Cram in brekker, lose more weight

Ladies who stuff it in first thing stay fuller for longer, snack less, lose weight and keep it off. Sounds like a convincing argument for an almighty grill-up.

We’ve always known breakfast was the most important meal of the day because our mum told us, but now there’s science fact as well as mum fact to back it up.

Research undertaken at the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela, has shown that eating around half the daily calorie allowance in the first meal of the day leads to long term weight lose in more cases than those who nibble a paltry breakfast.

It’s not a case of cramming in the croissants and shovelling fried sausages down your gullet though, balance (yawn) and moderation (boo) are the order of the day.

Eat protein (egg, meat etc) and complex carbohydrates (wholemeal toast, baked beans and so forth) to reduce the cravings for sweet sticky goodness later in the day.

The Venezuelan study looked at how breakfast habits affected the weight of 100 obese young women. All of them were put on a low-calorie, low-carb diet but half had a big breakfast of nearly half their day’s calorie allowance, the other a small one.

By the mid-point in the eight-month study, the small breakfast women had lost an average two stone, but the Big Breakfast Club had lost an average 5lb LESS than this.

Things then took a turn, and by the end of the study the ladies in the small breakfast group had regained an average 18lbs, whereas the big eaters had continued to lose another 16.5lb.

Other big breakfast benefits were fewer cravings for carbs and less hunger overall.

Source: Daily Mail

Image: dmscs, Morgefile.com