This Super Lazy Behavior Could Be Causing Some Millennials to Pack on the Pounds Looks like those who skip this important daily activity might have to lose more than just their attitude.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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My finicky teenage son can't be bothered with eating breakfast. "It's a pain," he whines. "It takes too much time, so not worth it." I nag in vain, pathetically following him around with granola bars and glasses of milk. But even those are too much for him to "deal with" in the morning.

Turns out he's not the only millennial too busy -- or, let's face it, too lazy -- to eat the most important meal of the day. Recent market research suggests that nearly 40 percent of millennials won't even slurp cereal. Of course not. It's too darn hard to rinse the bowl out when they're done.

All this is according to a recent New York Times report on the decline of the American breakfast staple. ICYMI, the article was a little rough on stereotypically "entitled, lazy, narcissistic" millennials, though not as harsh as this flogging "The Gray Lady" pubbed last week.

Related: Losing the Battle Against the Munchies? A New Study Says You Should Get More Rest.

Millennials aren't just skipping out on cereal. Worse, many are blowing off breakfast altogether and, guess what? It could be causing them to gain weight. That is if we are to believe the findings of a recent study that suggests youngsters who skip breakfast are more than twice as likely to be overweight or obese than those who eat even two morning meals. Not to mention a glut of earlier research linking breakfast omission to weight gain.

The reason: Breakfast-skippers, regardless of their age, mind you, are more likely to overeat later in the day. Hunger always eventually wins. Yep, even two breakfasts are better than one -- or none -- researchers claim, especially for young people. (To be fair, people of all ages routinely skip breakfast, with half of Americans regularly not eating the morning meal.)

Patrick Eulmi, a millennial waiter at San Diego's Perry's Cafe, blames the hustle for the big breakfast blow-off. "I call our generation "the hustle generation,'" he told Now This Media. "We just like to get what we need and get out. No dishes, no prep time. We just need a meal."

Related: 3 Reasons Stereotypical Millennials Are Idiots

Or nothing at all. Yeah, yeah, don't blame the player, blame the game. Now that we know that noshing on not one but two breakfasts is good for us, you bet we're getting our morning grub on. Who's on cleanup?

But hold up, hangry people. Before you make a mad dash for brekkie, keep in mind that not everyone in the ivory towers of academia buys into the skip-breakfast-get-fat hypothesis. Researchers at Columbia University recently found the opposite: The breakfast-skippers they surveyed actually lost weight over a four-week period (but also experienced higher cholesterol levels).

Hmm, with so many cooks in the kitchen (and no app to look to for the answer), looks like you'll have to listen to your gut on this one, kids.
Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

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