“Go to the gym or eat breakfast?” may be the choice facing some well intentioned dieters every morning. If you had only time for one of these, which would be more important?. The answer is clear, breakfast trumps exercise any day.
How can that be? Why is breakfast so important? It can add calories. The answer is simple, if you look at all of the overweight people that lost and kept their weight off, the one thing they all have in common is the fact that they eat breakfast. 90% of weight loss maintainers do not skip breakfast. Almost 100% of successful dieters have breakfast 6 out of 7 mornings a week. In terms of exercise: 50% to 60% exercise 4-5 days a week.
In the figure below, protein for breakfast and late in the afternoon prevents wide fluctuations in blood sugar and decreases hunger. This is even more important in the HCG diet where food intake, and therefore calories, are markedly decreased.
The Importance of Breakfast in the HCG Diet
Here are the reasons breakfast is more important than exercise (hint: it’s about eating, not metabolism).
- For most busy people, exercise is low on the list of priorities; it’s easy for day-to-day events to get in the way of exercise time.
- Breakfast, especially when eaten in the car (safety first!), at school or at work takes no time.
- Breakfast prevents most people from grazing during the morning, and making poor selections at lunch. Fast foods and big restaurant type of lunches are easy to consume, especially if co-workers are eating them. Breakfast helps protect us from this kind of eating.
- It helps us slow down how fast we eat lunch.
- Eating breakfast does not speed up your metabolism, just like eating small meals all day does not. How can one possibly speed metabolism up by eating! The confusion may be from the normal increase in metabolism needed to digest food, but this number is a few calories at best. It’s never enough to have any effect on energy i.e. fat that is stored.
If you are struggling to lose weight, think “breakfast.” At home, in the car, at work, at school, or anywhere — as long as you don’t skip it.
What’s to Eat for Breakfast on HCG Diet?
For most people breakfast is about convenience. We will eat what is easy to get. Cravings at this hour of the day only play a small role. The obvious choices are the bagels, fast food sandwiches, and junk food like pastries, sugary cereals, and Pop tarts (for adults and kids!)
That is exactly what we do NOT want for breakfast. Protein is the key to a good breakfast. We have learned that from the Atkins and South Beach diets. Protein prevents hunger and helps maintain blood sugar stability through out the morning. It prevents picking up the first snack we see around the office and then overeating at lunch.
Proteins like eggs, ham, yogurt, cottage cheese, no fat cheese, high protein bars, or high protein sugar-free shakes make the perfect breakfast. A good guide is to have at least 15 grams of protein for breakfast.
Unlike most other HCG food protocols, Dr Lipman has built on “Dr. Simeons’ original food plan. After all, it has been 55 years since Dr. Simeons wrote the original food plan. There are many new diets, some which were invented during the 2004 low carb craze, others were made for diabetics. Dr. Lipman has taken advantage of all of these foods to present an attractive food plan that maximizes food by not wasting calories on unimportant foods like salad dressings. Here is a typical breakfast on Dr. Lipman’s Food Plan:
Breakfast: 1/2 grapefruit, 2 egg omelet with cheese & vegetables, 2 crackers, coffee with splenda, nonfat milk.
Lunch, snacks, condiments and the numerous choices for dinner are presented in the 800 Calorie HCG Diet User’s Manual included with every Pack of HCG Drops. Additionally, each kit comes with Dr. Lipman’s HCG Food plan, shopping lists, and access to download Dr. Lipman’s 100 HCG Recipes eBook.