Skip Breakfast or Eat at Sunrise? Navigating Conflicting Health Advice to Beat Insulin Resistance

This topic represents one of the most significant points of confusion and frustration for the audience. Viewers are trying to do the right thing by adopting intermittent fasting, but they are immediately confronted with a fundamental, high-stakes conflict between two camps of credible experts. On one side, experts like Dr. Jason Fung advocate for skipping breakfast to extend the natural overnight fast. On the other, experts like Dr. Boz recommend eating early in the day to align with circadian rhythms. This contradictory advice leaves the audience in a state of "analysis paralysis," unsure which path to follow and worried that choosing the wrong one will sabotage their health goals.

The core concern is making a mistake that will waste their efforts or, worse, harm their metabolism. Viewers worry that eating breakfast will unnecessarily spike their insulin at a time when morning cortisol and glucose are already naturally high. Conversely, they worry that skipping breakfast might be the "wrong" kind of stress or that it's an unsustainable practice that leads to headaches or overeating later in the day. This "breakfast war" creates a major barrier to starting and sustaining a consistent fasting practice.

The most important insight that emerges from reconciling these expert views is that both strategies are designed to achieve the same fundamental goal: creating a compressed, consistent daily eating window and a long period of fasting. The debate over when to start eating is secondary to the principle of how long you go without eating. The best approach is the one that aligns with your personal biology, schedule, and lifestyle, and which you can maintain consistently.

The sources highlight three distinct and seemingly conflicting perspectives on meal timing, which is a major source of audience confusion.

• • Dr. Boz [Annette Bosworth, MD]: She is a strong proponent of an early, circadian-aligned eating window. Her advice is to "eat when the sun is up" and "protect the dark hours from food," advocating for sliding your mealtime as close to sunrise as possible. Her rationale is that since the body has a natural rise in glucose and insulin in the morning due to circadian rhythms, insulin-resistant patients find "great success with only swallowing food in the mornings" to work with this process. However, many viewers find this logic confusing, questioning why they should add food on top of a natural glucose surge.
• • Dr. Jason Fung: His work supports the skip-breakfast model. As explained in his video and referenced by commenters, the body naturally prepares itself for the day by releasing a surge of counter-regulatory hormones in the morning (the dawn phenomenon), which pumps stored glucose into the blood for energy. His perspective is that this process makes an external meal unnecessary, as "your body's already prepped you up and gave you energy to get going". This logic supports a later eating window (e.g., lunch and dinner).
• • Jessie Inchauspé (Glucose Goddess): She offers a third, more flexible approach that acts as a valuable middle ground. Her primary focus is on the composition of the first meal, not its timing. She advocates for a savory first meal built around protein and fat to prevent a glucose spike and the subsequent "glucose roller coaster". She explicitly states that she does not care if this first meal is at 8 a.m. or 4 p.m., as long as it's savory. This shifts the focus from a rigid schedule to food quality, a principle that can be applied to either the "eat early" or "eat late" model.

Regardless of which fasting schedule you choose for tomorrow, commit to this one rule tonight: Finish your last meal at least three hours before you go to bed. This protects the crucial overnight fasting window, a principle that both camps agree on.

• Mistake: Getting stuck in "analysis paralysis" and never starting because you can't decide on the "perfect" time to eat.
  Fix: Pick one schedule and start today. You can always adjust later. A consistent "good enough" plan is infinitely better than a "perfect" plan you never begin.
• Mistake: Eating a sugary, high-carb breakfast (like cereal or toast with jam) because you chose the "eat breakfast" model.
  Fix: This is the worst of both worlds, as it creates a massive glucose spike first thing in the morning. If you eat early, it must be a savory, protein-and-fat-based meal.
• Mistake: Skipping breakfast but then grazing on snacks late into the night, effectively shortening your fasting window to less than 12 hours.
  Fix: The power of skipping breakfast comes from creating a long, uninterrupted overnight fast. Protect the dark hours from food, as Dr. Boz advises.

• • “This is my first video from you that I have watched and I liked it. I hate skipping breakfast while intermittent fasting with one or two meals a day. I usually get a severe headache from skipping breakfast and then eating too late.”
• • “The problem is most Doctors are not qualified to do so and they have no education in nutrition. So find yourself a qualified lifestyle doctor”. (Highlights the need for personalized guidance when advice conflicts).
• • “Those promoting One Meal A Day don’t ever recommend moving meal to the beginning of the day. They recommend fasting till about mid day.”

The intense debate over skipping breakfast versus skipping dinner often obscures the one unifying principle that all these experts agree on: a long, daily fasting period is essential for lowering insulin and reversing insulin resistance. The "best" schedule is the one you can stick to consistently. Instead of getting paralyzed by conflicting advice, focus on the shared foundation: compress your eating window to 8-10 hours, make your first meal of the day savory and low-carb, and protect your overnight fast. This personalized and consistent approach is far more powerful than chasing a single "perfect" protocol.