Do I have to skip breakfast?

fasting

(Tiela Marie Wheeler) #1

I’ve seen a lot of things suggesting that you skip breakfast on keto or that breakfast can even be “dangerous” to the keto diet, but I’m usually extremely hungry when I wake up. I’ve tried for the last week just having coffee until my first break at work which is around 11 ish and it’s very hard, is this bad information? Or do most people on keto not eat breakfast? I typically eat my dinner between 6:30 and 7 p.m. because that’s when I get home from work and that’s after the meal has cooked and I realize that you’re not supposed to eat for like 16 hours or something after your last meal per the suggestions, but then I’ve seen other people saying if you’re hungry to eat. so should I eat because I’m hungry or keep trying to train my body to eat later in the day?


(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #2

I would go with eat when hungry… ( Up to a point… If just starting a keto way of eating, you have to learn to resist cravings, which really are’nt hunger, but based on habit and poor nutrition . )

Once you find the saity that comes with high fat, low carb you might find your hunger times shifting…

Personally, I’m not very hungry in the morning…


(Ashley) #3

Eat when your hungry, don’t eat when your not hungry, your body will naturally overtime fast when it wants to! Eat keto and enjoy!


(Jack Bennett) #4

I tend to do 1-2 meals a day (OMAD / TMAD) on keto and usually that first meal takes the form of an “early lunch”. I tend to start getting hungry between 10:30 to 11:30 and usually eat around 11:30-12:00. Probably a lot of this is habit and conditioning.

I’d say if you’re hungry for breakfast, eat it. All other things being equal.

If you really want to get into fasting, it’s probably best to start off from a fairly stable habit of meals and then start shifting them a little at a time. For example, move breakfast a little later until it collides into lunch. Of course, all this is subject to your schedule constraints, work and family obligations, and so forth.


(Scott) #5

I love breakfast so I choose to eat it. Eggs bacon sausage daily for me. Once in a blue moon I will fast through it on the weekend but will make it a brunch on those days. Nothing wrong with a keto breakfast at all.


#6

I refuse to not eat when I am hungry. Then I am content to be keto without IF. I only went IF when I began to not feel hungry in the morning. It was like a natural development. I would never force myself not to eat. I think if you are hungry in the morning- then eat breakfast. You are probably not fat adapted yet. Because once the fat adaptation begins, you really will not feel hungry in the mornings. At least this is how I feel right now. But no more forcing myself not to eat. Either it comes naturally, or I am just on another diet I cannot sustain.
And you always also have the possibility to eat a fat bomb. Anything that will not ellicit an insulin reaction. Try some butter in your coffee.


#7

The longer I do Keto, the less hungry I am in the morning as a rule. There are exceptions, and when I am hungry, I eat a generous breakfast with lots and lots of bacon and 2 or 3 eggs. The more fat you eat, the less hungry you are. After a big breakfast, I am usually only interested in a very small lunch, like a can of sardines or a chaffle or something.

I think starving yourself is counter productive on Keto. I have lost lots of weight ( went from 320 to 243 so far). The main thing as I see it is to become fat adapted, as in teach your body to use fat for fuel, instead of carbs.


(Central Florida Bob ) #8

There are some people saying that having your meals earlier in the day and skipping dinner leads to better results than skipping breakfast. I think people skip breakfast because it gets them close to 18/6 IF easily and it seems more intuitive than eating early in the day and then not eating dinner because they’re used to bigger meals late in the day.

The idea of time restricted eating is to reduce your total exposure to elevated insulin, so 18 hours between meals can be from noon until 6AM say, as well as 6PM to noon.


#9

It’s definitely not dangerous to have breakfast, I mean, in general, it would be totally bad for me… If you are hungry, eat! It’s my most important rule, actually.
I am not good with breakfast, I didn’t eat it on high-carb either as it just made me hungry while I was nicely satiated until lunch if I had no breakfast. It’s an individual thing in my case. I did IF before I went keto but my eating window diminishes on keto (and stayed small when I went off keto so it’s not even about ketosis itself, more like fat adaptation - so it didn’t happen right away).
If you need breakfast, lunch and dinner, do that, it’s fine. Don’t force fasting. If it happens, happens. You can skip dinner if you don’t need it. Or not. Even if IF has benefits, forcing it sounds very bad to me.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #10

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: everyone has to figure out things for themselves. If you haven’t yet, you will soon discover that pretty much everyone does ‘what works for me’ and then presents that as ‘what will work for you’. It might or might not. We’re all students here, trying to learn as we go. Once in a while we each get some “Eureka” experience. None-the-less, we’re all n=1 sharing our personal wins and loses. When anyone makes a claim about anything, find the science that backs it up, or not.


(Tiela Marie Wheeler) #11

Typically as long as I eat something light for breakfast I’m okay. I also eat a light lunch. Dinner is important because I have to cook for my family and and usually hungry around that time as well. I have always had three square meals a day oh, so my body is used to eating breakfast


(John) #12

I generally eat breakfast every day. If I skip a meal, it is usually lunch while I am at work.

The exception is if I am doing an actual fast, in which case I skip eating everything during the fast. For me that usually means skipping 3 meals in a row.


(Katherine) #13

I used to skip my breakfast in order to consume fewer calories a day. Then I started forcing myself to eat in mornings after I read an article that said I have to eat my breakfast as it’s the most important daily meal.
A week ago, I read an article that finally made my mind clear - https://simple.life/blog/skipping-breakfast/. Now I eat breakfast only when I feel like it and it is actually the only right thing to do. There is no “the most important meal” in your day. You must focus on your body’s needs firstly.


(Tracy) #14

Eat when you are hungry. After a lifetime of eating out of boredom, just wanting to eat because I liked eating, and an overall unhealthy lifestyle, it took me several months of Keto to listen to my body. My fasting is anywhere from 14-18 hours but I don’t try to suffer through anything. Since Keto is meant to be a lifelong improvement of your eating habits, don’t be in a hurry. I believe once a person has conquered their carb addiction everything will fall into place.


#15

heavens eat all you need whenever you need it.

our ‘told to go to meal times’ mean nothing.

you eat all you require when you require it. Key to healing the body. You will flip and flop on ‘times to eat’ but that is your body asking.

Do you at all times. You eat ON PLAN and that is the 100% part of this, when ya eat does not matter and your body as it heals and changes on this plan, will ask for food when it wants it, you just listen and eat :slight_smile:

Never doubt what this plan is asking from you. You listen to that and EAT PLAN foods and you got this whipped!!!


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #16

You are probably too young to remember when the breakfast-cereal manufacturers in the U.S. introduced that slogan in order to sell more of their product. It was a massive campaign, and there were several others during my childhood to convince us to use deodorant, toothpaste, mouthwash, and similar products of dubious value. (If their value were obvious, the massive marketing campaigns would hardly have been unnecessary.)

Zoë Harcombe did some investigating that convinced her that the advice to eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day was started by the produce-grower’s association. I don’t remember, but I wouldn’t be surprised.