It happens to almost everyone -- you get up late and rush out the door without eating breakfast. If you struggle with your weight and have excess belly fat, eating breakfast every morning might help you with both challenges. Breakfast also can provide an energy boost, giving you the stamina you need to perform your daily activities without becoming tired. Plan breakfast meals around foods that are good for your health and might help you burn excess belly fat.
Function
Regular, filling breakfasts can help you avoid eating too many calories both later in the morning and all day long; this will help you lose not only excess belly fat, but fat all over your body. Additionally, according to MayoClinic.com, eating breakfast helps regulate your blood sugar and avoid an increase in insulin, which can cause an increase in your body's fat stores.
Warning
Living with an excess amount of belly fat is dangerous for your overall health. According to a 2007 study published in the journal "Circulation," Dextor Canoy and colleagues found that people with abdominal obesity were at a significant risk for developing heart disease. The larger the waist-hip ratio was for both men and women, the higher the risk of disease. Failing to eat breakfast foods that help burn belly fat might increase your risk of disease if you do not reduce your abdominal circumference through other means.
Belly Burning Breakfast Foods
In 2009, Peter Clifton and colleagues published a study in the journal "Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases" which studied the impact of protein foods on a variety of factors, including abdominal fat. Participants who ate the highest amounts of protein lost both weight and the greatest amount of abdominal fat. Some high-protein breakfast choices include eggs at 7.3 grams of protein per egg, low-fat cottage cheese at 15 grams per 1/2 cup, fat-free yogurt at 13 grams per cup and skim milk at 8.26 grams per cup, according to the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.
Strategies
Find the three or four breakfast meals you enjoy the most, and rotate the options from day to day. Doing so can help you avoid eating restaurant biscuits or becoming bored by eating the same breakfast every day. If you are trying to lose weight overall, hold out 150 to 250 calories for snacks, and divide the remaining number into thirds to determine how many breakfast calories you should eat. For example, if your goal is 1,600 calories a day, eat 250 calories in healthy snacks and roughly 350 to 450 calories for each of your three main meals.
Considerations
In addition to focusing your breakfast meals on foods that can help burn belly fat, focus your entire eating plan on foods that are low in calories and high in nutrition. Eat vegetables, fruits, whole grains and small amounts of monounsaturated fats. Monounsaturated fats might help reduce the amount of your belly fat, according to a 2007 study led by Juan Paniagua and published in the journal "Diabetes Care." Avocados, nuts and cold-water fish are also good choices.
References
- Purdue University Student Health Center: The Importance of Breakfast
- MayoClinic: Why Does Eating Breakfast Help Control Weight?
- Circulation: Body Fat Distribution and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Men and Women in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition in Norfolk Cohort
- Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Disease: High Protein Diets Decrease Total and Abdominal Fat and Improve CVD Risk Profile in Overweight and Obese Men and Women With Elevated Triacylglycerol
- USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 17: Protein
- Diabetes Care: Monounsaturated Fat--Rich Diet Prevents Central Body Fat Distribution and Decreases Postprandial Adiponectin Expression Induced by a Carbohydrate-Rich Diet in Insulin-Resistant Subjects
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