What they say
Since we were little the premise has always been that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. They say that if you eat breakfast you are happier, you are happier, you have more energy and you can even become a sexual machine. Eating breakfast helps the metabolism begin to function in the best possible way, supplying the body with the necessary amount of energy provided by carbohydrates (HdC).
The observation
All the people who succeed and are happy breakfast, therefore, it follows that breakfast is the key to success. This, of course, is supported by a logic based on anecdotes. Because if you have been without food all night, the body is starving and therefore you will need food, right? So if we start the day ingesting a large amount of food the metabolism will start to work, it will prepare for the rest of the day and you will be able to burn everything you eat during the next 24 hours. And since the brain works better in the presence of carbohydrates, a breakfast low in fat and high in HdC will make you smarter and help you to function better both at work and at school.
What really happens
Your body starts every day as a powerful fat burning machine and the key to losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously is not to interfere with that process.
Next, this is what happens with your hormones around 7:00 in the morning.
Cortisol levels rise naturally during the night, reaching its peak more or less when we get up. Of course, a very common mistake is to think that cortisol, being catabolic and without the presence of food will begin to destroy muscle mass. This is incorrect. When something is catabolic, it only describes the decomposition process of materials that are used as energy. When cortisol acts without high insulin levels, it triggers lipolysis – fat loss -. So early in the morning cortisol, in fact, accelerates the burning of adipose tissue.
On the other hand, the main hormone that controls the appetite is ghrelin. This is released gradually during the night and reaches its peak, like cortisol, when we get up. This stimulates the appetite, but ghrelin also potentiates the release of growth hormone (HC); and as this happens and the growth hormone increases, the body releases even more fat to maintain energy levels, thus decreasing the destruction of protein that the body uses as fuel.
Thus, appetite is not something that should be avoided at all times. The fact of skipping breakfast makes it easier to change some aspects of metabolism, such as; that the body, during the rest of the day, burn fat instead of accumulating it. It may seem that the act of skipping it carries the danger of death, but the truth is that no; At least to this day I do not know of any case of someone who died for not having breakfast.
It’s true that …
Have you ever gone to a restaurant to eat and after getting a good plate of pasta or rice, you find yourself tired and mentally you’re not as agile as you should be?
Well, this is the effect of carbohydrates. The same happens in the morning. The gurus and experts in nutrition do nothing but recommend that we have a strong breakfast: toast, orange juice, cereals and even fruit; all of them foods that do nothing but sabotage our results. Therefore, we should avoid carbohydrate-rich foods at all costs just get up, as they put us to sleep, produce mental lethargy and possibly make us not as efficient as we should be.
Let’s say that your breakfast contains around 30 grams or more of carbohydrates. As a result, insulin levels will increase in conjunction with an increase in blood sugar, and this will cause a negative domino effect for the rest of the day. The early release of insulin significantly reduces fat burning over the next 24 hours, which is a big problem simply because your cortisol levels are still high. Therefore, this insulin release reduces the presence of ghrelin, growth hormone and your body creates new fat cells.
Anything else
Everything described is not that I invented it or say it to contradict, but it is pure science. From all the above, it can be concluded that perhaps delaying breakfast for a few hours is a good idea, or at least until HC and cortisol levels naturally decrease, a fact that may take a few hours.
So avoiding breakfast seems like a much quicker way to lose body fat or at least keep it at bay . In addition, the organism, having no available energy source other than the stored fat itself, will go into alert mode, causing brain concentration and performance to increase exponentially.
A good example of breakfast could be a coffee with stevia – or another zero-calorie sweetener – and one or two tablespoons of oil / coconut milk. Although if you see that the appetite squeezes hard, any combination of fat with some protein will do.
To end
Finally I have to warn you that after being so many years used to breakfast, the first days it is quite possible that you notice a little headache and even certain dizziness but calm, it is normal. Your body is adapting to a new routine. Anyway, any worry or fear you have about skipping breakfast, forget it. For it entails absolutely no risk but nothing more than mental, physical and health benefits.
Personally, I have tried this method for quite some time and I have to say that the best academic performance I have obtained has been precisely without having eaten anything, apart from possibly a tea or coffee to clear and a good glass of water.
Skip the hydrates at breakfast. Skip the full breakfast. Plain and simple is not the most important meal of the day. It is a cost of food that not only prevents you from burning fat but favors its accumulation.
Maybe after all, making a healthy and balanced breakfast is not as good as they say.
References:
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