Is it OK to skip breakfast? Can you over exercise?

Q: Is it OK to skip breakfast? I find that if I eat in the morning, I am even hungrier by lunch time. I am trying to lose 10 pounds.

A: "No, skipping breakfast is not a good idea," says Jackie Berning, Ph.D., R.D., an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. The reason that eating breakfast makes you hungrier is that your body probably isn't used to it. When you eat breakfast only sporadically, your blood sugar rises quickly and then falls at a faster rate than if you hadn't eaten at all, Berning says. "But after two weeks of eating breakfast consistently, those symptoms will go away." Ultimately, eating breakfast will help - not hinder - your weight-loss efforts by preventing you from overeating at lunch and dinner. A morning meal is especially important for active women. If you skip breakfast, you may be waiting as long as 17 hours (say, dinner at 7 p.m. and lunch the next day at noon) between meals. "There's no way you can fuel your body for exercise without fuel coming in," Berning says. "You wouldn't drive your car with the gas gauge on empty, but many women show up at the office running on fumes. At work they wonder why they can't concentrate and in the gym why the quality of their workouts isn't better." Berning recommends a breakfast that includes both carbohydrate (for quick energy) and protein (for more staying power). Good examples include toast with peanut butter, cereal with milk or yogurt with a banana. Q. I may be obsessed with exercise. I do cardio for at least an hour every day and lift weights every other day. I know I'm overdoing it, but I worry that if I take one day off, I'll gain weight. I'm always hungry as it is. Should I cut one of my workouts to 30 minutes?

A. "I highly recommend that you take one day completely off," says Portland, Ore., nutritionist Ruth Carey, R.D. "The body needs a day of rest. When you overtrain and undereat, you tend to lose muscle and keep fat." If you ease up on your workouts and eat more, you actually may lose weight. "This sounds foreign to people," Carey says. "But the fact that you're hungry indicates that you're not getting enough fuel. Your body is probably holding onto fat by lowering your metabolic rate. You're getting the opposite effect of what you're aiming for." In addition to resting one day, Carey recommends alternating 60-minute cardio workouts with 30- to 40-minute sessions and varying intensity. If you push hard every day, you're likely to burn out, and you won't improve your fitness. If you find it difficult at first to take a day off completely, go for a short, gentle walk instead. "Get some fresh air," she says. "Be active, but don't make it a workout." Carey also suggests consulting with a registered dietitian, who can map out your calorie needs. You probably need to eat significantly more calories than you think. "Learn to trust your body," Carey says. "Your body is telling you when it needs to rest and when it needs to eat more."