Why Skipping Breakfast Can Increase Stress

What happens when we skip breakfast? 

Let’s break this myth that skipping breakfast is good for everyone. When you wake, you naturally should have a boost of energy right? Well, that boost comes from elevated cortisol i.e. your body’s natural stress response. In a healthy amount, elevated cortisol upon waking is natural. If we skip breakfast, however, the cortisol becomes exceedingly high and makes you stressed!

And…drinking coffee on an empty stomach adds fuel to the fire. 

Every morning, when you have coffee instead of breakfast, you feel light and focused. You lose your appetite and find it easier to skip breakfast because there’s no time to eat, right? 

BUT, over time, that natural morning appetite is suppressed. You are supposed to be hungry in the morning. The same way kids wake up starving, adults should too. Without fuel from food, cells have no energy, so the adrenals pump out more cortisol to release energy from our cells. 

This puts a great burden on the adrenals. You begin to feel stressed, irritable, and lose focus. You have energy lows and highs throughout the day, and get a burst of energy in the evening. You may struggle to get out of bed and feel unrefreshed even after a long night’s sleep. You then turn to caffeine as a pick-me-up, creating a vicious cycle of chronic fatigue. Sound familiar?

The good news is this cycle can be stopped, and can get your energy and motivation back.  Check out my post on 6 Easy Ways to Increase Your Appetite After Chronic Stress.

How to regain your appetite

The aim is to have balanced cortisol levels throughout the day with a normal cortisol spike in the morning and a gradual decrease as the day progresses, when your sleep hormones start to kick in.  When you fast in the morning, cortisol gets way too elevated and leads to a stressed response. 

So how do we calm this response?

Part of it is telling our body I am nourished, so you don’t need to stress out and take energy from my cells. To do this, well you have to eat when you wake up. Easy, right?

Well…if you’ve been skipping breakfast for a while, you are probably not hungry in the AM. So how do you regain your appetite?

I’ve included some simple steps below to get the stomach rumbling in the AM. 

– Eat dinner early 

– Drink warm lemon water upon waking 

– Eat within 1 hour of waking

– Eat a light breakfast 

– Exercise early 

– Caffeine after food 

Eat dinner early

You can start by looking at when and how much you eat the night before. Aiming to eat before 7 or 7:30pm can greatly enhance your appetite the next day. Also, eat your heaviest meal at lunch time and eat the lightest meal in the evening. If you do eat a heavy meal at night and have a slow metabolism or poor digestion, try to eat dinner a little earlier (6:30pm) as the heavier the food, the longer it takes to digest.  

Drink warm lemon water upon waking. 

This stimulates the release of digestive juices from your liver & gallbladder, initiating hunger. 

Eat within 1 hour of waking 

Eat a light breakfast 

Opt for easily digestible carbohydrates such as fruits like grapefruit or berries. Then work yourself up to a high protein meal with some fibre and healthy fats. Think avocado, boiled eggs, some cucumber and sourdough, or a porridge with some flax and nuts. 

Exercise early 

Another effective way to stimulate hunger in the morning is to exercise. Try a 30 minute workout like yoga, pilates, walking, jogging, dancing or whatever floats your boats. 

Caffeine after food. 

Once you’ve had your complete breakfast, you can then drink a caffeinated drink if you chose to. 

Don’t sweat it: your body’s natural hunger will return