Lose Weight:  Eat a Healthy Breakfast Every Day
By Janice Sroka, NP

Skipping breakfast seems like an easy way to cut calories if you are dieting, but it actually makes it harder for you to lose weight and keep it off.  The National Weight Control Registry found that eating breakfast is a daily habit for the “successful losers.”  The majority of people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for five years or more eat breakfast every day of the week.

Here are three reasons for eating a “healthy” breakfast everyday:

1. Breakfast Boosts Your Metabolism.  By starting your day with a breakfast that is low in carbohydrates and high in lean protein, it actually boosts calorie-burning in three ways:

• Your body burns calories through the digestion, absorption, and processing of food.
• Eating breakfast can boost your energy level, which helps increase calories burned through activities throughout the day.
• Providing your body with healthful fuel after nighttime “fasting” keeps your body from using calorie-burning muscle for energy during physical activity.

2.  Breakfast Prevents “Crescendo Eating.”  The majority of people skip breakfast thinking they are cutting calories, but by mid-morning and lunch, they are starved.  Breakfast skippers replace calories during the day with mindless nibbling and binging at lunch and dinner.  Like a symphony, food intake builds over the course of a day.  What begins with skipping breakfast often builds to an evening finale involving ice cream and / or unhealthy carbohydrates.  Crescendo-eaters and those who just eat two large meals a day have a higher risk of obesity.

3.   Breakfast Stabilizes Blood Sugar.  A breakfast of lean protein and fiber helps your body better process carbohydrates for the entire day.  Keeping your blood sugar levels stable helps prevent hunger pangs associated with late-morning dips in blood sugar.  Steady blood sugar levels improve energy, which helps burn more calories.  You will feel the difference!

So, if you are planning on skipping breakfast -- whether you are trying to save time or cut calories -- you may want to reconsider, especially if you are trying to control your weight.  Just remember, skipping breakfast actually increases your risk of obesity!

Action Weight Management Centers can help you with finding better breakfast choices and personalize a healthy eating plan just for you. Our staff will work together with you to reach your ultimate goal. Whether you have 10 lbs. or 200 lbs. to lose we can help! Our program promotes a lifestyle change, through education, medical testing, meal replacement products, meal planning, and exercise programs. Please call 1-877-499-NEWU to set up an appointment and get started today!

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