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

Many people avoid nuts, believing they are too high in calories; however research now suggests that nuts can help with weight control.

Nuts, with the exception of chestnuts, contain 160 to 200 calories per ounce. Most of these calories come from unsaturated fats. Populations studies have shown that people who eat nuts regularly are likely to weigh less than those who don’t. For example, a Spanish study of almost 9,000 people found that those who ate nuts at least twice a week were less likely to gain weight over 28 months than those who never or rarely ate nuts.

A small study by Purdue University last year found that women who added 344 calories worth of almond a day to their diets, without purposefully cutting back calories or exercising more, did not gain weight after 10 weeks. Few studies have looked at whether or not nuts actually help people lose weight, but one study found that a low-calorie diet that included almonds led to more weight loss than a nut free diet.

A 2007 study from Australia basically summarizes these findings. The researchers found that when nuts are added freely to a diet, they cause less weight gain than what would be predicted, and when added to a calorie-controlled diet, they don’t cause weight gain and sometimes make weight loss easier.

Researchers believe that the fiber and protein contained gives them their benefits by making people fell full longer. Also, some studies suggest that nuts may slightly increase calorie burning. It has also been shown that nuts may reduce the risk of heart disease, because of their positive effects on blood cholesterol. Furthermore, nuts contain heart-healthy B vitamins, potassium, copper, magnesium, vitamin E, fiber, arginine, sterols, and several phytochemicals.

The following is some advice for adding nuts to your diet:

• Limit yourself to 1 to 2 ounces of nuts each day. A small handful is approximately one ounce.
• Nut butters, including almond, cashew, and peanut, have the same nutritional advantages as nuts themselves.
• Try to eat low or unsalted nuts. Many of the mixed nut varieties contain an large amount of sodium.
• Nuts are a great source of protein for vegetarians or those that eat very little amounts of meat.

I have had an ounce of nuts each day for the past couple years, so it’s nice to know that this is a healthy habit as I suspected. I eat a Planters mix of almonds, cashews, and macadamia nuts. They are lightly salted and the package has the South Beach Diet printed on it. I actually weigh them on a food scale, and I eat them as a mid morning snack. I do find that they keep me full until lunchtime.

Reference: UC Berkeley Wellness Letter

A study by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo examined 4,601 men between the ages of 25 and 50 for 28 years. The researchers found that the more often these men lost and regained weight, the more likely they were to suffer a fractured forearm after the age of 50.

The researchers believe that weight cycling causes an increase in skeletal fragility by causing microscopic damage to bone structure. They also think this may occur due to an increased risk of falling due to weakening muscles.

The researchers also found that those who lost weight more frequently, and lost more weight each time, were more likely to develop metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

Of those who reported no weight loss cycles before age 50, about 17 to 18 percent had forearm fractures. The rate was 35 to 43 percent among men who lost weight at least four times. Those who lost weight at least four times before the age of 50 had nearly triple the risk of forearm fracture after 50.

Dr. Anne Johanne Sogaard of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health suggest to keep bones strong when they lose weight, people should make sure to exercise during the weight loss. Sogaard says, “we know that weight-bearing activities, weight-training and exercise with varied loadings (e.g. squash, badminton, tennis) are favorable for muscles and balance, as well as bones.”

I think this mostly has to do with the microscopic damage to bone, as the article states. This makes sense since weight loss is catabolic to the whole body. By being in a catabolic state over and over, it would seem likely that people would suffer fragile bones later in life.

Reference: MedLine Plus

A study published in the February 2008 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the official scientific journal of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), has suggested that weight gain due to inconsistent exercise cannot be lost by only resuming a previous exercise routine.

The study spanned eight years and involved over 40,000 runners. The researchers found that weight gained by those who decreased their running distances per week was significantly more than the weight lost by those who increased their running distances per week by the same amount.

Reference: ACSM

A Study by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that overweight people who lose a moderate amount of weight immediately show better heart health. This improvement in heart health occurs whether the weight is lost by eating less or exercising more.

The study involved a group of healthy, overweight but not obese, middle-aged men and women. The researchers found that heart function was restored to a more youthful state. During the heart’s filling phase (called diastole) it took less time for the heart to fill with blood.  The filling phase of the cardiac cycle can be used to detect subtle changes in heart health.

By the end of this yearlong study, participants from both the calorie restriction and exercise groups lost 12 percent of their weight and 12 percent of their body mass index (BMI).

The full report can be found here.