Breakfast and Weight Loss

I’m sure you’ve heard it numerous times and from different sources that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Even so, people looking to drop a few pounds are quick to skip breakfast. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Your mother was right; breakfast IS the most important meal of the day. Breakfast helps to balance your hormones, which sets the proper balance for the rest of the day. Without breakfast, your first meal of the day will usually occur around lunch time, at which point your blood sugar levels are crashing faster than my Pfizer stock. Big deal you say? Well, low blood sugar levels are what cause you to feel drained and tired and gives you those intense sugar cravings. And whatever few calories you did save by skipping breakfast are going to be made up five fold when you lose all self-control and choke down the super colon buster burger with cheese, fries and diet soda (because after all, you’re trying to lose weight). Good job...your mother would be so proud! When it comes to looking good naked and being healthy, breakfast is one of the most important behaviors you can adopt.

The National weight Control Registry (http://www.nwcr.ws/) has tracked thousands of people who have lost between 30 and 300 pounds, with 66 pounds being the average. The NWCR found that of those people who lost weight and were able to keep it off for at least 1 year, 78% ate breakfast every day. If you want to lose body fat AND keep it off, breakfast is an easy way to get started.
Want more? Here's a study presented at The Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco:

Jakubowicz D, et al "Effect of diet with high carbohydrate and protein breakfast on weight loss and appetite in obese women with metabolic syndrome" ENDO meeting 2008; Abstract P3-220.

The study consisted of two groups consuming identical total calories, between 1,085-1,240 daily.

Group 1 consumed 17g of carbs daily

Group 2 consumed 97g of carbs daily

Here's where things get interesting, Group 1 consumed 290 calories for breakfast, while Group 2 consumed a 610 calorie breakfast.

After 4 months, there was no significant difference in weight loss between the 2 groups. However, after an additional 4 months:

Group 1 (290 calorie breakfast) lost a total of 9.4 pounds

Group 2 (610 calorie breakfast) lost a total of 39.8 pounds.

Take home lesson: eat a big breakfast and reduce calories the rest of the day.

Here's another study:

Alexander et al. Association of Breakfast Skipping With Visceral Adiposity in Overweight Latino Youth.Obesity (Silver Spring). 2009 May 7.

The study consisted of 3 groups consuming identical daily total calories. The 3 groups were then split into the following:

Group 1- No breakfast

Group 2- Breakfast occasionally

Group 3- Breakfast every day

The researchers concluded "breakfast omission was associated with increased levels of intra-abdominal fat independent of daily energy intake. Eating breakfast is associated with lower body fat levels in overweight Latino youth. Interventions focused on increasing breakfast consumption are warranted"

Do yourself and your waistline a favor, eat a big breakfast.