Do you want to eat more but lose weight at the same time? Impossible? What if study after study after study proved you can?
In fact, it’s one of the easiest ways to lose weight. It requires no dieting, no exercise, and no magic pill. All you have to do is not skip your breakfast. You’ll drop the pounds without having to starve.
Indeed, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It improves your memory, keeps you energized, and reduces your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Furthermore, people who regularly eat breakfast tend to be skinnier, more productive, and generally healthier.
Need more reasons to make your morning meal a daily ritual? Well, here are 3 benefits for eating breakfast proven by research and scientifically backed.
Lose Weight
You might think skipping breakfast will help stave off calories and keep your figure slim, but studies prove the opposite. People who regularly eat breakfast are more successful at losing weight and keeping it off than people who skip their morning meal.
In fact, research suggests that what we eat is just as important as when we eat. One study found that people who made breakfast their largest meal lost an average of 17.8 pounds over 3 months. And people who made dinner their largest meal? They lost only 7.3 pounds over the same time period.
3 BENEFITS OF EATING BREAKFAST BACKED BY SCIENCE
It might have to do with ghrelin, notoriously known as the ‘hunger hormone‘. Located in our stomach, ghrelin sends signals to our brain and makes us want to eat, especially foods loaded with fat. It also makes us feel good, really good. In fact, ghrelin and cocaine activate the same regions in the brain, highly motivating us to indulge our cravings – even if we’re full.
So if you skip your breakfast, you’ll increase your ghrelin levels, causing you to crave high-carb snacks that are just too good to pass up! On the other hand, starting your day with breakfast 30 to 90 minutes after waking up may quicken our metabolism, regulate your blood sugar, and reduce your ghrelin levels (and subsequently, your cravings).
Enhance Your Cognitive Performance
If you’re between the ages of 6 and 16, good news – breakfast makes you smarter.
One study looked at test results of over 1386 kids and found that eating breakfast gave them superior cognitive performance, especially when it came to memory and attention span. Now you’re probably long out of grade school, but the benefits are likely to carry across all age groups. Ask yourself, don’t you feel better, more alert and full of energy after a bowl of cereal? Imagine how you’d feel adding some low-carb, high-fiber and protein foods to the mix.
While you might not be able to say no to Honey Nut Cheerios, definitely say yes to top brain foods like walnuts, spinach, berries and avocados. Even dark chocolate, coffee, and sardines are cognitive enhancers and optimal breakfast choices. Not only will these super foods improve brain function, they’ll protect against age-caused cognitive decline and encourage focus and clarity. You can even find a solution for your healthiest meal of the day in a nutrition dense protein shake, like Shakeology!
Lower Your Risk of Heart Disease
If skipping breakfast increases your risk of heart disease, than not skipping breakfast lowers it. At least, that’s what one monumental 16 year studyfollowing 26,902 male professionals between the ages of 45-82 claims.
Those who reported they frequently skipped breakfast had a “higher risk of a heart attack or fatal coronary heart disease … even after accounting for modest differences in diet, physical activity, smoking and other lifestyle factors.” The men who did eat their breakfast were 27 percent less likely to have a heart attack or die from coronary heart disease than the men who skipped this incredibly important meal.
The study also found that men who did not eat breakfast tended to be young, unmarried smokers who worked full time. Now that doesn’t mean skipping breakfast will lower the chances of finding your significant other nor will eating breakfast decrease your job opportunities. Rather, it shows that the lifestyles of these young men included not eating breakfast, which in turn leads to a greater risk of heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
So there you have it; eating breakfast will help you lose weight, make you smarter, improve your health, and possibly just save your life. The question is now, what do you eat?
Not all of us have the time to prepare a gourmet meal for breakfast. Some of us barely have time to find our keys, let alone brew a cup of coffee before we’re out the door and on our way to work.
But if you’re looking for a way to lose weight with a delicious, why not try a protein packed and nutrient-rich shake? They’re fast, easy to make, and their taste is only limited by your creativity. That’s why there’s Shakeology fromBeachbody.
Not only can you whip up one of these delicious shakes in LESS THAN ONE MINUTE, Shakeology’s Your Daily Dose of Dense Nutrition that’s packed with incredible amounts of protein, antioxidants, phytonutrients, prebiotics, enzymes, and many rare superfoods from around the world that your body desperately needs and craves.* Plus, Shakeology helps to significantly increase your energy levels, as well as reduce junk food cravings.
And because Shakeology’s key ingredients are derived from whole food sources, your body will be able to easily absorb and utilize the nutrients you’re feeding it immediately.
