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Women's Health

I Skipped Breakfast for 2 Years — Here's What It Did to My Health

Author: Ava Durgin

April 15, 2026

Assistant Health Editor

By Ava Durgin

Assistant Health Editor

Ava Durgin is the former Assistant Health Editor at mindbodygreen. She holds a B.A. in Global Health and Psychology from Duke University.

Image by Ava Durgin x mbg creative

April 15, 2026

Hold up, before you get too far. This is not the article you think it's going to be.

I know, I know—you clicked expecting me to tell you that intermittent fasting changed my life, that skipping breakfast was the productivity hack nobody told you about, that I manifested my dream body through the magical power of an 8-hour eating window. And honestly? For a while, I would have written exactly that article. I did lose weight. I felt like I had cracked the code.

But I also lost my energy, my motivation to work out, and my monthly cycle.

So no, this is not the fasting success story you were expecting. These days, breakfast is my favorite meal, and I eat within 30 minutes of waking, sometimes before 7 am (old me is gasping). The woman who used to chug black coffee and sprint to a 6:30 am strength session on an empty stomach cannot relate. But she probably should have listened sooner.

What is intermittent fasting, anyway?

In case you're newer to the concept, intermittent fasting (IF) is all about which hours of the day you eat, your "feeding window," and which ones you don't, your "fast." The most popular version, 16:8, means you fast for 16 hours and fit all your eating into an 8-hour window—say, noon to 8 pm. Your body, during the fasted state, is thought to shift from burning glucose to burning stored fat, and research suggests it can support metabolic health, blood sugar regulation, and weight management.

The science here is real and compelling. But (and this is a big, important but), most of that research was conducted on men, or on mixed-sex groups, without analyzing results by sex. Which matters enormously, as we'll get into.

Why it's not always the best for women

Women’s bodies rely on a tightly regulated network of hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), that work together to maintain a regular menstrual cycle. This system is highly responsive to stress signals, and prolonged fasting, especially combined with intense exercise, is read by your body as a stress event.

The mechanism behind this is the HPA axis, your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the command center for your stress response. When you skip breakfast and then hit the gym hard, your cortisol levels spike. Cortisol is not inherently the villain; it helps mobilize energy. But chronically elevated cortisol, day after day, fasted workout after fasted workout, starts suppressing the reproductive hormones. Your body, in an evolutionary act of self-preservation, essentially decides: this is not a safe time to reproduce. It dials down the hormonal signals that drive your cycle.

That’s why some women (aka me) start to notice irregular periods, or lose them altogether, when fasting aggressively or under-eating. There’s also emerging research1 suggesting that women may experience more pronounced blood sugar swings and increased cortisol responses to fasting compared to men.

None of this means intermittent fasting is inherently bad. It just means it’s not one-size-fits-all, and for many women, especially those who are active, stressed, or under-fueling, it can tip the balance in the wrong direction.

What my routine used to look like

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Alarm at 6 am. Beeline to the kitchen, not for food, just coffee. Black. Out the door by 6:20, at the gym by 6:30, and for the next hour, I was lifting heavy and doing cardio on a completely empty stomach. Shower, get dressed, commute, and then, finally, eat something around 11 am. Two full meals and a snack jammed into an 8-hour window, then nothing until the next morning. Rinse, repeat.

And to be fair, there were upsides. I was in a busy, chaotic season of life, and not having to think about food in the morning streamlined my routine. When I traveled, the flexibility was a lifesaver—no scrambling for an airport breakfast or feeling guilty about the hotel's sad continental spread. And yes, I did see changes in my body composition that were quite motivating.

Little did I know, I was spiking my cortisol like crazy, living in a chronic state of stress. This led to brain fog, irritability, fatigue (girl, I was in bed by 8:30 pm every night because I was that exhausted), and deregulated hormones.

At the time, it just became my new normal. But, looking back, my body was trying to tell me something important, and I kept ignoring it.

What my routine looks like now

The turning point was a combinatio