Use breakfast to aid weight loss rather than skipping it PLUS recipes!

In the modern fast-paced world, we’re often rushing our way through the morning and the first thing to drop off is eating breakfast and we’re getting by on a (reheated) cup of coffee and very little else. The problem with this is that 10 am rolls around, you’re starving, and you most likely reach for a quick fix (hello muffin from the cafe). However, having breakfast to aid in weight loss is a real thing and it also helps your overall health.

The habit of skipping breakfast can stall your weight loss because even if you’re eating well the rest of the day, this bumpy start can throw off your metabolism completely.

Or maybe you believe that skipping breakfast is a quick way to reduce your total calorie intake for the day. This has been proven time and time again NOT to work.

We take a look at why we skip breakfast, the negative impact this may have, the benefits of breakfast to aid weight loss and some delicious healthy breakfast recipes.

You can skip ahead to read what you need help with most:

• Why is breakfast important
• The main reasons men skip breakfast (and how to overcome the excuses)
• A few quick and healthy breakfast ideas
• Some helpful ways to make sure you eat breakfast
• 7 reasons why you should NEVER forget or purposely skip breakfast
• Eating a BIG breakfast may help you burn DOUBLE the amount of calories
• Some breakfast recipes to aid weight loss

Why is breakfast so important?

We are HUGE fans of eating breakfast for these two most important reasons:

• You need the energy to fire up your metabolism and brain in the morning
• If you don’t have breakfast, it’s more likely you’ll eat something less better-for-you sooner than later as you won’t be satisfied with a filling breakfast

Columbia University researchers have reviewed a host of studies on breakfast and meal frequency – and they discovered just how important the first meal of the day actually is. They found that people who eat breakfast every day have lower heart disease risk factors and are less likely to have high cholesterol and blood pressure.

Those who skip breakfast are more likely to be obese, have inadequate nutrition or be diagnosed with diabetes.

“Meal timing may affect health due to its impact on the body’s internal clock,” explained Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, associate professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University.

“In animal studies, it appears that when animals receive food while in an inactive phase, such as when they are sleeping, their internal clocks are reset in a way that can alter nutrient metabolism, resulting in greater weight gain, insulin resistance and inflammation. However, more research would need to be done in humans before that can be stated as a fact.”

Other studies have questioned the importance of breakfast, with a UK research project finding: “Eating breakfast did not make obese individuals lose weight but did result in more physical activity in the morning and reduced food intake later in the day.”

The main reasons men skip breakfast (and how to overcome the excuses)

There is a multitude of reasons why people skip breakfast. Too busy, not hungry, makes them feel queasy, get up too late or have to get out the door to work/school. But because you can use breakfast to aid weight loss and it’s so important for your health in general, we need to work around these issues.

Too busy

A piece of toast with peanut butter and banana or a jar of yoghurt and berries can be eaten on the go. Or prep your Healthy Man Meal Replacement shake the night before and blend it up in the morning in around two minutes. Seriously, who doesn’t have a few minutes?

Not hungry

Some people wake up ravenous, where others wake up and they’re just not hungry. That’s OK. It just means you need to make a breakfast that you can eat a bit later on. A savoury muffin with ham, cheese and tomato can sit patiently in your bag until you need it. So can a jar of overnight oats.

You just can’t rely on your body to get you through to lunch if you don’t prepare to feel hungry at some point before midday. You’ll find a range of healthy breakfast ideas on our website.

Get up too late

This excuse is easily rectified, get up ten minutes earlier! Seriously your health and weight loss goals are worth making the effort for. You might benefit from preparing your breakfast the night before so that you can just grab and go.

Think chia puddings, mini quiches, and porridge all work well.

Have to go to work

If you don’t fancy eating breakfast before you go to work, why not take breakfast with you? Make a big batch of porridge that you can heat up each day when you get to work.

Prepare a frittata that you can keep in the work fridge and just heat and eat when you’re hungry. Keep some ham and cheese at work and some wraps in your desk drawer to prepare a quick wrap for breakfast to go with your mid-morning cuppa.

Healthy ideas for fast and delicious breakfasts

So what are some good options for breakfast that are easy, fast, delicious AND will keep you feeling full? You need two main elements – fibre and protein.

Here are some ideas.

• A Healthy Man Meal Replacement shake is so versatile AND you can prep your mix-ins for the whole week to save you even more time.
• Eggs are brilliant in the morning as they’re filling and super fast to prepare.
• A quick muesli slice that you can eat on the go.
• Porridge with some berries and Greek yoghurt on top check out this Quick Oat Power Porridge recipe for inspiration.
• Homemade granola topped with yoghurt and banana.
• Sourdough toast with some low-fat ricotta, banana and honey.
• Fruit salad with Greek yoghurt, pumpkin seeds or LSA sprinkled on top.
• A toasted sandwich with some low-fat ricotta and ham.
• Boiled eggs and soldiers. Perfect for the kids too.
• A healthy muffin is a great meal to-go.

