What Happens When You Skip Meals

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Do you often skip meals due to work pressure? Are you planning to skip your breakfast or lunch or dinner to reduce weight? If yes, then read on.

Skipping meals actually, has many negative side effects and hence, should be avoided. Skipping meals does more harm to the body than you can imagine.

Eating 3-4 big meals a day helps your body take up essential nutrients required for good health and also prevents you from binge eating. Skipping meals on the other hand does just the opposite. It also breaks down the muscle tissues and can actually lead to weight gain and a host of other problems.

Studies suggest that skipping meals drains energy out of the body, which is why people who skip meals burn lesser calories as they don't indulge in any physical activity or exercise.

Studies also show that when you starve, the supply of glucose to your brain is reduced and this can lead to low concentration, low memory and low focus. This is the reason why students and working professionals should not skip meals as they need to perform well and concentrate on their work.

You should always have a snack handy and never go hungry. You should eat snacks high in protein and fibre.

Let us now look at some of the things that happen when you skip meals:

1) Diabetes Risk

Skipping meals causes the liver cells to stop responding to insulin - the hormone that is responsible for breaking down sugar. This means that the liver does not get the signal to stop producing glucose and keeps pumping it into the blood. This excess glucose gets accumulated in the blood and can cause type 2 diabetes over time.

2) Frequent Mood Swings

When your body does not get enough nutrients due to skipping meals, your emotional functioning changes and due to fluctuating levels of blood sugar in the body, you become irritable and moody. Frequent mood swings hamper the proper functioning of your brain.

3) Low Metabolism

When you starve or skip meals, the metabolic rate in your body is lower which is why the body does not burn extra calories but rather stores them as fat. Thus, low metabolism can also lead to weight gain. So you should eat breakfast every morning to fuel your body.

4) Stress

When you skip meals, the body gives you the required amount of energy by releasing adrenaline and other hormones. However, over time, this additional stress on the body can give rise to various diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, stress and anxiety.

5) Bad Breath

Not eating reduces the amount of saliva in your mouth and a dry mouth is ideal for bacteria to multiply. This further leads to bad breath. So, to prevent your mouth from smelling, you should stop skipping meals.

6) Headache And Fatigue

Skipping meals may lower your blood sugar levels that in turn may cause your body to release hormones that narrow your arteries and increase your blood pressure. As a result of this, you may experience headache, fatigue and nausea. If you skip meals your body does not get enough energy and you may also lose consciousness.

7) Blood Pressure Fluctuations

Skipping meals stimulates your body to release hormones to compensate for low glucose levels. This in turn, affects the blood pressure levels and can also cause narrowing of arteries in future.