When should you eat breakfast?
The most modern thinking: Eat right off the bat. “I recommend eating within an hour of waking up,” says Cynthia Sass, RD, CSSD, a NYC and LA performance nutritionist who coaches celebrities, CEOs, and the Brooklyn Nets. “This habit fuels mental and physical performance throughout the morning, which tends to be the most productive time of day,” she explains. “It can also curb late-night eating—key because most people are least active in the evening, and unable to burn off unneeded calories, which can lead to weight gain.”
What’s more, having a bite before you dash out the door may also help with insulin regulation, possibly lowering your risk of diabetes, according to a 2017 study published in the Journal of Physiology. The researchers looked at breakfast-skipping versus breakfast-eating in overweight and lean people and found that having a morning meal improved energy expenditure (that’s calories burned) and decreased insulin resistance overall. For the overweight group, there was an added breakfast benefit: It activated a gene involved in fat burning.