When my friends want to drop a few pounds, they usually say “oh I’m just going to skip lunch or dinner today.” And my response is always PLEASE. DON’T. It’s not good for you to skip meals!! Especially as girls, our hormones can so easily effect our metabolism and balance within our bodies. And it can actually have a negative effect on losing weight.
A lot of girls also skip breakfast, as it’s the only meal they have the most self control with. Which, I understand, because I’m definitely WAYYY more hungry at night than I am when I wake up. So yes, I can see why breakfast would be the easiest meal to skip if you’re trying to “cut calories.” But I’m tellin ya right now, don’t do it!
First off, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. When you nourish your body with a great healthy breakfast, it gives you the nutrients to stay energized for the day. If you don’t eat anything within 30 minutes of waking up, you can lose a ton of energy, which is hard to gain back (without like two cups of coffee:)). Also, it gets your metabolism going for the whole day! Believe it or not, breakfast in the AM can help you BURN more calories throughout your morning, afternoon and evening.
And as for lunch and dinner, here are a few more reasons you shouldn’t skip ’em:
-Effects your mood
Not sure about you guys, but I am the prime example for someone who gets HANGRY. As the Snickers commercial always says, “you’re not you when you’re hungry,” and it’s so true. In that sense, skipping a meal can then in turn effect the people around you!
-Bad for your concentration
Skipping a meal or two can really negatively impact your focus. All meals are necessary to exceed in your day to day school or work lives.
-Leads to overeating later that day or week
When we skip a meal or a day of eating, we obviously can be STARVING, which leads to excessive eating.
Or say you’re skipping lunch, and eating a MASSIVE dinner, it’s just not the same as spacing out that food intake as you regularly should. It’s all about portions and balance.
-Slows down your metabolism
We reallllly don’t want this to happen. In a very short explanation of why: when we don’t eat a meal, our bodies slow down because it needs to save up the energy it has. In turn, we don’t burn as many calories and fat as we could.
-Don’t have enough nutrients/calories your body needs to stay healthy and fit
This one more-so goes for those who skip meals all the time. Remember that our bodies need essential vitamins and minerals that can only be found in food. Skipping meals can really effect your immune system.
On that note, we also need those essential nutrients/calories to build and maintain muscle. So skipping a meal can def have a negative effect on trying to get fit. Don’t let that hard work with your workouts go to waste.
Bottom line, don’t skip meals, but moreover if you’re trying to lose weight, make sure your meals are made up of GREAT CLEAN FOOD and SMALLER PORTIONS.
Remember, FOOD IS FUEL! Hope this helps you all:)