2025/01/15 by Matthew T. Stratton, Shelley L. Holden, Ray Davis +1 · 1 voice
Medicine · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Psychology · #Dietary Effects on Health #Muscle metabolism and nutrition #Sleep and related disorders
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/nu17020300
openalex publication_date 2025/01/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
BACKGROUND: Breakfast is often termed the most important meal of the day. However, its importance to acute and chronic adaptations to exercise is currently not well summarized throughout the literature. METHODS: A narrative review of the experimental literature regarding breakfast consumption's impact on acute and chronic exercise performance and alterations in body composition prior to November 2024 was conducted. To be included in this review, the selected investigations needed to include some aspect of either endurance or resistance training performance and be conducted in humans. RESULTS: These findings suggest that breakfast consumption may benefit acute long-duration (>60 min) but not short-duration (<60 min) morning endurance exercise. Evening time trial performance was consistently inhibited following breakfast omission despite the resumption of eating midday. No or minimal impact of breakfast consumption was found when examining acute morning or afternoon resistance training or the longitudinal adaptations to either resistance or endurance training. Favorable changes in body composition were often noted following the omission of breakfast. However, this was primarily driven by the concomitant reduced kilocalorie intake. CONCLUSIONS: Consuming breakfast may aid endurance athletes regularly performing exercise lasting >60 min in length. However, the morning meal's impact on resistance training and changes in body composition appears to be minimal. Although, as the body of literature is limited, future investigations are needed to truly ascertain the dietary practice's impact.