Some helpful ways to make sure you eat breakfast

It’s something that’s been drummed into most of us from a young age, NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST or BREAKFAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY.

Now given we are constantly told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day this statistic is alarming. So how can we change this and help time-poor mums eat breakfast?

The importance of meal prep

The new research also discovered the importance of meal prep, with meal timing and frequency linked to the risk factors for heart disease, stroke, obesity, high blood pressure and cholesterol.

“We suggest eating mindfully, by paying attention to planning both what you eat and when you eat meals and snacks, to combat emotional eating. Many people find that emotions can trigger eating episodes when they are not hungry, which often leads to eating too many calories from foods that have low nutritional value,” Associate Professor St-Onge said.

Be prepared so you can grab and go!

We all struggle on a day to day basis to get through the never-ending list of tasks on our to-do list and when a mini-meltdown or random crisis occurs things like preparing and eating a healthy breakfast tends to disappear off the list completely. This is how we tend to end up skipping breakfast!

But with so many simple, budget-friendly and tasty breakfast recipes available you can do some meal prepping and stock-up on some healthy breakfasts that you can then just grab (defrost or reheat where needed) and go when needed.

If all else fails just remember to K.I.S.S.

Keep it simple stud (K.I.S.S.) is a message that can be translated into so many of life’s tasks so why not use it when it comes to avoiding skipping breakfast?

Grab a piece of fruit out of the fruit bowl, grab a piece of toast and put a splash of butter on it, or grab a tasty, healthy muffin with your morning coffee.

Eating breakfast shouldn’t be and doesn’t have to be a chore that you dread to have to check off your list. If you start small and simple you will get into the habit of eating something and your body won’t let you get away without having something.

7 reasons why you should NEVER forget or purposely skip breakfast

1. Your metabolism will suffer

Eating regularly helps keep your metabolism fired up which helps your body to burn calories. If you consider your metabolism a fire that keeps your body going, if you skip breakfast you are effectively letting that fire burn out. After fasting all night, the first meal of the day breaks this fast and gives you the energy to start your day. This is also why eating breakfast to aid weight loss makes sense because the more you work your metabolism the more it will work for you and help you lost weight.

2. Kiss goodbye to concentration and energy

If you’ve ever missed breakfast you’ll know that your morning seems a little harder to get through, your brain doesn’t fire up as quickly as usual. Come 9 am you’ll be lethargic and feel tired even though your day has just started. Breakfast feeds your brain as well as your muscles.

3. It’s likely you’ll eat bad food

There’s a tendency to think it’s okay to have a little treat in the morning if you’ve skipped breakfast but you’ve got extra calories to consume. This is a bad habit to get into and is actually not helping your weight loss at all, especially if you’re smashing back sugary snacks with little nutritional value.

4. You’ll start to justify bad food choices

If you smash back a chocolate biscuit or piece of cake for morning tea because you’ve missed breakfast and starving, you might tell yourself there’s no point in eating healthily for the rest of the day.

We’ve all done this, it’s a vicious circle, eat breakfast and it’s less likely you’ll think this way.

5. Exercise will be WAY harder to do

With exercise going hand-in-hand with a healthy diet if you’re too tired to get active or it’s hard work you’ll give up quicker. It can be hard enough to find the motivation to exercise without the added handicap of having no energy because you didn’t eat breakfast.

6. You could become a cranky pants

If you’re someone who gets ‘hangry’ eg a person who gets angry when they are hungry, you should always make time to have something to eat in the morning. If you’re time poor just have a piece of fruit, a smoothie, a yoghurt – just eat something. Your metabolism, your kids and your colleagues will thank you for it!

7. It lowers your blood sugar levels

Not refuelling your body for a number of hours can lower your blood sugar levels so low that you could experience hypoglycaemia, a condition that occurs when the amount of sugar (or glucose) in your blood drops below 4.0mmol (this is a measurement used by medical professionals to measure the amount of glucose in the blood).

When this happens, you may experience sweating, dizziness, nausea, and shaking. Regularly eating meals will help to prevent this and maintaining good blood sugar levels is very beneficial to your weight-loss journey.

Eating a BIG breakfast may help you burn DOUBLE the amount of calories

We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day but it seems eating a big breakfast, instead of a large dinner, may help you burn DOUBLE the amount of calories, a new study has found.

Eating more at the start of the day may help boost metabolism and suppress appetite which is why eating breakfast to aid weight loss is a thing.

Researchers at Lubeck University in Germany studied 16 men, some of whom consumed a small breakfast followed by a large dinner and then vice versa.

