You’ve little doubt heard breakfast is crucial meal of the day, whether or not it takes the type of avocado toast, a plate of eggs, a buttered bagel, or a handful of Cheerios snatched from the cereal field as you’re sprinting out the door. However what in case your abdomen doesn’t appear to have gotten the message that it’s time to eat?

Many individuals face that dilemma, Lizzy Pope, PhD, RD, an affiliate professor and director of the undergraduate dietetics program on the College of Vermont, tells SELF. “It is not irregular or distinctive to not really feel hungry within the morning,” she says. In a small 2020 research of 193 adolescents printed within the journal BMC Vitamin, researchers discovered that solely 32% reported consuming breakfast all yr spherical, for causes that included—you guessed it—precisely that.

Proper off the bat, let’s get one factor straight: If this describes you, your lack of a.m. urge for food isn’t essentially main trigger for concern, however there are a number of causes you may not get up feeling famished. Perhaps you’re much less delicate to starvation cues, in keeping with Dr. Pope. Maybe you’re experiencing fluctuations in sure hormones, whether or not as a consequence of stress, the timing of your menstrual cycle, or perhaps a onerous morning exercise. (For instance, epinephrine, a.ok.a. adrenaline, and estrogen can act as urge for food suppressants, whereas progesterone and testosterone may need the alternative impact, Dr. Pope says. And vigorous train can blunt the starvation hormone ghrelin for a number of hours afterward, as SELF reported beforehand.) Or perhaps you simply ate so much earlier than you went to mattress. (Nevertheless, any sudden shift in urge for food might be value discussing with a physician or dietitian, Dr. Pope provides.)

So relying in your biology, routine, and way of life, not feeling hungry within the morning is likely to be pure for you. However right here’s the twist: Even for those who don’t have a lot of an urge for food proper after crawling away from bed, it’s nonetheless a wonderful thought to attempt to eat one thing quickly after waking up—ideally inside an hour or two, Anna Maria Merz, MS, RD, a registered dietitian on the Ohio State College Wexner Medical Middle, tells SELF. “It doesn’t must be an enormous, fancy breakfast. It will possibly simply be even a snack,” she says.

There’s a number of causes for that suggestion. First, a morning meal helps kickstart your metabolism for the day, so your physique has the power it must sort out the duties at hand, in keeping with Merz. Second, it could actually provide vital vitamins, Dr. Pope says. For instance, some breakfast meals—suppose chia pudding, fruit salads, or eggs scrambled with veggies—are wealthy in fiber, a sort of carb that has many digestive advantages, she says. Third, it could actually stop you from feeling overly hungry in a while, in keeping with Dr. Pope. Lastly, consuming within the morning will help maintain your blood sugar extra steady all through the day, which might thrust back “that feeling of crashing after a meal,” Merz says. Plus, when you’ve got a medical situation like diabetes or use remedy that must be taken with meals, it could be further vital for well being causes to eat early, says Merz.