, for example.) I maintain that Steve would be better off if he ate in the morning and when he's visiting, I nag him with grandmotherish intensity, but still, I recognize that it just doesn't work for some people.

You might be one of those people, but before you make that call, you should seriously check in with yourself. Steve is super fit and knows his body inside and out (except for that weird mole I keep bugging him to have checked out.) You, on the other hand might be trying to lose weight and, in so doing, you've noted that breakfast is the easiest meal of the day to skip. This logic may seem sound, but it rarely works. Usually, if a person has a weight problem, that means they don't have an awesome relationship with food. You can try to keep the snacking down for the rest of the day and keep the meals reasonable, but by skipping breakfast, you're making a task that you've struggled with all your life just a little more difficult. Here's a 1992 study out of Vanderbilt University indicating that.

And another study I blogged about a couple years ago.

And a third study presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco showing that a big high-carb, high-protein breakfast might actually help with weight loss. Admittedly, the study isn't about meal timing as much as it's about adding carbs back into faulty low-carb diets, but it certainly backs up the notion that breakfast isn't detrimental to weight loss.

From a sports performance perspective, I still think breakfast is important, but if you're a morning exerciser, I'd usually suggest doing it before you eat, for reasons best explained by this great New York Times blog. Cliff Notes: exercising in a fasted state trains your body to mobilize body fat stores more efficiently. For the person looking to lose weight, this means, well, you lose weight. For the sportsperson looking for that extra edge, it makes your body a more effective machine.

The article also points out the while this is ideal for training, exercise in a fasted state doesn't generally allow for maximum performance, so if you're competing, make a point of fueling up.

However, the article doesn't discuss bonking (running out of blood sugar). If this happens to you during morning exercise, the quick fix is half a banana or a similar sugar hit about ten minutes before working out, but the average Joe or Josephine should have the glycogen stores to get through an hour or so of exercise in the morning, so if you're bonking on a regular basis, you might want to re-visit your over-all diet.

Whew! That was a big information dump. Did I answer your question?