How Does Breakfast Affect Your Metabolism?
If you split the word breakfast itself into break and fast, your answer should be much more clear. You are breaking the fast you were on during sleep (unless you are some of those munchers that get up at night time to eat something).
Once you get up, your metabolism had by now processed all the food you had in your body when you went to bed. Because there isn’t much work to do at the moment, it is napping itself and not working much at all beyond the bare minimums it needs to do to keep your body going.
Unless you give it a reason to wake up, it will keep more or less at its “vegetative” pace. That is where breakfast comes in. When you eat, all of a sudden you are flooding your digestive system with food and your metabolism jumps into action at a high rate in its endless pursuit to process the incoming food.
What does a healthy breakfast look like?
Eating breakfast — and definitely not skipping it — is essential for revving up your metabolism if you’ve got weight loss on the mind. What you eat is also important, and no, a breakfast full of carbs like a bowl of cereal or a bagel isn’t the best choice. Getting enough protein is key, and nutritionists Stephanie Clarke, RD, and Willow Jarosh, RD, of C&J Nutrition recommend getting 13 to 20 grams.
There’s nothing worse than getting excited about a recipe and seeing a laundry list of ingredients you don’t have on hand — especially when it comes to breakfast! Keep breakfast simple with these sweet and savory breakfasts that all clock in at five ingredients or fewer. Some can be made the night before, others come together right before you’re ready to eat, but they’re all easy to make and totally delicious.
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A healthy first meal of the day should include protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. Fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, whole grains and lean meats are all good choices along with eggs.
A two-egg omelet with spinach is my favorite. Scrambled eggs with diced bacon is another favorite. Use a little olive oil to make the eggs; it is much better for you than using butter. Complement your omelet with a piece of whole grain toast topped with some peanut butter. You could even add in meat, such as bacon or sausage, both made from turkey.
Other breakfast choices could include oatmeal with cinnamon and banana slices, yogurt with granola or a smoothie made with protein powder, almond milk, and your favorite fruit. Stay away from the unhealthy saturated fats, simple carbohydrates, and sugar.
If you need something on the go, choose a couple of hard-boiled eggs, or some trail mix or apple slices with some peanut butter. For a beverage, choose black coffee or tea; the caffeine in either will help speed up your metabolism.
As far as how fast your body processes food, about 75 percent of the calories processed is dependent on your age, gender, weight, body composition, and genetics. The other 25% is handled by the physical activity you do during the day.
Speaking of physical activity, try to work in at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. Cardio is good for burning calories and will keep your metabolism elevated long after you quit your workout. Mix in a couple of days per week of strength training to build more muscle. The more muscle you have, the harder your metabolism has to work to keep feeding all that muscle mass.
The Role of Metabolism in Bodily Function