Experts found that filling up first thing could help boost metabolism, through a process known as diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT).  DIT is the number of calories the body expends to digest food, and it was found to be twice as high for those who had a larger breakfast. It tends to be slower in the evening.

Of the participants who had a higher calorie meal in the morning, their DIT was 2.5 higher than in the evening.

What’s more, results showed that blood sugar and insulin concentrations were diminished after breakfast, and also suppressed sweet cravings.

“Our results show a meal eaten for breakfast – regardless of the number of calories it contains – creates twice as high diet-induced thermogenesis as the same meal consumed for dinner,” says study author Dr Juliane Richter.

“This finding is significant for all people as it underlines the value of eating enough at breakfast. Eating more at breakfast instead of dinner could prevent obesity and high blood sugar.”

“We recommend that patients with obesity as well as healthy people eat a large breakfast rather than a large dinner to reduce body weight and prevent metabolic diseases.”

Starting the day off right

Starting off the day right by making the right healthy choices for yourself has shown to decrease your overall calorie intake for the rest of the day. This is because you have started off correctly and will not feel like snacking or filling that hunger spot later on in the morning with that quick sugar fix.

What is very important to note is that depriving your body of real, nutritious food does not help you lose weight and it may actually adversely affect your weight loss plans and goals!

The reason for this is simply that when you are extremely hungry, you will tend to go for the first thing that you see, and this is guaranteed more than not a food that will give you a quick fix and is usually not nutritious! You may tend to binge eat to fill that gap.

By taking the time to prepare a quick and healthy breakfast can help you to avoid those unhealthy and high fat, high sugar grabs.

Some breakfast recipes to aid weight loss

Eating a nutritious breakfast sets the tone for the day. It helps to promote weight loss and weight maintenance by balancing your blood sugar levels and your metabolism.

Berry Banana Breakfast Smoothie

If you’re looking for a quick, easy, tasty and healthy breakfast on the go this Berry Banana Breakfast Smoothie recipe is a great smoothie combination.

Get the recipe here.

The Breakfast Grill

This delicious breakfast grill is loaded with protein and healthy carbohydrates to keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Grab the recipe here.

BLT Pita Melt

This BLT Pita Melt is a great way to start the day and is really easy to prepare.

Grab the recipe here.

Banana Oat Smoothie

This delicious and easy to make Banana Oats Smoothie is the perfect way to start your day with a nutritious breakfast packed with goodness.

Grab the recipe here.

Ham, spinach and egg breakfast muffins

These tasty ham, spinach, and egg breakfast muffins are high in protein to keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Grab the recipe here.

Green Machine Smoothie

An easy entry point into the world of green smoothies is the Green Machine Smoothie which uses the mild taste of baby spinach, filling avocado and delicious mango for some sweetness.

Grab the recipe here.

Quick Oat Power Porridge

Easy homemade microwave Quick Oat Power Porridge to get your day started off right. A great recipe to repeat throughout the week adding different fruits at different times to suit your tastes.

Grab the recipe here.

Choc Chip Banana Bread

Banana and chocolate work so well together in this Choc Chip Banana Bread, you can make it on the weekend and then enjoy it during the week when you have less time.

Grab the recipe here.

One great breakfast to aid weight loss is The Healthy Man Meal Replacement shake!

It’s the perfect low-calorie meal replacement for busy blokes wanting to boost weight loss and improve overall health. It’s full of whey and soy protein which means it’ll leave you feeling full and satisfied and keep you going till your next meal.

If you want to shift some kilo’s, look no further than The Healthy Man’s Meal Replacement!

The Healthy Man Meal Replacement Shake is available in Chocolate and Vanilla and will:-

• Enhance fat-burning ability
• Increase stamina
• Improve gut health
• Increase energy, vitality and overall health
• Reduce beer belly
• Increase muscle strength

Get your tub of the Healthy Man Meal Replacement here

Get your hands on The Healthy Man Super Greens Powder TODAY!

The Healthy Man Super Greens packs a massive nutritional punch containing over 37 real food and quality superfood ingredients including:

• Spirulina
• Flaxseed
• Pea Protein
• Organic Barley Grass
• Chlorella
• Chia
• Goji Berry
• Kale
• Spinach
• Mushroom  Powder
• And much more

With all these amazing ingredients coming together in a simple powder form The Health Man Super Greens Powder will help you boost your immune system with a huge dose of Vitamin C and give you a shot of iron to boost your energy. Proudly Australian owned supplement that is vegan-friendly and GMO-free.

The perfect addition to your Healthy Man Meal Replacement or just mix it with water cause it tastes that good.

Grab your own packet of Healthy Man Super Greens Powder and get the goodness into your diet today!