Skipping Meals = Weight Gain

During a lot of my initial client consultations one of the very first questions I ask a potential client is if they eat breakfast.  Most of the time the answer is "no" and the reasoning is chalked up to:

a) not having enough time
b) don't like breakfast
c) not hungry in the mornings

One might assume that by skipping a meal and eating less calories would be advantageous in trying to achieve weight loss.  That is not the case, in fact, most of the time the opposite happens - weight gain.  Let's walk through what happens physiologically to the body.

The human body is incredibly smart and adaptable.  When a meal is skipped, especially breakfast, the body goes into a 'fasting mode' and your metabolism (how efficiently you burn calories) slows down and your body uses protein as its energy stores - in essence it's using your lean muscle mass, and it is keeping your fat stores as reserve energy. 

Typically skipping meals will result into cravings.  When you cave into the cravings  the result will be high blood sugar which causes the body to create triglycerides which convert directly to fat-storage.  So the weight you are losing is going to be mostly water and lean muscle.

Once you do get a normal meal chances are high that you'll over-indulge.  Your rate of metabolism is very slow and it will take a long time for your body to digest the meal which result in weight gain.

The long term effects include muscle loss, weight gain, poor energy levels, testosterone loss, depleted immune system, and decreased bone density.

Start the morning off right with something to eat.  In this case eating something unhealthy is going to be better than not eating anything at all.  I would recommend a protein shake, peanut butter on bread, or scrambled eggs mixed with veggies.

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