I’ve always been a “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” person. Even in my last year of high school when I was skipping breakfast every morning so I could get fifteen more minutes of sleep, I still believed it was the most important.

I’d always been taught that it was the best meal for keeping your weight under control, for getting your energy up at the start of the day and for just doing things right overall. Study after study has backed up my belief, so I’ve never had any reason to doubt it…until now.
A study conducted by a research team at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Its senior author was Flavia Cicuttini, the head of the university’s musculoskeletal unit.

Previous research has suggested that if you eat a big hearty breakfast, you’d be more likely to lose weight. In fact, many studies recommended eating breakfast as your largest meal of the day and dinner as your smallest.

While the research didn’t show that people who eat breakfast will not lose weight as effectively, what they did find was that every individual is different. “Do what works best for you,” said Cicuttini when she was interviewed.

So essentially, if you find that eating breakfast in the morning works for you, helps to keep you energized, feeling full and losing weight, then eat a great breakfast. If you find that a very light breakfast – or skipping it altogether – is what works for you, then that might be the right strategy.

Cicuttini was careful to point out that there isn’t a single cookie-cutter solution that works for everyone. Therefore, my beloved expression that breakfast is the most important meal of the day may be right for me, but it might not be right for you. Some people eat less during the rest of the day after having a big breakfast. Some people eat more. Some people enjoy breakfast, while others do not.

The study was published in the online version of the BMJ on January 30, 2019. It really stood out to me because I’ve actually told friends and family that they should eat breakfast. I’ve looked at them in horror when they’ve said they skip breakfast because it helps them to keep their calories down. For me, I’d be starving by noon and would stuff myself full of food for the rest of the day. Turns out, I owe some friends and family an apology. We were both right, but only for the decisions we made for ourselves!