How many times have you heard it said that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’? While operating under this assumption people are encouraged to consume a ‘solid’ meal in the morning to stave off hunger in the afternoon, assist in weight loss and ‘kickstart’ your metabolism into gear. However, what is rarely discussed in popular media is the common phenomenon of post-breakfast hunger, where people find that eating breakfast quite quickly makes them hungry.
According to Dr. Mercola of the Mercola Institute (2012), eating first thing in the morning may increase the hunger of some because breakfast time coincides with a circadian peak in cortisol. In lamens terms, the morning is the time of day when your stress hormone levels reach their peak. This then has an influence on your insulin secretion such that when food is consumed, it leads to a rapid and large insulin release and a subsequent (rapid) drop in blood sugar levels that can make you feel hungry.
The Solution …
Although this goes against conventional norms, skipping breakfast may actually help to control food cravings and hunger throughout the day for individuals who are partial to post-breakfast hunger. Is skipping breakfast the solution for you? There is no cookie-cutter approach to this question. Certain health conditions such as diabetes or hypoglycemia should make you think twice about fasting (especially for extended periods). Also, pregnant mothers or lactating women should avoid skipping meals for long periods due to nutritional requirements of infants born and unborn. However, if you’re healthy and willing there is much to be said for the benefits of intermittent-fasting including:
- normalizing insulin sensitivity
- normalizing ghrelin (hunger hormone) levels
- promoting the produciton of human growth hormone
- reducing inflammation
- lowering triglyceride levels
For those who are interested The Mercola Institute, Super Human Radio, Anabolic Minds and other great health / fitness resources cover the topic of intermittent-fasting in great detail. Also, note that the term ‘fast’ is dependant on the individual. For example, in my instance, as post-breakfast hunger pangs are a rarity, I use a shorter duration fasting protocol of between 12 - 14 hours. I find that this has worked best for me in terms of the optimal ratio of fat-loss / muscle-gain.
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