The Perfect Breakfast Portion Size
/Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It revs up your metabolism, builds up your energy for the day and makes you just feel good. The key? Eat a high-protein and low-carb balanced breakfast. Skipping breakfast can also lead to low energy. We rely on breakfast to kick start our metabolism after a good night's sleep.
The body continues to burn through food and nutrients even as we sleep, leaving our stores depleted by morning. A meal shortly after waking up is important to replenish these depleted energy stores and energize the body. But what is the ideal portion for breakfast?
Breakfast can have the most amount of calories because this is when you're body needs the most fuel. If there was ever a time to eat a lot, it's this time of day. When you sleep, your body is at rest and essentially "fasts" throughout the night. When you wake up, you need to immediately refuel the body so it can use that fuel for energy. If you don't, the body immediately enters into fat storing mode instead of fat burning.
A sample calorie count for the day could be:
- Breakfast: 400 calories
- Snack: 100 calories
- Lunch: 300 calories
- Dinner 300 calories
- Snack: 100 calories
Now the question is, what you eat inside of those 400 calories. As we've discussed, a protein-rich, fiber nutrient is the best option. This Mediterranean diet favorite has all the food groups we need:
- 1 piece of whole grain toast
- 1 egg cooked any way
- Slice of tomato
- Slice of avocado
- Add a dash of sea salt, pepper or chili flakes and you have a satisfying breakfast