We've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And today I'm going a little further on this point, to say it's even MORE import at if your goal is Fat Loss.
You see, a well constructed breakfast can set you up for Fat Loss success, and on the flip side your breakfast can be really detrimental to your endeavours to reduce your waistline if not set up well.
It's easy to think that so many breakfast options out there are good for us when you see marketing statements such as:
- healthy choice, balanced - high protein - high in calcium - high fibre - real fruit - whole grain, low fat etc etc.
The reality is a lot of this is misleading and certainly not helping you lose fat.
We want to share with you today a very simple protocol to follow to ensure you're setting your first meal of the day up for fat loss success.
Non Training Day
So on a day that you DO NOT train in the morning, you want to have a breakfast made up of the following:
Protein: E.g. Eggs, (various forms. Scrambled, poached, omelette etc) Meat Salmon (also a fat) Supplement Chai seed pudding (see recipe below) Smoothie without carbs Protein bread
Fats: Nuts/seeded nut bread Avocado Coconut/olive oil Fish oil/omega 3
Vegetables (non starchy): Tomato (I know it's a fruit) Mushrooms Spinach Kale Cucumber Zucchini - many of these can be used in a juice/smoothie without adding unnecessary carbs
Training Day
On a morning where YOU DO TRAIN, you want to have some carbohydrates WITH your protein, fats and vegetables to boost recovery, transportation of protein to muscles and to restore energy stores, brain function and so on.
Some good options for carbs are: Oats Organic, rye or wholemeal/cape seed bread (1 - 2 slices) Some fruits such as Berries.
Here's the deal with fruit and fat loss.
NOTE: The sugar in fruit (fructose) is not ideal to be consuming regularly (daily) if your goal is fat loss, so if you are going to consume it, try and make sure it's only immediately before or post training.
Consuming fruit throughout the day as a snack on a regular basis is not ideal as it boosts your insulin levels, over them this increases your resistance to insulin, meaning your body needs to produce more of it to breakdown the glucose/sugar. And the more insulin your produce the higher amounts you then have in your bloodstream, along with higher levels of triglycerides, which to our simply, blocks Fat Loss.
Try to snack on foods high in protein and good fats and keep your hydration up to keep satiety high.
Avoiding snacking on things such as fruit and yogurt, bread and so on. Only have these options immediately after training if you must.
