Is It Okay to Skip Breakfast If You’re Really Not Hungry in the Morning?

Caroline Tien
·4 min read

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You’ve no doubt heard breakfast is the most important meal of the day, whether it takes the form of avocado toast, a plate of eggs, a buttered bagel, or a handful of Cheerios snatched from the cereal box as you’re sprinting out the door. But what if your stomach doesn’t seem to have gotten the message that it’s time to eat?

Many people face that dilemma, Lizzy Pope, PhD, RD, an associate professor and director of the undergraduate dietetics program at the University of Vermont, tells SELF. “It's not abnormal or unique to not feel hungry in the morning,” she says. In a small 2020 study of 193 adolescents published in the journal BMC Nutrition, researchers found that only 32% reported eating breakfast all year round, for reasons that included—you guessed it—exactly that.

Right off the bat, let’s get one thing straight: If this describes you, your lack of a.m. appetite isn’t necessarily major cause for concern, but there are a few reasons you might not wake up feeling famished. Maybe you’re less sensitive to hunger cues, according to Dr. Pope. Perhaps you’re experiencing fluctuations in certain hormones, whether due to stress, the timing of your menstrual cycle, or even a hard morning workout. (For example, epinephrine, a.k.a. adrenaline, and estrogen can act as appetite suppressants, while progesterone and testosterone might have the opposite effect, Dr. Pope says. And vigorous exercise can blunt the hunger hormone ghrelin for a few hours afterward, as SELF reported previously.) Or maybe you just ate a lot before you went to bed. (However, any sudden shift in appetite could be worth discussing with a doctor or dietitian, Dr. Pope adds.)

So depending on your biology, routine, and lifestyle, not feeling hungry in the morning might be natural for you. But here’s the twist: Even if you don’t have much of an appetite right after crawling out of bed, it’s still an excellent idea to try to eat something soon after waking up—ideally within an hour or two, Anna Maria Merz, MS, RD, a registered dietitian at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. “It doesn’t need to be a huge, fancy breakfast. It can just be even a snack,” she says.

There’s a few reasons for that recommendation. First, a morning meal helps kickstart your metabolism for the day, so your body has the energy it needs to tackle the tasks at hand, according to Merz. Second, it can supply important nutrients, Dr. Pope says. For example, some breakfast foods—think chia pudding, fruit salads, or eggs scrambled with veggies—are rich in fiber, a type of carb that has many digestive benefits, she says. Third, it can prevent you from feeling overly hungry later on, according to Dr. Pope. Finally, eating in the morning can help keep your blood sugar more stable throughout the day, which can ward off “that feeling of crashing after a meal,” Merz says. Plus, if you have a medical condition like diabetes or use medication that needs to be taken with food, it may be extra important for health reasons to eat early, says Merz.

In short, you really want to avoid skipping breakfast if possible. Thankfully, that should be fairly easy to do because, as Merz says, “breakfast” doesn’t have to mean an elaborate spread like a stack of pancakes or a platter of bacon and eggs. Look out for simple combos that supply carbs, protein, some fat, and micronutrients like vitamins and minerals, according to Dr. Pope. Yogurt with granola, oatmeal with berries, and peanut butter and banana on toast are three solid options that are comparatively easy to whip up, but even something as low-effort as a protein bar can help deliver the fuel necessary to wake up your system, she says.

In fact, breakfast doesn’t even have to be a solid food if you don’t want it to be. For a satisfying option you can sip, Merz suggests blending up some fruit and Greek yogurt to make a smoothie. “Some people do say it’s a little bit easier to drink something than eat if they're not feeling particularly hungry,” she says. (If you want to make it extra hardy, you can add protein powder.) One note: You just want to make sure whatever you’re eating or drinking has a nice balance of macros: Eating super sugary options by themselves can cause your blood sugar to spike and your energy level to plummet soon after, according to Merz.

Other than that, pretty much anything goes. Yep, even a slice of…deep-dish? “I had a friend who would always eat leftover cold pizza for breakfast,” Dr. Pope says. But if the thought of digging into day-old Domino’s doesn’t appeal to you, check out this list of quick and easy breakfasts SELF editors actually make for some added inspo.

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Originally Appeared on SELF

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