Skipping out on the first meal of the day to save calories and lose weight? Not exactly the best plan, since saying no to breakfast can slow down your metabolism and cause your body to hold on to fat. But it's not only important to eat in the morning — make sure you avoid these four breakfast mistakes as well.
1. Making breakfast the smallest meal
Science Daily reports that, according to research done at Tel Aviv University, making breakfast the largest meal of your day helps fight not only obesity, but also disease. Because the first meal jump starts your metabolism, people who eat a large breakfast are more likely to lose weight than people who eat a large dinner.
2. Grabbing drinks with breakfast
Liquid calories get you every time! Specialty coffee drinks, huge glasses of smoothies, and fresh juices can run you 300 calories or more. That on top of your breakfast can make calorie counts creep up fast. Go for coffee with a little bit of milk, drink a smaller-size smoothie with your breakfast, and eat your fruit instead of juicing it to consume fewer calories and more fiber.
3. Eating before you are hungry
While your first meal of the day should be your largest, don’t rush to eat breakfast as soon as you awake, because once you eat, you’ll kick start your metabolism, which could make you hungrier for lunch earlier in the day. Eat that large, first meal when you begin to feel hunger pains. Breakfast doesn't have to be at 6 AM.
4. Eating after work
You wake up at 6 a.m. and are in such a rush to get ready, pack your lunch, and get to your nine-to-five job that you figure you'll sip coffee on your commute and just eat when you get to your desk. It's important to eat within an hour of waking, because just like skipping breakfast, it messes with your metabolism. Avoid eating too late by making these meals the night before. If you don't have time to sit down and eat, pack a portable snack the night before that you can quickly grab and nibble on the way.
5. Consuming high calories cereals
Breakfast cereals are an easy option and often promoted as a healthy way to start your day. However, some cereals are in fact far from nutritious and packed with calories and fat. The obvious ones to avoid are those featuring chocolate (even if they claim to have added vitamins and minerals), and anything ‘baked’ , ‘toasted’ or ‘crunchy’ as these tend to be coated in oil before cooking to give the crisp texture and can be very high in fat and calories. Avoid those with added calorie laden extras such as yogurt clusters.
6. Getting fooled by some unhealthy foods
As with breakfast cereals, there are plenty of other breakfast foods that are perceived or advertised as healthy when in fact they are far from it. Sachets of flavored cereal that need water adding such as oatmeal, granola bars, breakfast milk drinks and breakfast bars all fall into this category. Often these foods will carry the label of ‘low fat’ or ‘high fiber’ which gives the impression that they are a healthy choice. However, many of these foods are high in sugar, laden in calories and may contain little nutritional value due to a high level of processing. Always choose foods that are as close as possible to their natural form and compare labels to find the most nutritious product.
