Mini Mikkipedia - How Late is Too Late to Eat Breakfast?

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Creators & Guests

Host

Mikki Williden

What is Mikkipedia?

Mikkipedia is an exploration in all things health, well being, fitness, food and nutrition. I sit down with scientists, doctors, professors, practitioners and people who have a wealth of experience and have a conversation that takes a deep dive into their area of expertise. I love translating science into a language that people understand, so while some of the conversations will be pretty in-depth, you will come away with some practical tips that can be instigated into your everyday life. I hope you enjoy the show!

00:07
Hey everyone, it's Mikki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipedia. This week, I wanna chat about breakfast. How late is too late? Now, obviously, if you break the word down, breaking the fast, you'd think that it didn't really matter when we had breakfast, because ultimately the first meal that you eat is going to be the one that brings you out of that overnight fast. However, the usual definition, if you have a lot

00:36
sort of around in the literature. And if you look online, people generally say something like, breakfast should really be eaten by about 10 a.m. to get some of these benefits that people suggest that we see. And I think that's another important thing as well, is that there are many people who break their fast or their first meal is, you know, 11, 12, even 1 p.m. yet generally seem healthy. Their metabolic markers are intact. They don't have

01:06
increased hunger, particularly late night hunger, they don't have massive cravings, their overall energy expenditure or the amount of energy they subjectively report isn't reduced, despite the fact that they are essentially missing a meal, if they miss a meal. So I think this is a good topic to explore considering that, I mean, personally, me, I've been all over the show with breakfast and it's only in the last

01:35
probably three years that I've consistently had breakfast on most days of the week and have it relatively, have it probably like nine o'clock or 10 o'clock depending on when my clients are, and I definitely feel better for it. And I think ultimately this is a thing which we have to evaluate for ourselves because there is no one right way to do it. Now, there are days where my first actual meal will be maybe 11 or 12 if I've gone out running.

02:04
like in the morning and we've gone out to Kata Matua or gone out to Hanoi's, we don't get back till late. We will have had a small snack prior to running, maybe had something on the run, but it's not until we get back, which we actually have a first meal. So that would be when my breakfast, as I think with a lot of people, because their schedule is different, tends to be more like brunch on the weekend. But what are the arguments against skipping breakfast? And this is what I want to sort of.

02:33
talk about from a hormone, from a hormone and an appetite and a metabolic regulation perspective, and then mention a very recent meta-analysis that looked at skipping breakfast versus having breakfast and its effects on metabolism. So one of the first things to consider is our circadian rhythm and breakfast timing. So circadian rhythm is our body's natural 24-hour cycle that regulates various physiological processes.

03:02
including our sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, digestion, and of course metabolism. These rhythms are influenced by external cues such as light exposure and meal timing. They're the two biggest zeitbergers if you like, particularly that light exposure. It's worth noting that the body's master clock, which is located in the hypothalamus, which is in the suprachiasmatic nucleus,

03:30
ensures that various biological processes are synchronized, but we have more than just one clock. With the role of meal timing in circadian health, we know that early meal timing does support the synchronization of peripheral clocks in our organs like our liver, our pancreas, our gut, which promotes efficient digestion and energy utilization.

03:54
And we also know that consistently eating breakfast earlier in the day does reinforce the alignment between your eating schedule and the body's natural metabolic peak. And for what it's worth, your body likes habits. It likes getting into the same routine and consistently following that routine. And if you're used to eating at a certain time, then the body does anticipate an influx of calories at that time.

04:23
so it can prepare itself for that digestive process. And it is thought from a physiological perspective when breakfast is earlier, if it is say before 10am, then you're going to also optimize other hormones that are related to metabolism and digestion and utilization of nutrients. It appears from quite a few of the studies that came up in the Consensus app that late eating has been linked to disruptions in glucose metabolism.

04:52
increased triglycerides, and higher levels of inflammation. And this is more likely, particularly if all of the meals are pushed back, so you end up eating, for example, a later breakfast, let's say 11 or 12, you have a later lunch, 3 or 4, and then a later dinner, 8 or 9pm. Research shows that eating a high proportion of calories earlier in the day can improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity compared to later in the day.

05:19
And that's when we appear to be much more sensitive. So the body is primed for food intake due to heightened insulin sensitivity, increased cortisol levels and active digestive enzymes earlier in the day. And then the later on it gets, the less that the liver is able to metabolize as much carbohydrate or potentially as many calories or as many nutrients. Also, if we think about eating late at night, this can lead to metabolic dysfunction.

