Delaying breakfast but maintaining calorie intake.

RonanP77

I could count on one hand the number of times each year that I'd skip breakfast so I'm not on about doing that. I eat breakfast at 7 most days, start work at 8 and go on my first break at 9. I was thinking of delaying breakfast until 9.

I always have an egg and a piece of fruit at 9, instead I would have cereal and fruit or an egg and brown toast. I wouldn't be missing out on any calories, just combining my first two meals of the day into one larger one.

I'm at a weight now that I'm happy with and my waist is down to 30". The one thing that I don't like is that I feel soft around the chest and stomach. I've heard that anything you do before breakfast is burning fat rather than energy taken on from food. If I can do that surely it'll lower my body fat %

I'll be getting fairly active from now on, so I'm thinking that I'll get up at the normal time on days I'm scheduled to walk, run or cycle. I'll leave the house straight away and get in 30 minutes of exercise before work. On my rest days I'll get a few minutes extra sleep. Anything I do at work before 9 will be burning fat too.

Does this make sense or does it sound like a bad idea?

sbsquarepants

Sounds highly dubious to me.
If you take in the same amount of calories I doubt it matters all that much when you take them?

RonanP77

I don't want to lose any more weight so I'm not reducing my calorie intake. The whole point of it is to exercise before my first meal so I'm burning fat but maintaining my weight.

Alf Veedersane

The idea is that your insulin levels should be low in the morning so fat is mobilised for fuel.

But its impact on fat is pretty negligible for most people.

NoQuarter

You being "pretty soft" just means your bodyfat% isn't low enough. To lower it you have two choices: lower your calories so that your body burns the extra fat (skipping your first breakfast might be just the thing to do that - might be worth trying for 4 weeks to see if there is any difference)

or

You could try put on some lean muscle mass without putting on any fat, which is a lot easier said than done. That will reduce your bodyfat %. You might have to lift heavy weights for that and try get the calories to maintenance or maybe even +100/200

RonanP77

NoQuarter wrote:

You being "pretty soft" just means your bodyfat% isn't low enough. To lower it you have two choices: lower your calories so that your body burns the extra fat (skipping your first breakfast might be just the thing to do that - might be worth trying for 4 weeks to see if there is any difference)

I'm just coming off a diet, I lost 13lbs since Christmas, if I lower my calories I'll keep losing weight. I want to burn fat without doing that.

I'll try delaying breakfast for a while as well as exercising more. I'm hopefully injury free now so I'll be stepping things up more and more over the next few months. I might mix in a few weights at home on my rest days or maybe before work.

Mars Bar

RonanP77 wrote: »

I'm just coming off a diet, I lost 13lbs since Christmas, if I lower my calories I'll keep losing weight. I want to burn fat without doing that.

So you want to lose fat? If you burn fat and don't work to build muscle then you will lose weight.

NoQuarter

RonanP77 wrote: »

I'm just coming off a diet, I lost 13lbs since Christmas, if I lower my calories I'll keep losing weight. I want to burn fat without doing that.

I'll try delaying breakfast for a while as well as exercising more. I'm hopefully injury free now so I'll be stepping things up more and more over the next few months. I might mix in a few weights at home on my rest days or maybe before work.

Try keep the calories the same but swap out some carbs and fats for protein to make sure the protein is high. This helps maintain muscles while losing weight. By the sounds of it you should start lifting heavy weights.

Mellor

RonanP77 wrote: »

I've heard that anything you do before breakfast is burning fat rather than energy taken on from food. If I can do that surely it'll lower my body fat %

This bit isn't true. Your body has energy store other than fat.
Even if you were burning bodyfat only (you won't be), there would be surplus food energy by the end of the day, that your body would store store as fat.

There's nothing wrong with delaying your first meal. But you aren't going to burn significantly more fat that way.

RonanP77

Mars Bar wrote:

So you want to lose fat? If you burn fat and don't work to build muscle then you will lose weight.

Between walking, swimming, cycling and running I'll be working out 4 days a week. Once I'm 100% sure my injury is fully healed I'll up that to 5 days and increase the speed and distances. I've started doing crunches every day and I have a small set of weights in the house that I can spend a few minutes at on rest days. Will all that not build enough muscle to replace any fat I lose?

I'm not over weight, just looking to reduce my body fat %

Thanks for the advice people. I think I'll have a good read through things on here to educate myself a little better on the subject.

Mars Bar

RonanP77 wrote: »

Between walking, swimming, cycling and running I'll be working out 4 days a week. Once I'm 100% sure my injury is fully healed I'll up that to 5 days and increase the speed and distances. I've started doing crunches every day and I have a small set of weights in the house that I can spend a few minutes at on rest days. Will all that not build enough muscle to replace any fat I lose?

