Myth. Your metabolism doesn't need to be "kickstarted" in the morning. The reason people are encourged to eat breakfast is that it means they're not starving by lunchtime and eating more than they wanted to/planned to/think they are.
Agreed. It's a cockroach of a myth that will probably survive a nuclear blast. I would like add to Kara's point that:
1. A study by Johnston (2002) shows that that "a 36-hour fast, which generated a negative energy balance of approximately 12 MJ, did not induce a powerful, unconditioned stimulus to compensate on the subsequent day." This particular study shows NO powerful tendency to gorge even after missing meals for up to 3 days. Any tendency to overeat, however, may be due to psychological factors rather than physiological needs, which brings us to the next point.
2. A study by Mars (2005) found that, after 2 days of diet restriction of up to 62% produces a
refeeding compensation of about 30% higher calorie intake during ad libitum (free-feeding). This study thus shows a calorie compensation, but the subjects still ate overall fewer total calories than had they eaten their regular meal quantity.
3. Although we can debate the composition of calories (high carb, low carb, high proteing, etc) and then debate meal frequency and meal timing, in the end the single irrefutable fact is that overall calorie intake determines body composition (fat or lean), and the focus should be on ways to reduce the drivers of excessive calorie intake (Swinburn, 2009).
Um. No.
That's a whole lot of diet myth mixed into one place there. The only part that is correct is that you risk being hungrier if you skip breakfast and therefore eating more than you planned to. Otherwise - myth. Your metabolism doesn't adapt that fast. Being hungry does not mean you store more fat. None of that is true.
Hunger is an adaptive phenomenon, based on the "hunger hormone" ghrelin. In any case, there are societies that eat only once or twice a day as cultural tradition, yet don't exhibit obesity or overweight or metabolic diseases. There are countries that traditionally don't snack between meals, and are healthy and lean. And in all of these examples hunger is not an issue.
Starvation, by the way, is a physiological response to a complete depletion of fat stores, which occurs generally after about 3 or 4 weeks of complete absence of food. Not likely to happen in the Western world.
Again a mish-mash of myth. It doesn't matter how many meals you eat - 1, 3, 5, 12, whatever. Metabolic adaptation doesn't happen that fast and "starvation mode" as most dieters think of it doesn't exist. In fact some recent studies have shown a metabolic INCREASE (a tiny one) when people first start fasting. It levels out pretty quickly though. Eat whenever you want, just make sure your calories and nutrients are at a healthy level.
Agreed 1,000,000%
Best,
Johnny