05:48
weight gain and poor sleep quality. Bearing in mind a lot of these negative outcomes from skipping breakfast might not necessarily be from skipping breakfast but might be due to the pattern of eating that then follows skipping breakfast. So it's not necessarily that you're not having breakfast early, it's just that you're pushing all of your meals later in the day or more calories are consumed later in the day and that's when the issues lie.

06:16
Practically speaking as well, I see many people who do skip breakfast then are ravenous later in the day and find it harder to control what they do. And so there's a lot of mindless eating that occurs in between, for example, getting home from work and dinner, or after a very full dinner where you should otherwise be satisfied, you're still hungry and you're still missing something. And if you skipping breakfast leads to that kind of behavior,

06:45
that's where it's not an overly great idea for your metabolic health. And in part, if we relate it back to the circadian rhythm, then if you eat when your body is primed to eating, so earlier in the day, making the most of that increased insulin sensitivity. And remember, insulin isn't just about carbohydrate, it's a nutrient delivery hormone. So it will also take up fatty acids as well and deliver them to where

07:13
where we want them to go. So you're just much more primed for those calories earlier in the day. There are also some effects of skipping or delaying breakfast on your appetite hormones. Research shows that there can be an increase in these ghrelin levels. So ghrelin is a hormone that is released in response to hunger. The hungrier we are, generally it means that ghrelin is higher and the less ghrelin we've got in our system, the less hungry we are.

07:42
So skipping breakfast can cause relin levels to remain elevated, leading to increased hunger and potential overeating later in the day. Without breakfast, the body could experience blood sugar spikes and crashes, which affects energy levels and cognitive function. And this is because if you have sort of alarm bells ringing because you don't have the calories required, then your body can dump glucose into the bloodstream, which can then relate to an increase in

08:10
insulin that comes into your system that then delivers that glucose to where it's required. So this is all happening in the absence of calories. And this is if skipping breakfast ends up being a stress on your system. And of course, it goes without saying on the basis of what I just said, that there can be a heightened stress response. So it can amplify cortisol levels that contribute to prolonged stress response and metabolic strain, which then results in that

08:40
mentioned. And you know, when you look at some research, it does suggest that there are studies that link habitual breakfast skipping to higher rates of obesity and insulin resistance, which could possibly be due to these disrupted metabolic and hormonal rhythms. And again, I don't necessarily think that it's skipping breakfast per se, but it is how this then affects the overall dietary patterns. And I think that's what we want to bear in mind.

09:08
Interestingly, of course, skipping breakfast is one of the easiest ways that we implement time restricted eating. And that I think has many, many health benefits for many, many people. There's not a whole ton of human data, but a couple of trials suggest that when you eat within an earlier timeframe, so your eating window, instead of it being sort of 12 to 8, if it was, for example, 8 to 4, metabolically speaking, you are in a better health position.

09:38
you do tend to have a better insulin response, lower insulin, you are able to utilize the calories more. And, you know, if we think about it, that's when you are much more active, aren't you usually during the day? Whereas if you are eating many more of your calories late at night, you might not be active enough to, to sort of burn and burn off some of those calories that you would otherwise be eating. So that's another thing to consider when we're thinking about skipping breakfast.

10:07
From an appetite regulation perspective, eating breakfast shortly after waking can help suppress ghrelin, which is our hunger hormone, reduce hunger and curb cravings throughout the day. And then you also avoid that compensatory increase in calorie intake that means you eat more calories over and above what you would if you were to just pop breakfast in. And this is what I do see practically speaking with a lot of my clients.

10:37
who move from skipping breakfast to start having it. Suddenly their voracious appetite later in the day is under control. We also know that there is research to show that eating breakfast is linked to lower cortisol levels. So eating breakfast may help in managing stress and maintaining a healthier cortisol rhythm. And particularly if low calories are a stress on your physiology and on your nervous system,

11:06
eating breakfast can do, it can help calm that stress down. And particularly if you're choosing a breakfast that is higher protein, does have some, you know, a bit of fiber in it for those people who tolerate fiber, may also have the inclusion of some healthy fats, that's also going to regulate blood sugar. And those two things help keep you more energized and calm and focused throughout the day. So therefore, your stress response will be lowered and you are much

11:35
more likely to make considered decisions as opposed to be reactive across the day. So that's super important for anyone who has big decisions to make, who might be managing teams or trying to run a household and things like that. Your stress responses really change when you put breakfast in versus skipping breakfast or having a later breakfast because of course I'm talking about how late is too late.

12:01
Other appetite hormones that are influenced by having breakfast are peptide YY, PYY, and glucogon-like peptide, so GLP-1. Breakfast eaters tend to have higher levels of both of these hormones, which are associated with increased satiety and reduced appetite, compared to those people who do skip breakfast.

