This article looks at the effects of skipping breakfast on weight lifting
What’s the deal?
Eating breakfast before exercise has known pros and cons. Personal preference is also very important. In regular breakfast-eaters, how important is breakfast for performing strength-based exercises?
What did they do?
16 participants attended two assessment days consisting of lifting weights. Participants were asked to perform as many repetitions as possible of back squats and bench press exercises, at a weight equal to 90% of their 10-rep maximum. On one assessment day, participants had a normal breakfast, but on the other day they only had water.
What happened?
Participants performed 17.2% more back squats and 5.3% more bench press repetitions on the day when they had breakfast compared to the day with just water.
What can you tell me about the people?
Participants were male and were aged 23 on average. All participants regularly ate breakfast (at least 3 days a week) and were accustomed to weights training.
What else should I know?
Weight lifting exercises were performed 2 hours after breakfast. The exercises were grouped into 4 sets of maximum repetitions.
What will I do differently?
I am an avid fan of breakfast, so I’ll continue to do what I do! I wonder if the results would be the same if the participants were not regular breakfast eaters though?
Acknowledgements
This research was published in July 2019 by MN Bin Naharudin and colleagues from Loughborough University, UK.
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Abstract Athlete 