When it comes to meals, the general rule is to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. It’s not just a cliché, but a well-known fact. Breakfast, also known as the most important meal of the day, supplies you with the requisite energy after the 10-hour fast your body undertakes every night. Science defines it as “first meal of the day, eaten before or at the start of daily activities (e.g., errands, travel, work), within 2 h of waking, typically no later than 10:00 in the morning, and of an energy level between 20 and 35% of total daily energy needs” So, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that missing breakfast does impact the health.

Yet most of us are guilty of skipping breakfast due to the early-morning rush to get to the workplace. Over sleepers and those looking towards losing weight are also guilty of not giving this important meal its due. If you thought giving it a skip won’t impact you, you’re wrong! Here are some of the bad effects of missing breakfast ruins your health.

1 Weight gain and obesity

All those who thought missing breakfast will help you lose weight, here’s a shocker: It doesn’t! And not only that. Not eating a hearty meal first thing in the morning is a sure shot way to gain weight. For all the calories you save by skipping the meal, you make up by unknowingly overeating for the rest of the day.

2 Infertility

Skipping breakfast is also linked to poor fertility says study. PCOS or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, one of the causes of infertility, is linked to missed breakfast and caloric deficit. Scientists have found out that consuming a large meal at breakfast helps in reducing testosterone levels by a whopping 50 percent.

3 Diabetes

If you suffer from type 2 diabetes, it will mess with your blood sugar levels for the rest of the day, worsening the problem. What’s more? A 2015 study published in the Journal of Epidemiology positively links breakfast skipping with increased risk of diabetes mellitus.

4 Heart diseases

Most people don’t know the impact skipping breakfast has on their heart. Not having a healthy meal in the morning can cause the arteries to harden and plaque to clog up in the blood vessels. This can set stage for heart diseases in the future.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 06, 2018 01:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).