Big breakfast the way to lose weight

Jun 23 2008

New research claims that breakfast could be the most important meal of the day when it comes to losing weight.

Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz from the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela, says having a small breakfast could actually boost food cravings.

For decades breakfast has long been regarded by many experts as possibly the most important meal of the day, in particular for those who want to lose weight.

Dr. Jakubowicz has been an advocate of hearty breakfasts for years and so she tested her theory against a low carbohydrate diet in a study of 96 obese and physically inactive women.

The low carbohydrate diet involved 1,085 calories a day, the majority coming from protein and fat and breakfast was the smallest meal of the day with just 290 calories, and seven grams of carbohydrates.

The "big breakfast" diet involved 1,240 calories with a lower proportion of fat and more carbohydrates and protein - breakfast was 610 calories, with 58 grams of carbohydrates, while lunch and dinner were 395 and 235 calories respectively - the women were placed on one of the two diets.

After four months while the women eating small breakfasts had lost an average of around 5 pounds more than the women who ate high calorie breakfast, the weight loss was not sustained and by eight months, the small breakfasters had regained an average of 18 pounds of weight.

But the women who ate healthy high calorie big breakfasts continued to lose weight, shedding another 16.5 ponds on average and the researchers say that at the end of the study, the big breakfast eaters had lost more than 21 per cent of their body weight compared with just 4.5 per cent for the other women.

Expert say a big breakfast diet might simply be less boring and could make it easier for people on a higher-carbohydrate diet to comply with it over a longer period

Dr. Jakubowicz says the 'big breakfasters' felt less hungry, particularly in the mornings and fuller during the day.

She says most weight loss studies have determined that a very low carbohydrate diet is not a good method to reduce weight as it exacerbates the craving for carbohydrates and slows down the metabolism and as a result, after a short period of weight loss, there is a quick return to obesity.

Experts agree and say while low-carb diets were a "good tool" to reduce weight quickly, they were not a "diet for life" and say there is evidence that a good-sized breakfast could help dieters.

The authors recommend big breakfasts as a way of maintaining a healthy weight loss and say a big breakfast packed with carbohydrates and protein followed by a low-carb, low-calorie diet the rest of the day, will help keep weight down.

The researchers say a big breakfast helps cut cravings for sweet or starchy foods, as well as boosting the metabolism and a good breakfast helps with long term loss weight as opposed to the crash diet.

The researchers also say that the big breakfast diet helps weight loss in a healthier way than an extremely low-carbohydrate diet because it allows people to eat more fruit and therefore get enough fiber and vitamins.

The research was presented last week at the Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.