--- title: Best Breakfasts to Lose Weight description: These 3 meal suggestions will help keep you full until lunch. canonical: https://time.com/4238672/weight-loss-breakfast-rules-2/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-26T17:14:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:44:56.549Z og:title: 3 Breakfast Rules to Follow to Lose Weight og:description: Meals to keep you full until lunch og:url: https://time.com/4238672/weight-loss-breakfast-rules-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2bd5785872948f27/69887f4fbc6cfc753f3dbe90/breakfast-lose-weight-eggs-bananas.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4853 og:image:height: 2730 og:image:alt: 598079057 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 3 Breakfast Rules to Follow to Lose Weight twitter:description: Meals to keep you full until lunch twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2bd5785872948f27/69887f4fbc6cfc753f3dbe90/breakfast-lose-weight-eggs-bananas.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 3 Ways Your Breakfast Can Help You Lose Weight > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Worth Your Time: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Worth Your Time is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more. Worth Your Time is a curated guide to the culture worth knowing, from the biggest conversations of the moment to the books, shows, ideas and discoveries worth your attention. Culture editor Eliza Berman taps TIME's collective taste and perspective to surface what is worth watching, reading, talking about and sharing, and why. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The Truth About Fat [Watch (HLS stream): The Truth About Fat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uYGhfNfS.m3u8) (5:15)  _Published 2014-06-12. When you want to lose weight or get healthy, what is the first thing you would normally cut from your diet? If you said fat, you're not alone_ by [Tina Halpert / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Tina Halpert / Health.com Contributor Feb 26, 2016 5:14 PM UTC  Full English breakfast with tea Full English breakfast with tea Getty Images by [Tina Halpert / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Tina Halpert / Health.com Contributor Feb 26, 2016 5:14 PM UTC One of the best ways to make realistic and long-lasting lifestyles changes is by eating a healthy breakfast every morning. Studies how that eating breakfast [jump-starts your metabolism](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20406798,00.html), so it’s an easy way to kick-start your efforts. But when it comes to breakfasts, not all of them are created equal. In fact, some of them can actually derail your weight-loss efforts if you’re not careful. Instead follow these breakfast rules to help you slim down. **1\. Eat right away** Studies have found that eating breakfast [helps keep your metabolism revved](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20306911%5F8,00.html), so be sure to eat within 30-60 minutes of waking to take advantage of your body’s full fat-burning potential. Eating first thing helps ensure that you don’t feel so starved later in the day that you end up making bad eating choices for lunch or dinner. But what if you’re not a breakfast person? If the thought of eating something that early in the morning turns your stomach, try sipping your breakfast with this [Wake-Up Smoothie](http://news.health.com/2013/09/05/thirsty-thursday-wake-up-smoothie/). **_Health.com:_**[_The Best Foods to Eat for Breakfast_](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20676415,00.html?xid=time-breakfast-011315) **2\. Load up on protein** A [breakfast high in protein](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20692801,00.html)—think eggs and Greek yogurt—can ward off hunger pangs, helping you eat less and ultimately lose weight. One study found that women who ate egg breakfasts [lost twice as much weight](http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20410236,00.html) as women who started their days with bagels. The protein in eggs increases satiety and decreases hunger, which helps you eat fewer calories throughout the day. High-protein options are also a great choice for feeling full and energized all day long since they digest more slowly than other breakfasts. **_Health.com:_**[_14 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism Instantly_](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20835155,00.html?xid=time-breakfast-011315) **_Health.com:_** [25 Ways to Cut 500 Calories a Day](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20454528,00.html?xid=time-breakfast-011315) **3\. Add a banana** Eating a breakfast that’s high in Resistant Starch (RS) can help you stay full and help you burn more calories since it prompts your body to use fat for energy. RS is found in foods like bananas and oats, so try this [Banana Nut Oatmeal](http://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,50400000108125,00.html) for a seriously satisfying and delicious breakfast! **_Read Tina’s daily food and fitness blog,_** [**_Carrots ‘N’ Cake_**](http://carrotsncake.com/)**_._** [_This article originally appeared on Health.com_](http://news.health.com/2015/01/09/3-breakfast-rules-to-follow-to-lose-weight/?xid=time-breakfast-011315) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] There's something we all enjoy about staying for dinner. You ever thought why? What was on your dinner table when you were younger? Chances are it had a lot to do with, what your doctor was telling you is healthy. Building a strong healthy body is like building a strong, beautiful building. If the foundation is weak, the whole building will be weak. It takes five fingers to point the way to healthful eating habits. Well, here we go. For years, the government published dietary guidelines. Meant to keep Americans healthy. There's a great deal to learn. Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are. The body needs certain substances to live and grow. And remember, your body isn't just like an automobile. For years, the key measures of those guidelines were the same, cut fat from your diet. The committee's original report urged Americans to reduce their risk of heart attack. By reducing their intake of cholesterol down to the equivalent of about one egg a day. And those guidelines had an effect. From 1977 to 2012, per capita consumption of eggs fell by 9 %, beef by 37 %, whole milk by 72 %. Calories from saturated fat fell, while calories from supposedly safe carbohydrates increased. As one expert put it, it was a vast nutritional experiment. With nearly a million American's a year dropping dead from heart disease in the mid 80s, we had to try something. Nearly four decades later results are in. The experiment was a failure. Americans are sicker than they've ever been before. The prevalence of diabetes has gone up 157 % from 1980 to 2011. Nearly one in ten Americans now has the disease. Causing the public health system $ 245 billion a year. Heart disease is still the number one killer in the country. Americans are as obese as ever. So, what went wrong? Good old granola. Great for taste but loaded with fat. It doesn't take much of imagine a leap to assume that fat would make us fat, clog our arteries and raise the risk of heart disease. It turns out that saturated fat is a lot more complicated than we think. Carbohydrates and fats are nutrients. Like man, you need nutrients to live and grow. [ MUSIC ] Firstly, there are two kinds of cholesterol. LDL which is linked to heart disease and HDL which can be protective. Fats that course through the blood are known as triglycerides and high levels of those are linked to heart disease. Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol but also raises HDL. Moving LDL buildup on arterial walls. So raising both, makes saturated fat a cardio wash. One key piece of information is that LDL seems to come in two forms. Large and fluffy, small and dense. Those smaller particles are linked to heart disease, while the larger ones are mostly benign. Saturated fat increases the number of large particles. The opposite happens with carbs. I don't get it. Researchers have long since discovered the kind of fats found in olives and in fish like salmon. Are actually heart protective. Now it turns out the fats found in meat and dairy, aren't as bad as we feared before. So that means by focusing so much on fats. We may actually have been making ourselves sicker. So, she brings up the subject of reduced- fat cheese. It's a fat- free [ UNKNOWN ]. Fat- free, cholesterol free. Low- fat granola. Reduced- fat Kettle chips. Reduced- fat Chips Ahoy. Lowfat cottage cheese. Non- fat yogurt is the perfect example. The thinking for consumers was simple. Fat was dangerous. This product had no fat. Therefore, it must be healthy. It's non- fat, which means less calories. [ MUSIC ] But amid the confusion about fat, we end up replacing it in our diets with sugars and carbohydrates, which meant our calorie intake was actually going up. When carbs and things like corn and white bread are ingested into your body, their converted into sugars. Those sugars convert to insulin cuz it's fat cells go into storage overdrive, leading to weight gain. Since fewer calories are then left to fill the body, you begin to feel hungry it means our metabolism begins to slow down in effort to save energy, we eat more and we gain more weight, never quite feeling full. As this process repeats, our cells become more resistant to insulin, which causes us to gain more weight, which increases insulin resistance in a vicious circle. Cut calories, and people just get hungrier. Obesity, diabetes, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol can all follow. Study after study has found it's very difficult to lose weight on a very low- fat diet. Possibly because fat and meat can produce a sense of satiety, that's hard to achieve with carbs, making it easier to simply stop eating. But it isn't just the increase in carbs that affects us. These processed, low saturated fat alternatives, come loaded with sugars, salt, preservatives, and even some unhealthy fats. So what's the real alternative? As one extra puts it, the cold hard truth about diet is that the only way to eat well, is to eat well. You'll be happier and you'll be healthier, if you focus on real whole foods, whether they have fat or not. Got it. 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