Breakfast advice needed please!

silwyth88

Ok, my diet is not great.. Better than many, but still not great..

To me, the purpose of breakfast is to give me a lot of energy..

I drink smoothies and eat fruit during the day, from time to time I eat a fiber heavy breakfast cereal as a snack.

Lately I have discovered pastry, a croissant & a pan au choc would do me for most of the day, I know this is unhealthy, but I have recently stopped eating full irish breakfasts (particularly rashers. I could eat rashers all day everyday).

What I loved about a full irish was it gave me energy to power through the day.

So my question is; Is a croissant and a pan au choc with my coffee in the morning, be equally, less or more unhealthy in comparison?

I walk most places, when I do go out that is, but would be prone a lot.. am happy enough with my weight, I just don't wanna get bigger because of my morning habits.

Fitseeker

A good recommendation for most people for breakfast would be to have eggs or oatmeal, or both. You could have two scrambelled eggs at roughly 100 kcals apiece with two slices of McCambridge wholemeal bread toasted (170-ish kcals for both) and end up with a nice well rounded breakfast containing carbs, fats and proteins coming in at under 400 kcals. Oatmeal is nice for a sustained release of energy, and quite reasonable on the kcal/satiety scale also.

If these sound a bit too boring there's a plethora of different things out there you could try. Just this morning I made pancakes with oatmeal, eggs, water and vanilla casein powder, nice bit of carbs/protein/fat, not too heavy on the calories and very filling.

As for what you're currently eating, calorie-wise I would imagine one croissant and a cup of coffee isn't too heavy, unlikely to be the cause of weight gain on their own if that's what you're afraid of. I do feel the above are better alternatives for providing energy, nutrition and satiety though.

Mellor

silwyth88 wrote: »

To me, the purpose of breakfast is to give me a lot of energy..

TBH When I read this is sounded like a pre-excuse for having a bad breakfast.

Lately I have discovered pastry, a croissant & a pan au choc would do me for most of the day, I know this is unhealthy, but I have recently stopped eating full irish breakfasts (particularly rashers. I could eat rashers all day everyday).

Pastry isn't a good option really. It's basically flour and heaps of butter. There's a baker beside me that prints the kcal info on the labels (new requirement here). Those two above come in at 775cals, plus the coffee (varies depending on what it is exactly).

A breakfast of that many calories isn't necessarily a bad thig, but if I was going to have one that size i'd "spent" the calories much wiser. There's very little protein there for example.

LCD

If you enjoy your current breakfast why change? Everything in moderation or the 80/20 rule as long as 80% of your diet is good your still miles ahead of the vast majority of the world's population. Have your pastery at breakfast, enjoy it. Have your fruit & veg throughout the rest of the day, do a healthy amount of excerise & stop worrying about it. Enjoy your life, not worry about what your eating?

I think a happy person with a fairly good diet will live a lot longer than an unhappy person eating the perfect diet which they hate.

silwyth88

Thanks for your advice guys!

Mellor

LCD wrote: »

If you enjoy your current breakfast why change? Everything in moderation or the 80/20 rule as long as 80% of your diet is good your still miles ahead of the vast majority of the world's population.

How could 80% of his diet be good if he eats two pastries every day?

LCD

You know what he/she eats rest of the day?

Sangre

LCD wrote: »

You know what he/she eats rest of the day?

I think his point is 700+ of his daily calories comes from pastries then it is unlikely his diet is 80% clean.

Personally I think there are far more filling and delicious ways to spend those calories.

Mellor

LCD wrote: »

You know what he/she eats rest of the day?

Nope don't have a clue.

But Id be pretty sure that 750 or so calories from the pastries is more than 20% of the diet. Even if the rest is perfect, they won't be good 80% of the time.
Pretty simple, I'm not sure how you didn't get that.

SunnyDub1

Hi Op,


IMO there is no point in eating healthy foods throughout the day if your going to have a fry or pastry each morning.


Allow yourself a fry/pastry one day a week, this way you will look forward to your treat and you will be more focused and likley to stick to eating a healthy breakfast during the week.


Try having eggs - so much you can do with them, scrambled, boiled, poached, fried, omelet.
Try making an omelet with 1 lean rasher added, also add mushroom, tomatoes - can grantee this will fill you and give you energy.
Also porridge is good option as well, add berries , nuts, etc.

colman1212

eggs eggs eggs eggs eggs eggs eggs eggs eggs and more eggs.
Simples. Dont think about it too much.
Just eat them.

Stickman2

Question on eggs. Having fried eggs is obviously not as healthy as the other options. How worse off is it but? Are you still getting the same amount of protein from 3 fried eggs as say 3 scrambled?

Mellor

Stickman2 wrote: »

Question on eggs. Having fried eggs is obviously not as healthy as the other options. How worse off is it but? Are you still getting the same amount of protein from 3 fried eggs as say 3 scrambled?

The protein/fat content doesn't change when you cook it with different methods. The reason fried is different is the fat you add. Ditto for scrambled if there is loads of butter added. But the protein is the same.

I have a good nonstick pan. I use a tiny amout of spray oil if i'm frying, so little that I ignore it. So for me fried is no worse than other methods

King of Kings

Mellor wrote: »

The protein/fat content doesn't change when you cook it with different methods. The reason fried is different is the fat you add. Ditto for scrambled if there is loads of butter added. But the protein is the same.

I have a good nonstick pan. I use a tiny amout of spray oil if i'm frying, so little that I ignore it. So for me fried is no worse than other methods

indeed. or use coconut oil to fry them - it has numerous positive qualities that you can find listed on the internet.

nice_guy80

rapseed oil is also good for frying

Jim Royle

Try granola for breakfast. I have it with Natural low fat yogurt. Its lovely esp the red kelkin packet with berries.
I think its more about eating 4 meals a day as opposed to eating stuff like croissants and pastries, then not eating anything for the rest of the day or for a long period of time.

emeraldstar

Jim Royle wrote: »

Try granola for breakfast.

High in sugar. There are much better options.

Jim Royle

emeraldstar wrote: »

High in sugar. There are much better options.

Like?

emeraldstar

Eggs... porridge... mentioned several times throughout the thread.

meijin

Jim Royle wrote: »

Like?

meat and nuts
http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Artic...Breakfast.aspx
http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Artic...ic_Update.aspx

Doctor_Socks

Rashers and eggs for breakfast, nice amount of fat and protein. Keeps me full for hours and they're delicious! Porridge is also a great option for keeping you full for a few hours, I just don't like the lack of protein with it. I also have strawberries or blueberries with breakfast from time to time to add more flavour, full of anti-oxidants and taste amazing!

LCD

I put a scoop of unflavoured whey power in my porridge