I'm not over weight, just looking to reduce my body fat %

Thanks for the advice people. I think I'll have a good read through things on here to educate myself a little better on the subject.

Those are cardio exercises. You won't put on much muscle doing those. If you want to reduce your body fat then you need to be turning that fat in to muscle. Lifting heavy is really the best way to do it. Crunches are useless. You need to be squatting, deadlifting etc...

thejaguar

If you do the strength work as a compliment to your aerobic work, you should be able to see improvements in your swimming, running etc. as well as reducing body fat.
It might help with preventing injuries in future as well if done properly.

I've seen quite a few articles recently about exercising before breakfast, specifically among cyclists and more specifically professional cyclists. But I believe the idea behind it is to train your muscles to use fat as an energy source so they don't rely solely on glycogen stores over the course of a long day in the saddle.
It's not so much about reducing fat, as training to use it more efficiently.

RonanP77

Mars Bar wrote:

Those are cardio exercises. You won't put on much muscle doing those. If you want to reduce your body fat then you need to be turning that fat in to muscle. Lifting heavy is really the best way to do it. Crunches are useless. You need to be squatting, deadlifting etc...

I have no interest in going to the gym though or ever doing heavy weights. I did that before and it bored me senseless. I don't want to bulk up or put on a load of muscle, just tone up and lower my body fat %

I love being active and I'll have pretty good fitness levels but I'll have to put up with a bit of softness around the middle.

Mars Bar

2 days of high intense weight lifting will compliment your cardio very well. As jaguar says, you'll see improvements in your cardio too if you put on muscle. (I'm the opposite to you. Despise cardio if it doesn't involve chasing a football but I like the lifting!).

Well you're resigned to losing weight with your body fat then if you don't do a bit of heavy lifting. You'll be living with the phenomenon of "skinny fat".

Good luck!

the groutch

RonanP77 wrote: »

start work at 8 and go on my first break at 9.

sounds like the cushiest job ever. civil servant?

RonanP77

the groutch wrote:

sounds like the cushiest job ever. civil servant?

I have no choice, I'd rather go at 10 but I get sent at 9. It's not a cushy job at all, I do one day a week in the office and the other four are spent mainly on a Fork truck.

Mellor

RonanP77 wrote: »

I don't want to bulk up or put on a load of muscle, just tone up and lower my body fat %

You want to lower your bf% but stay the same weight. Just "tone up". Right?
It's impossible to do that without putting on muscle.

RonanP77

I didn't say I don't want to put on any muscle, toning up means building your muscles doesn't it? I said I have no interest in going to the gym, bulking up or doing heavy weights.

I was in great shape until I was 22 or 23, I even had a 6 pack. That was without doing weights, I did boxing/kick boxing, 5 a side soccer and cycling. I was always doing sit ups and chin ups.

I joined the gym to bulk up because I thought I was too light. I went on 12 hour shifts then for about 8 years, quit the gym because I was always wrecked after working nights and quit all other exercise too. I put on 3 stone.

Early last year I decided to get back in shape. I started to walk, run and cycle. I lost 2 stone in a few months and managed to keep it off all year. I tore ankle ligaments then which have kept me out of action for 4 months, other than swimming. I put on 8lbs over Christmas and new year.

I''ve now lost that 8lbs and 4 more along with it. My waist is 6" smaller than 12 months ago and I've been given the all clear to start back cycling and running again. I know I'll never be in the shape I was 15 years ago but if I could be that toned then without weights, I figured I didn't need heavy weights now either.

Mars Bar

"Toned Up" is a phrase invented for ladies so they aren't afraid of putting on some muscle. Building muscle is building muscle no matter what way you dress it up.

Maybe researching some body weight exercises for building muscle mass might be an idea? You could do it at home.
You could start with normal push ups and work up by bringing your hands closer together and seeing how many you can do until you can do a set with your thumbs touching and making a butterfly shape.

You can work your way up through squats. Jump squats are great for building strength but that might depend on your ankle. Burpees for real hardcore!

You could do a few sets before each cardio workout that you do.

It's just an idea!

RonanP77

Things like that that can be done at home are grand, I can definitely do those. I'll look them up and see that I'm doing them right. I don't know what a burpee is, other than what a baby does after drinking and I doubt that's what you want me to do.

RonanP77

I've had a good think about it today, had a chat with a body builder buddy that's big into nutrition. I'm definitely going to give it a try for a month.

I'll come up with a routine for the mornings, mostly stretching to start, then squats, lunges, push ups and the like, I'll do it with very very light weights to start and then build that up slowly. After a while I'll add in some weight work with the dumbells I have.

If I lose a few more lbs I don't mind, it'll come back on again as I develope a little bit of muscle. It's more important how I look and feel anyway, rather than what the scales says.