It’s not only what you eat but also when you eat that impacts weight loss.

Metabolism and your body’s metabolic state varies during the course of a day. When you wake in the morning you have likely been without food for many hours so your metabolic state is in fasting mode. Therefore, eating something for breakfast to replenish important reserves and jump start your metabolism makes sense right?

Yet too many people today are living an incredibly fast paced life and either just grab a coffee or a very quick breakfast or worse yet, skip breakfast completely.

A study from the University of Murcia in Spain (published April 2013) showed that early eaters lost about 22% more weight than late eaters. Another weight loss study conducted by researchers from Tel Aviv University (published July 2013) shows that a well balanced breakfast with reduced dinner intake is more beneficial to weight loss and health in general than a small breakfast and a larger dinner.

I personally always eat breakfast within 10 minutes of waking up because I am hungry and I also want to break my fast!

In the warmer months, I often eat some Ezekiel Almond cereal (which is a sprouted grain crunchy cereal) with raw milk. Many people have intolerances or allergies to pasturized milk but often do great with raw milk. I go to a local farm to get mine. Other days I make a homemade superfood drink with spinach or swiss chard, berries, medjool dates, raw cacao, walnuts, ground flax seeds, hemp seeds and water. If I want to thicken it a little, I add about a quarter of an advocado. So yummy and full of nutrients. Lefover rice or quinoa also makes a nice option with some seeds and nuts.

In the cooler/colder months, I have something hot such as oatmeal that I buy from the bulk bin section of the health food store. I like to add broken up nuts, raisins or cranberries and a dash of cinnamon. Scrambled eggs are also another favorite of mine!

If you are trying to lose weight and you are serious about shedding those unwanted pounds you should consider eating your main meals earlier in the day. However, you can’t only rely on meal timing to lose weight. Natural weight loss still comes down to eating as much real food as possible that is unprocessed, and also keeping active. If you feel that you don’t have time to fit in a workout, take the stairs when you can instead of the lift, or just do five or ten minutes of exercise a few times a day. We all lead busy lives. You know that saying “where there’s a will, there’s a way!”