The high protein breakfast: key to sporting greatness or worth skipping?
Smash a big, protein-heavy breakfast or train on an empty stomach? Which is best for you? Top athletes have their say
You might be a black coffee and out-the-door kind of guy. Or maybe you like to take your time over a high-protein breakfast, laboring over the perfect poached eggs (the yolk should be very runny).
Either way, you’re likely aware of the fitness debate over fasted versus un-fasted workouts. One promises to unlock your abs and boost overall health, the other promises to boost your athletic potential. But which is right for you?
Is breakfast the most important meal of the day?
Let’s start off by referring to the super-expert sounding paper ‘Breakfast in Human Nutrition: The International Breakfast Research Initiative’.
Clearly, this group is fond of the word breakfast. But what do they say about its nutritional qualities?
Looking at data from Canada, Denmark, France, Spain, the UK and the USA, one of the more interesting findings from the Initiative was that “several large prospective studies support the association between breakfast consumption and lower risk of obesity and weight gain.”
In other words, if you fill up early, you’re less likely to overeat later.
A 2018 study review titled Eat or Skip Breakfast? looked at the quality of life, stress and depression in Spanish adolescents and found that breakfast cereals in particular were associated with better physical and mental well-being and subjective health.
When it came to stress, the study authors suggested that “Ingestion of carbohydrates is particularly beneficial for the brain after night fasting as it reduces levels of cortisol production thereby decreasing the ‘stress’ signal.”
From a sporting standpoint, another study found that “higher energy intake at breakfast was associated with lower fatigue and higher overall mood and alertness post-exercise.”
All in all, the evidence seems as cleanly cut as a slice of toast. But is it really?
Athletes who swear by a high-protein breakfast
It turns out that most professional athletes love a bit of breakfast, especially before competition.
Louis Parkison, a climbing coach and former GB climber says he wouldn’t consider training without a rather strange breakfast of a big bowl of rice and scrambled eggs with a large cup of black coffee for lots of carbs and plenty of protein.
“Breakfast was really important,” agrees former US Olympian Samantha Peszek. “I needed to make sure I had enough fuel to make it through my practice. In fact, we were not allowed to practice in the morning if we did not eat breakfast! I loved two eggs and half of an English muffin with peanut butter, or plain oatmeal on cold mornings.”
Protein is important for helping you feel satiated – i.e. full up – as well as for recovery. Your average hen jewell packs 13g. Meanwhile, both brown rice and wholemeal bread are great sources of slow-release carbs, meaning you feel energised for longer. Peanut butter, while high calorie, is also high in fat – another great energy source.
For Brian Johns, a Canadian swimmer who competed in the 4x200-metre freestyle relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and is now head of Coaching Science at FORM Swim, having control over his breakfast was vital.
“Interestingly, at the highest levels of competition is often where you have the least control over what is being served for meals,” he says. “At the Olympics, unless you bring extra food from home, you are restricted to what is available in the village cafeteria, which can be a risk,” says Johns.
“So while having a healthy breakfast was certainly important before my races, it was just as important to have a good routine and eat food that was relatively normal so that I felt comfortable with.”
Like Peszek, Johns favoured scrambled eggs on toast and peanut butter.
But the question of breakfast or no breakfast isn’t always so clear cut. For Jack Binstead, the founder and player of England’s Adaptive Padel team, his thinking has evolved over time.
“Breakfast is something I never previously enjoyed, but as I moved into coaching and competing on the international adaptive circuit, I realised that I needed to calculate my meals and food intake better, especially because training and competing in a wheelchair impacts the stomach differently,” he says. “I can’t be too loaded with food when I compete or train, so I don’t go too full on when it comes to breakfast.”
“My pre-tournament breakfast would ideally be eggs on toast with a coffee,” Binstead continues. “There is nothing too scientific behind this choice, it’s just that my culinary skills are not great and eggs are pretty easy. If I’m about to have a padel session or compete I might also have a cereal or protein bar from The Protein Works to accompany it.”
Interestingly, while all of our athletes opted for coffee first thing, a study in the Asian Journal of Sports Medicine found that when it comes to your espresso, less is more with low doses of caffeine associated with improved mood, and higher doses the opposite. Best not to overdo it before your morning run, then.
Is training on an empty stomach actually a super fitness hack?
Your breakfast mileage may vary depending on your sport, and goals. If you’re training to compete against others at the highest level, it makes sense to come fully energised.
If your main opponent is yourself and your goals perhaps more aesthetic, training fasted may be the way to go, especially as a 2023 study found that six weeks of fasted aerobic exercise was associated with higher rates of fat oxidation. A 2020 study agrees, finding that it isn’t just athletes who can benefit: “Fasting decreases body weight, lean body and fat content in both trained and untrained individuals.”
In other words, without food to burn, push it hard enough and your fasted body will turn to your fat stores for energy instead.
As a former soldier, Farren Morgan, founder Tactical Athlete Training & Supplements prefers fasted workouts after spending years experimenting with what works best for his body and his goals.
“One approach that has consistently stood out for me is fasted workouts,” he said. “When you exercise on an empty stomach, glycogen stores (the body’s preferred source of energy) are low, forcing your body to tap into fat reserves for energy. This process, known as lipolysis, can be particularly advantageous for those looking to reduce body fat while maintaining lean muscle mass. In tactical fitness, where endurance and stamina are crucial, the ability to efficiently utilise fat as a fuel source can be a game-changer.”
Morgan also points to the mental toughness required to push through a particularly hard workout when you’ve next to nothing in the tank, which he says “sharpens the mind, preparing you for the challenges in everyday life.”
Morgan also points to evidence that fasted workouts have been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, which is essential for maintaining stable blood sugar levels and reducing the risk of metabolic diseases. There’s mounting evidence that fasting in general may be a longevity and aging hack, so why not experiment with breakfast first?
Phil Sharma-Woodland is a GB Taekwondo nutritionist who works with Paralympic athletes Amy Truesdale and Beth Munro. While Truesdale and Munro favour breakfast, Sharma-Woodland says where athletes do choose to fast, Team GB operates “a weight management policy to ensure any fasting practices, especially those associated with weight making, fall within reasonable parameters.”
John Dewey, director of Epic Road Rides, used to experiment with fasted bike rides, but found they no longer work within his own reasonable parameters.
“While training for hilly cycling events and long-distance running, I have experimented with fasted training, fuelled only with water and black coffee,” he says. “The objective is to encourage your body to become more efficient at accessing fat as a fuel source but after several decades of experimenting, I’m not convinced that this approach is effective.”
Ultimately, Dewey found that skipping breakfast was “counterproductive”, with his training and race day performance both not what they should be, and hunger leading him to make poor dietary choices. Plus, he says his recovery was compromised without the proper nutrition.
What’s best for you?
For some people, "eating very early in the morning can be particularly jarring," San Francisco–based dietitian Edwina Clark.
If that’s you, a single strong coffee might do the trick, especially if you’re heading out for a morning run and planning an early lunch afterward. Likewise, if you’re trying to reduce body fat, skipping breakfast is an easy way to reduce your daily calorie intake.
As for everyone else, it seems breakfast really is the way to go.
Ultimately, while the science and expert input shouldn’t be ignored, only you know your body. And only you know if you can truly resist a lovely salmon bagel or bacon sandwich first thing, fitness goals be damned.