You’ve little doubt heard breakfast is an important 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 isn’t irregular or distinctive to not really feel hungry within the morning,” she says. In a small 2020 examine of 193 adolescents revealed within the journal BMC Vitamin, researchers discovered that solely 32% reported consuming breakfast all 12 months 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 won’t get up feeling famished. Possibly you’re much less delicate to starvation cues, based on Dr. Pope. Maybe you’re experiencing fluctuations in sure hormones, whether or not because of stress, the timing of your menstrual cycle, or perhaps a exhausting 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 possibly you simply ate rather a lot earlier than you went to mattress. (Nonetheless, any sudden shift in urge for food might be price discussing with a health care provider 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 should you don’t have a lot of an urge for food proper after crawling away from bed, it’s nonetheless a wonderful concept 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 Heart, tells SELF. “It doesn’t have to be an enormous, fancy breakfast. It may 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 vitality it must deal with the duties at hand, based on Merz. Second, it may well provide essential vitamins, Dr. Pope says. For instance, some breakfast meals—assume chia pudding, fruit salads, or eggs scrambled with veggies—are wealthy in fiber, a kind of carb that has many digestive advantages, she says. Third, it may well forestall you from feeling overly hungry afterward, based on Dr. Pope. Lastly, consuming within the morning can assist maintain your blood sugar extra steady all through the day, which may chase away “that feeling of crashing after a meal,” Merz says. Plus, in case you have a medical situation like diabetes or use remedy that must be taken with meals, it might be further essential for well being causes to eat early, says Merz.