Why More Women Over 40 Are Skipping Traditional Breakfasts

Skip breakfast, delay the first meal, extend the overnight fast a little longer. That habit has quietly become one of the most common changes women in their 40s are making to how they eat.

It usually starts as part of a broader intermittent fasting trend that has taken off across social media and wellness circles. But among women specifically past 40, the reasoning behind it looks a little different than it does for everyone else.

Researchers who study hormones and metabolism have started paying closer attention to this exact group. Here is why the shift is happening, and what the science actually says about it so far.

The Trend Behind The Shift

For a lot of women, skipping breakfast is less about a strict diet plan and more about following the momentum of intermittent fasting culture. Compressing the eating window into eight or ten hours has become a popular strategy for managing weight and energy heading into perimenopause and menopause.

The appeal makes sense on paper. Metabolism naturally shifts during this stage of life, and delaying the first meal feels like a simple lever to pull without changing much else.

It also fits neatly into busy mornings that already have little room for a sit down meal. Skipping breakfast can feel less like a sacrifice and more like decluttering an already packed schedule.

What The Research Actually Shows

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago recently studied how time restricted eating affects sex hormone levels in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Lead researcher Krista Varady called the findings encouraging, saying, “I think this is a great first step,” in comments to UIC Today.

Notably, the study specifically excluded perimenopausal women, the group typically in their 40s navigating the most hormonal fluctuation. That gap in the research is exactly where a lot of the current disagreement among experts lives.

Some researchers argue fasting works essentially by shrinking the eating window and naturally cutting calories, without any special metabolic magic involved. Others believe the hormonal picture for women specifically in their 40s is different enough that broad conclusions from other age groups do not fully apply.

Why Experts Say Timing Matters More Than Skipping

Skipping breakfast specifically can interfere with something called the cortisol awakening response, a natural hormone peak that happens in the first half hour after waking, according to nutrition coaching resource Karma Being. Disrupting that rhythm may amplify cravings and stress hormones later in the day for some women.

Because of that, several experts recommend an earlier eating window rather than skipping the morning meal entirely. Starting the fast after dinner and breaking it by mid morning tends to align better with the body’s natural cortisol rhythm than delaying food until early afternoon.

None of this means every woman over 40 needs to abandon fasting altogether. It just means the version that works best may look less like skipping breakfast and more like shifting it slightly earlier.

The research on women, hormones and fasting is still catching up to how popular the trend has already become. Until it does, most experts agree the safest approach is paying attention to how your own body actually responds, not just following what worked for someone else.

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