Study after study has shown it — eating breakfast will kick your metabolism off and keep it running the rest of the day.

There are several reasons breakfast works.  For one thing, it wakes up your leptin hormone and sets it working for the day.  Leptin is the anti-hunger hormone. It tells your autopilot that you are full and you should stop eating. We want that one awake and working!

Remember that your autopilot is looking for signals from all your organs and is regulating the ebb and flow of hormones to take care of all your internal business.  When you have a long fast, like you do through the night and into the morning, your hunger hormone is still asleep, too.  That’s why it is easier to skip breakfast than any other meal. Lots of people are just not hungry at breakfast because they have been in sleep mode and their organs and hormones are not working at full power yet.  Their metabolism is dragging.

But what happens when you don’t eat breakfast?  During the day as your activity increase, your insides wake up.  They start demanding fuel.  Your stomach sends out a distress call and you get the message that you want to eat — NOW.  You grab something at the vending machine that is processed and full of sugar.  It hits your bloodstream and results in an urgent call to the pancreas to pump out insulin.  Insulin arrives with the key to let the fuel into the cells.  It also gives the message, “Don’t waste this fuel. Store it up.”

You only feel satisfied for a little while.  By lunchtime you are tired, down, and starved. You eat way more than you planned.  And off we go to an afternoon of the slows and more vending machine goodies to prop you up.  It’s a recipe for disaster.

Let’s rewind and go back to breakfast time. This time you eat a high protein, low glycemic breakfast.  Eggs are a great choice for breakfast for several reasons.  They have the complete proteins you need and also have vitamins and minerals that help your brain function and memory — helpful in the morning!  Many studies have shown that people who eat eggs for breakfast instead of a high carb breakfast like bagels or cereal consistently lose more weight.   Other studies have shown that people who eat eggs for breakfast don’t get as hungry and don’t eat as many calories for the rest of the day.

So, you eat eggs for breakfast.  Your organs wake up sooner from sleep mode and start burning more calories.  You have high quality fuel, so the autopilot doesn’t get distress calls and you get no mid-morning hunger pains.  You can function and focus on your job for the day.   All is well.  At lunch, you are sane and sensible and can eat a moderate, well-planned meal instead of scarfing down everything you can lay hands on.  You keep your metabolism up and running.

Don’t have time to cook eggs in the morning?  Try boiling them the night before.  Then all you have to do is grab them and go.  Add a vegetable or low glycemic fruit, like an apple, and you have a balanced breakfast on the run.

If you have time, eggs fried in coconut oil make a great breakfast.  I’ve been trying to add more of this healthy fat into my diet. I’ve read of the good things it does, including support for the thyroid.   Frying eggs in the morning is a tasty way to get long-sustained  hunger control and the protein and nutrients needed for weight loss.  I know — you’ve been told forever that eating eggs is bad for your cholesterol, but new studies have shown that it doesn’t negatively affect it after all. So have some eggs.

If you can’t bear eggs, try some other high protein breakfast.  Oatmeal, whole wheat toast topped with a nut butter, or just fruit with nut butter all are good options.

But to wake up your insides and get your metabolism moving, eat breakfast!

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown