A Big Breakfast Can Lead To Weight Loss
Research by the Virginia Commonwealth University has shown that eating a large, well-balanced breakfast can help reduce cravings and hunger during the rest of the day, which can lead to significant weight loss.
The study involved 94 obese, sedentary women with metabolic syndrome. Half of the women were told to eat a big breakfast as part of a 1,240 calorie daily diet, while the other half at a 1,085 calorie high-protein, low carbohydrate diet.
After 8 months, those on the more restrictive low-carb diet lost an average of nearly 9 pounds. However, those on the big breakfast diet lost nearly 40 pounds. Furthermore, those on the big breakfast diet reported feeling less hungry and had fewer carbohydrate cravings.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, a clinical professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and an endocrinologist at the Hospital de Clinicas Caracas in Venezuela, explains that upon waking in the morning, your body is ready for food. Your metabolism is high, and levels of cortisol and adrenaline are at their highest. Furthermore, your brain needs energy right away, and if you don’t eat or you eat too little, the brain will seek another fuel source – muscle. When you do eat later, the body and brain are still in that emergency state, so the body stores the energy from the food as fat.
Further compounding the problem, your levels of serotonin are highest in the morning, which means that your cravings are at the lowest. However, as the day continues, serotonin levels drop, and your cravings for sweets increases. I you eat sweet foods, your serotonin levels rise, and your body begins to associate good feelings with eating these foods, which creates an addictive cycle.
Dr. Jakubowicz and her colleagues recommend eating a breakfast which accounts for nearly half of your daily calories. They recommend having a breakfast that includes milk, 3 ounces of lean meat, two slices of cheese, two whole grain servings, on fat serving, and one ounce of milk chocolate or candy. The candy will help cut down on cravings, because it won’t taste as good while serotonin levels are so high, and the brain won’t feel the same serotonin boost, which will eventually help cut down on cravings. She also recommends eating meals containing protein and complex carbohydrates, like vegetables, for the rest of the day.
This is a very interesting article and really helps explain why skipping breakfast is such a bad idea. I found the part about how eating sweets late in the day leads to an addictive cycle for more sweets especially interesting. I have posted before about how teens who eat breakfast gain less weight and about how a breakfast containing eggs caused women to eat less at lunch; however, this article really explains it well.
Reference: MedLine Plus
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This article rings true to me as I recently wrote about my mishap with skipping breakfast and then attempting to exercise. It is important to maintain a healthy weight but also to get the energy one needs to make it through the first part of the day, to break the fast. thanks for sharing.
spindiva’s last blog post..Fuel for my body - don’t leave home without it
If that works for people, then it works. Little to no breakfast works for me. I usually just eat a protein bar, and I am good. I have lost about 20 pounds in the last 3 months …
The funny thing about diets and weightloss plans are their are so many and all do not work for everyone. The thing that you have to do is to keep trying different plans until you find the one that gets you the results you are looking for.
The most important thing is to keep on trying and you will find it.
If you check out enough diet sites you will find certain things that run through all of them and these generally are the things that you use to create your diet foundation.
I kept on searching until I found one that would allow me to eat whatever I wanted and still get in shape. I also shared this with some other people who thank me daily.
Keep trying and don’t stop!
Fat Butt No More’s last blog post..Not So Secret Secrets To Weight Loss But Often Overlooked