Written By: Muskan Gupta | Published : November 23, 2025 3:01 PM IST
The intermittent fasting eating pattern has become popular in recent years. The concept is straightforward since you are restricted in the number of hours you are allowed to eat and starve the rest. As an illustration, you may take food within a period of 8 hours and then fast for the other 16 hours. Although this method may be effective in some cases, recent studies have implied that not having breakfast or prolonging the night fast by overextending the fasting period might pose serious health risks to an individual.
Intermittent fasting (IF) is defined as an eating pattern which alternates between feeding and fasting. Most individuals miss out on breakfast so that they can start their eating day later on. Followers claim that IF can assist in weight loss, enhance insulin sensitivity and ease eating habits. However, it is not the same as not having breakfast but adhering to a well-organised IF plan and considering the nutrition, physical activity and health condition.
A number of recent research papers indicate alarming associations between breakfast nonadherence and unhealthy health. Scientists discovered that individuals who regularly miss the first meal of the day possess elevated insulin resistance rates, surged blood sugar, raised cholesterol and increased chances of becoming obese and developing metabolic syndrome.
In one controlled trial, breakfast skipping (as compared with dinner skipping) resulted in increased markers of inflammation and a greater post-lunch glucose spike.
From a more dramatic perspective, the skipping of breakfast in a Mendelian randomisation study was causally related to an increased likelihood of grave oesophageal diseases such as cancer and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.
A different review also pointed out that frequent neglect of breakfast is associated with the impairment of the circadian rhythm in the body (internal clock), slower insulin sensitivity and uptake of glucose.
The basic principles of IF are reasonable:
Although IF can be good when done in the right way, not considering how, when, and what you eat, even though you skip breakfast, could be disastrous and may be extremely difficult to reverse. Unless you are sure about the change of an eating window, do it prudently with guidance and frequent health checks.
