Can a Healthy Breakfast Help You Lose Weight Quick?

A perfect hike prior to throwing the perfect pass… the perfect toss before the tennis rackets slams into it for an ace… the perfectly balanced golf stance prior to winding up for the perfectly timed hit on the golf ball that sends it soaring 300 yards down the fairway, straight as an arrow.

All of these “perfect” outcomes were as a result of having done something before that allowed that perfect “event” to happen flawlessly, and seemingly without effort.

If you want to lose weight quick, so it goes with setting up your day of eating. Starting out on the wrong foot, with unbalanced food groups shooting your blood sugar levels wildly up… then cascading down again, will set yourself up for a failed day – you won’t lose weight quick (or at all) if you start your day eating the wrong foods.

But what is the right… and the wrong way to start your day with a healthy breakfast?

Here’s an easy quiz… see if you can pick out which breakfast (A or B) is the more healthy breakfast way to start your day:

Breakfast A:

Healthy breakfast?

bowl of sugar frosted flakes

1 cup of skim milk

1 cup of orange juice

1 slice of toast

1 pat of butter

1 tablespoon of jam

Breakfast B:

Healthy Breakfast!

3 ounces of sirloin

2 whole eggs

1/2 grapefruit

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup of black coffee (no sugar or milk)

If you chose Breakfast A, do NOT pass go, do not collect $200, and go straight to jail (you monopoly fans will get it).

Let’s take a closer look at these two to see why one is a healthy breakfast, and the other will send you straight to disease haven.

Breakfast A:

Calories = 605

Carbohydrates = 106 grams (70% of calories)

Sugar = 56 grams = 4.7 Tablespoons of sugar (actually 9 tablespoons when you consider that all the carbohydrates in this meal act like sugar in your body)

Fat = 12 grams (18% of calories)

Protein = 14 grams (12% of calories)

Fiber = 4 grams

Sodium = 630 mg (25% of daily recommended amount)

Breakfast B:

Calories = 378

Carbohydrates = 19 grams (20% of calories)

Sugar = 5 grams = 1 1/4 teaspoon sugar

Fat = 15 grams = (36% of calories)

Protein = 39 grams = (41% of calories)

Fiber = 5 grams

Sodium = 130 mg (5.4% of daily recommended amount)

Breakfast A is loaded with carbohydrates that “act” like sugar in your body, AND, actual sugar too. This “double whammy” will overload your pancreas (your organ that produces insulin in response to meals) like you won’t believe. Is it any wonder that type II diabetes is soaring in this country? And with parents feeding our kids these kinds of meals all day long (heavy on the carbohydrates, low on the protein and fiber and nutrients), is it no wonder that the US Surgeon General has issued a warning about the skyrocketing rates of diabetes in kids today?

The US Surgeon General also estimates that 1 in 3 kids born today will develop diabetes in their lifetimes – pretty sobering statistics.

Breakfast A will shoot your blood sugar levels sky-high, then, as your pancreas releases insulin to “clear” this excess sugar from your bloodstream, will cause your blood sugar levels to drop precipitously. This “yo-yo” effect causes you to quickly feel hungry again for, you guessed it, more sugar, and the vicious cycle continues all day long.

And guess which breakfast will cause you to feel full longer? If you guessed healthy breakfast B you get a gold star on your forehead. Even though breakfast B calories are almost half the calories of breakfast A, the stable blood sugar levels that result from eating breakfast B will let you go longer without feeling hungry again.

Here’s another tip – fat burning cannot happen in the presence of high blood sugar levels.

Insulin is an extremely potent “storage” hormone, which means that your body is looking for a place to store all those excess sugars and calories. You cannot “store” and “burn” at the same time. If you guessed that your fat cells are usually the only place for them to be stored (because chronic high blood sugar levels over time have already filled up your other “depot” areas like your liver and muscles cells), then you’re right. This means chronically eating foods like breakfast A are keeping you in a “storage” mode almost all the time.

On the other hand, healthy breakfast B contains about the perfect combination of proteins, low-glycemic carbohydrates, and fats to keep your blood sugar steady — increasing the time when you’ll feel hungry again.

Healthy breakfast B is great for adults, with similar meals consisting of lean meat, fibrous vegetables, and healthy fats (olive oil) the rest of the day.

Quick Tip: You should not eat a high-protein, low-carbohydrate AND low-fat diet. Low-carbs and low-fat will NOT work for the long term. And in fact, you’ll have a harder time losing fat. You must eat a moderate amount of good fats (eggs have been villified for so many years that even in the light of recent data showing the fats in eggs are mainly benign, people still have issues with eating the yolks of eggs…don’t be one of the misinformed!).

For kids, one great way to start their day would be uncooked steel-cut oats (NOT QUICK OATS PLEASE – it digests too quickly sending blood sugar levels soaring) topped with all kinds of fresh fruit (sliced bananas, blueberries, blackberries, etc), and a cup of whole milk mixed with a great-tasting and good for them protein powder (see previous posts for my recommendations here – NO SOY PROTEIN PLEASE), and a 1/2 tablespoon of UDO’s choice (found in your health food store) mixed in. Your kids will love this concoction, trust me.

The reason you don’t want to cook the oats is because cooking it makes it easier to digest. And you now know that the easier a food is to digest, the more potential it has to raise your blood sugar levels. Raw is best.

Now that you have the knowledge, make the right choices, take action… and…

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.