Lose More Weight with a BIGGER Breakfast

byBaseline of Health Staff


If you're the kind of person that rushes out the door every morning with just a cup of coffee or a bagel, you might want to reconsider your morning eating habits. A study from Virginia Commonwealth University has shown that a big breakfast may be a key component in the fight to lose weight. In fact, according to the study, a big breakfast that's rich in carbs, protein, and fat will help you lose far more weight than you would if you stuck to a low-calorie, low-carb breakfast.

The research focused on 94 obese, inactive women. Those in the low-carb breakfast group ate 290 calories for breakfast, including seven grams of carbs and 12 grams of protein. The big-breakfast group consumed 610 calories for breakfast, including a whopping 58 grams of carbs, 22 grams of fat, and 47 grams of protein. After eight months, the big-breakfast women lost five times as much weight as the strict dieters. Even more significant--the strict dieters had regained an average of 18 of the pounds they initially lost and were on their way back up the scale, while the big-breakfast subjects continued to lose weight.

Amazingly, the big-breakfast group lost that weight eating breakfasts that by traditional diet standards seem almost risqué. The morning menu typically contained three ounces of meat, two slices of cheese, two whole-grain servings, a serving of milk, one fat serving and one ounce of chocolate or candy.

It's hard to even imagine jamming all that food into your mouth before noon. But according to research director Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, that's precisely the point. First thing in the morning, the brain chemical serotonin is at its peak. When serotonin levels are high, we don't feel hunger, but when serotonin levels dip - as they do as the day wears on - the brain craves energy food such as cookies and candy in order to drive the levels back up. If you give in and eat the sweets, your serotonin levels spike, your brain feels happy, and that triggers an addictive cycle where you associate sweets with the serotonin high and constantly crave them. To break the cycle, Jakubowicz suggests eating sweets when you don't have a desire for them, such as first thing in the morning. That way the sweets won't supply a serotonin boost and you break the addictive association.

Now that's an interesting concept, and it seemed to work for the big-breakfast club, who balanced out the morning overload by having a small lunch and tiny dinner. They also reported reduced hunger throughout the day, unlike the low-carb dieters. Jakubowicz explains, "[A low carbohydrate diet] exacerbates the craving for carbohydrates and slows metabolism. As a result, after a short period of weight loss, there is a quick return to obesity."

Does this mean that you should stuff your face with pasta or donuts at 7am? No! In fact, the diet consumed by the morning big-eaters, while effective for weight loss, leaves a lot to be desired. Notice that the diet that led to weight loss contained no fruit or vegetables in the morning, and also contained lots of dairy. There are better ways to get a well-balanced morning meal without loading up on allergy-inducing, hormone-laden milk, cheese, nitrate-spiked breakfast meats, and buttered toast.

The big-breakfast group might have benefited more in terms of overall health had they substituted some of the dairy with hypoallergenic, enzyme-, antioxidant-, and amino-rich proteins from sources such as brown rice, spirulina, and yellow-pea protein, and had they substituted fruits and vegetables for some of the carbs. While the research team got right the idea of front-loading the day with the highest-caloric intake, they might do well to consider alternative, healthier sources of protein, carbohydrates, and fats for the morning meal.

Healthy Living Tip #1

 Eat Breakfast Every Morning

Breakfast eaters are champions of good health. Research shows people who have a morning meal tend to take in more vitamins and minerals, and less fat and cholesterol. The result is often a leaner body, lower cholesterol count, and less chance of overeating.

"That one act [of eating breakfast] seems to make a difference in people's overall weight," says Melinda Johnson, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). She says breakfast can hold off hunger pangs until lunchtime and make high-calorie vending machine options less enticing.

Not only that, researchers at the 2003 American Heart Association conference reported that breakfast eaters are significantly less likely to be obese and get diabetes compared with nonbreakfast eaters.

Another study in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition showed that people who consumed breakfast cereal every day reported feeling better both physically and mentally than those who rarely ate cereal in the morning.

For kids, breakfast appears to enhance alertness, attention, and performance on standardized achievement tests, reports the ADA.

To get the full benefits of breakfast, the Mayo Clinic recommends a meal with carbohydrates, protein, and a small amount of fat. They say that because no single food gives you all of the nutrients you need, eating a variety of foods is essential to good health.

Yet, even with so much scientific support that breakfast does the body good; many people still make excuses not to eat in the morning. They include not having enough time and not feeling hungry. For these people, Johnson suggests tailoring breakfast to the day.

**Tips taken from http://www.webmd.com/**

So how do you make time for breakfast?  PLAN AHEAD 
I normally eat an egg and slice of cheese on a sandwich round or bagel thin along with some fruit.  This is very filling.  I have found that cereals do not keep me full.  Sometimes, I will just have some Shakeology for breakfast instead of lunch.

SO WHAT DO YOU EAT FOR BREAKFAST?