12:20
As I mentioned, breakfast consumption tends to lead to lower ghrelin levels, and eating breakfast can improve insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism because that is when we are primed to deliver nutrients to where they're required. For what it's worth, consuming a high protein breakfast can further enhance satiety and reduce hunger by increasing PYY and reducing ghrelin. Again, this can lead to later...

12:45
food intake in the day and what one study suggests this could be a beneficial weight management strategy for people with overweight and obesity. However, not all of the research suggests that these what appear to be obvious physiological advantages hold true for all people. And I think this is really important. This is the thing with nutrition. There's no one right way to do it. And whilst I was preparing my notes on

13:14
late is too late for breakfast, that is after 10am too late, and I talked through all of the reasons why having a later meal to break your fast could well be detrimental to your health goals. I then find a paper that actually suggests the opposite, and it's a recent paper as well. So this was, actually, well, recent enough. This was published November 2023, and it looked at the effect of skipping breakfast on cardiovascular risk factors, which in itself,

13:43
is interesting because these are merely like midpoint factors which might relate to cardiometabolic health, but they actually might not as well. Like, I mean, the research is really quite skewed on how important it is that we focus on a reduction of LDL and total cholesterol for cardiometabolic health. And look, you guys know that I'm not bought in or sold into the idea that in of itself, cholesterol is a potent risk factor.

14:11
there are other things that we need to consider as well. However, I thought it was worth noting that despite all of these potential physiological benefits from eating breakfast, in this meta analysis and systematic review, they found that skipping breakfast over a short time period, so these were looking at studies under four weeks, people with overweight and obesity

14:41
were able to lose more weight because they reduced their overall energy intake. However, despite that weight loss, they saw an increase in serum LDL. So the overall sort of conclusion from this was that we still need more studies to figure out the role of breakfast in cardiovascular disease, which is interesting, right? So all of the changes in potential appetite, hormones,

15:10
and insulin sensitivity related to skipping breakfast might not necessarily hold true when we're looking at these randomized controlled trials. And throughout this meta analysis, and I'll put a link in the show notes to it, it really comes down to the people who you are looking at, people of a healthy weight versus people with overweight and obesity, what cardio metabolic factors already exist,

15:39
And also, of course, what changes to other health behaviors and habits occur when we eat breakfast. So this meta-analysis showed a better weight loss outcome when you skipped breakfast over a short term period, but there's not a whole lot of data to show consistently over time what that actually looks like. And in fact, skipping breakfast really is a form of time restricted eating, as is a late breakfast.

16:08
a lot of health benefits associated with that. So here's my practical take home for you. Well, first of all, it's more than mechanisms and with anything with nutrition, you want to look at it more from just a mechanism perspective because you can paint quite a picture based on potential physiological changes that might not actually translate to the real world. So that's one thing. The second thing is how do you feel when you skip breakfast or have a late breakfast?

16:38
Do you feel like you have less spontaneous activity through the day? Are you moody? Are you irritable? Do you have ravenous hunger that you can't control? Are you snacking late at night because you haven't had breakfast or you had a late breakfast? What are your cravings like? Ask yourself these qualitative questions to understand better how skipping breakfast or how a late breakfast might affect you personally. And then of course, my final thing is,

17:08
Even if you do have a late breakfast, how does that affect your other macronutrients? And clearly you know I'm big on protein. Are you still able to meet your protein goals despite the fact that you have a late breakfast or you skipped breakfast? If all of that in mind, you actually are resilient, healthy, you've got good appetite control, your mood's great, you have no metabolic issues, you are of a healthy weight or you're trending in that direction, and you meet your protein goals.

17:38
then it probably doesn't matter when you have breakfast. If none of that is true, then maybe eating breakfast and eating it earlier in the day rather than leaving it till later is going to help resolve some of those other physiological challenges that can occur when some people do skip breakfast or eat it later. So, you know, literature is so great for helping inform what can go wrong or things to think about. But again, you are your own

18:05
n equals one investigator. You'll know what's gonna work well for you. As with everything in nutrition, sometimes it can just be a little bit mucky and there's no one right answer. Anyway, hopefully that either gave you some confidence that you're on the right path or gave you something to think about in case you need to do things differently. Hit me up in the DMs, I'm always here to chat over on Instagram, threads or Twitter, @mikkiwilliden, Facebook MikkiwillidenNutrition.

18:32
or head to my website, mikkiwiliden.com and you could book a call for me in the new year to help you sort your better breakfast strategy. All right team, have the best week.