I'm sure you've heard nutritionists say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, that its consumption sets your metabolism at a higher level, and that skipping this important meal may actually make you retain more and more fat over time.  Why is this the case?  It seems, logically, that skipping a meal would help you avoid calories which would in turn, help you LOSE weight, right?  Unfortunately (or fortunately), and resoundingly, wrong. 

Always driving at a "healthy" set-point based intimately on how we feed ourselves everyday and how much we move, our bodies take in fat, protein and carbohydrates and convert them into energy for use (especially if you're someone who exercises regularly), or potential energy for storage (especially if you're a person who sits most the time).  A mixture of hormones from many different organs in our bodies tell us how to handle our calories (store or use).  You've heard of insulin and cortisol, but there are also countless others that direct different phases of fat metabolism, some I'm sure scientists aren't even aware of yet.  When we go all night without eating as we sleep, our bodies are hard at work rebuilding and healing from the day before.  When we have a proper Circadian rhythm, that is sleeping at night and up during the day, our cortisol levels begin to rise early, early in the morning and peak between 5 and 8am, causing us to wake up.  Cortisol helps us in the mornings after our long overnight fast by working with other hormones to tell our livers to dump sugar into the bloodstream to feed our cells until we can eat, preferably sooner than later.  As we eat, cortisol is regulated down and put to rest for the time being, and other hormones, enzymes and pathways are turned on to help us deal with our meals.  Well, what happens if we ignore the need to eat?

Your body, in its infinite wisdom, adapts.  Think of the first day you decided to skip out on breakfast.  What actually happened?  Cortisol helped you regulate your blood glucose until you could eat.  Then you didn't eat, so it had to stay around.  You had to make more and more cortisol to liberate more and more glucose to feed your muscles and brain just to function normally.  It's perceived that you're starving.  Insulin receptors on the cells start to increase in anticipation of a meal so that it may be stored as fat to avoid discord in case you're ever "starving" again.  As soon as you eat, all those extra insulin receptors do their jobs to help your cells take up all that glucose from your meal and store everything it can as fat.  If your first meal after skipping breakfast is a scone or Diet Coke or some pretzels or some other simple carb, it's ALL going to become fat.

So, imagine the 7th or 10th or 30th day of skipping out on breakfast.  Your body is getting quite used to starving.  You might have already switched your "healthy" weight set-point up a couple of pounds by now and not even feel hungry at all in the morning anymore.  Your adrenal glands are having to produce more than normal the amount of cortisol to sustain your blood sugar each morning and unfortunately (or fortunately), blood sugar regulation is not the only role for cortisol.  It also modulates stress in the body, acting as an anti-inflammatory when functioning normally, but in the case of chronic "starving", it actually functions to create a low level inflammation that sets the stage for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.  To add insult to injury, your HPA axis, in charge of signaling cortisol release, may become sort of numb from all this extra work, leading to "adrenal fatigue" - you may feel at this point like you can't get through the morning without some coffee.  Caffeine milks those adrenals for more cortisol and may make you feel more normal, medicating you essentially.  There will be a point, however, when even caffeine won't help if the cycle isn't recognized and turned around.
 
I really like using a lab panel called the
Adrenal Stress Index to look at your cortisol levels 4 times during the day, your insulin levels before and after meals, your cortisol precursors, and your salivary anti-gliadin antibodies to help assess where you are in this process.  Getting everything back to a normal Circadian rhythm can be as easy as implementing regular protein-rich meals and healthy snacks, prescribed bedtime and rise time, sleeping in the dark (seems easy but so many of us don't!), spending time outside during each day, moving/exercising, breathing deeply, and cutting out simple carbohydrates especially at key times during the day.  Others will require a heavier approach with nutrients to support the HPA axis and hydrotherapy to bring down the inflammation already in full swing.  Emotional obstacles tend to respond nicely to constitutional homeopathy.   

Changing your body composition and losing weight are not unlike quitting smoking or shelving an addiction as far as level of difficulty, level of daily commitment required, emotional involvement, and physical dedication.  Turning around years of the body's hard-earned adaptation (healthy or not) takes time, sometimes lots.  A pill may make you feel better, and even make you look better for a minute, but your perspective has to change for any long term benefit.  What you do everyday lays the groundwork for how well your body will function.  We literally are what we eat, what we do, and how we think.  You have the power!  Come talk to me when you're ready!  

Source for above food shot: Lachlan Hardy
Source for above "Biological Clock" diagram: YassineMrabet