REVEALED: The ideal time for breakfast if you want to lose weight
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It has been known for a long time that one of the most efficient ways to achieve weight loss is to practise "time-restricted" eating, more popularly known as intermittent fasting.
Because the objective is to complete a period of fasting that is at least 14 hours long, one expert has suggested that the timing of breakfast is the single most important factor to consider.
Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, suggested during his presentation at the Cheltenham Science Festival in the United Kingdom that the optimal time to consume breakfast is at eleven in the morning.
This is due to the fact that many more people are eating dinner considerably later than they used to, around 9 o'clock.
Even those who eat earlier tend to snack until late at night, making it "difficult to achieve a 14-hour fasting period," according to him
According to a professor, the best time to eat breakfast for weight loss is at 11 am. Credit: McCormick.
"People can make a simple change by moving their breakfast from 8 am to 11 am, which is actually more effective than the more popular fasting diets," said Professor Spector.
"Fasting for 14 hours a day, with a later breakfast but the same amount of food, is easier to maintain over time. It works because our gut microbes, like us, have a circadian rhythm and require a rest period."
Bear in mind that in order to reap the benefits of eating breakfast, regardless of the time of day you choose to consume it, you need to make sure that the food you are putting into your body is both nutritious and good for you.
Consuming excessive amounts of sugary cereal, frozen waffles or breakfast bars does not qualify as a wholesome start to the day. Even fruit juice and smoothies and low-fat yoghurt purchased from the store should be avoided.
Try these simple strategies for eating healthy in the morning, even if you're pressed for time:
Keep it simple
The best way to eat a healthy breakfast when you don't have time or energy to make it is to keep it simple. Go for easy options like whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk, oatmeal with walnuts, hard-boiled eggs, or chopped apple with cinnamon.
Also, make sure you have healthy foods like fresh fruit, cottage cheese, yoghurt, and homemade granola that you can grab and go.
Pre-plan your meal
To save time in the morning, make the food the night before. Soak oats overnight, or make a yoghurt parfait or your favourite smoothie before bed and put it in the fridge. Always keep a small amount of chopped fruit and vegetables on hand so you can make a salad quickly.
Prepare in bulk
On the weekend, make a lot of the breakfast foods you like and put them in the freezer for the week ahead. For example, make a batch of breakfast muffins, burritos, or breakfast squares on Sunday and keep them in the fridge. You can also keep cooked beans, lentils, and chicken in the fridge so that tacos, salads, and sandwiches are easy to make.
Eat light
People often skip breakfast because they don't feel hungry first thing in the morning. The key is to eat a simple, light dinner so that your body can digest it while you sleep and make room for breakfast in the morning. Also, don't eat dinner too close to going to bed.
Here are some quick and easy breakfast recipes for busy weekday mornings. Or you can also browse through our Recipes forum, just click the link here!
Credit: Liezl Jane Strydom.
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