Best Fitness Blog

... By Karli Taylor

What did you have for breakfast today - coffee? Most mornings, we barely have time to glance at the kitchen. Though fixing breakfast can take up a few minutes that are  in short supply, there is a great deal of evidence that breakfast really may be the most important meal of the day!

Did you know that the simple act of eating breakfast every day is a big part of a successful weight loss plan?

People skip breakfast thinking they're cutting calories, but by mid-morning and lunch, the hunger takes over and most people eat more calories than they would have had they eaten a sensible breakfast.  Breakfast skippers tend to replace calories during the day with mindless nibbling and overeating at lunch and dinner.

A study conducted on individuals who have lost and kept off more than 30 pounds for over a year reported that 78% of the participants ate breakfast every day, and almost 90% reported eating breakfast at least five days a week.
Another research group analyzed government data on 4,200 adults.

They found that regular breakfast eaters were more likely to exercise regularly. Perhaps starting your morning off in a healthy way sets the tone for the rest of the day!

The same study showed that women who ate breakfast regularly tended to eat fewer calories overall during the day, and men and women who ate breakfast had lower overall daily fat intake than non-breakfast eaters.
 It makes sense. Eating early in the day keeps us from overeating and making poor food choices  later in the day.  But that’s not all! Eating breakfast also jump-starts your metabolism allowing your calorie burning furnace to start earlier- the longer your furnace is active, the more total calories you burn in a day.

So what’s for breakfast?

... by Karli Taylor

Yes, I know- we were all taught to eat 3 squares every single day. The more we have have learned about the body and the way it metabolizes food however, the more we learn that there may be a better way.

What I want you to do is hold out both of your hands in front of you with your palms facing up and your little fingers just touching- like you are forming a bowl. This is the amount of food that your body can efficiently digest at one time. yup- that's it! It doesn't matter if its lettuce or m&m's- that is all you should eat at one sitting.

I'm sure you are thinking that if that was breakfast, by lunchtime you'd be eating your arm. Well- the good news is that you need to eat the same amount of food between breakfast and lunch- and again between lunch and dinner. The terms may get confusing-breakfast, brunch, lunch 1 & 2, pre-dinner? Who knows, maybe we as a group can coin the term linner.

Semantics aside, this way of eating will keep that internal fire called your metabolism burning steadily all day long. The food becomes the log added to the fire every 2-3 hours making the flame never fully extinguish.

So this week, try to visualize that portion size every time you sit down to eat- and try to eat AT LEAST 5 times a day. After eating this way for 2 whole weeks, you will find that you will be full after a smaller amount of food, and will truly be hungry every 2 hours.