To eat or not to eat breakfast–which method is better for losing weight? As it turns out, a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says neither helps you lose weight.
Studying a group of overweight and obese people between 20 to 65 years old, researchers found that those who skipped breakfast didn’t necessarily lose more weight than those who did.
To researchers, this evidence shows that when you eat may not necessarily be important when it comes to weight loss–instead, how much you eat and the quality of the food you eat matters more.
“Now that we know the general recommendation of ‘eat breakfast every day’ has no differential impact on weight loss, we can move forward with studying other techniques for improved effectiveness,” says Emily Dhurandhar, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who co-authored the study. “We should try to understand why eating or skipping breakfast did not influence weight loss, despite evidence that breakfast may influence appetite and metabolism.”
The Study
Recruiting 309 overweight and obese adults who were otherwise healthy, researchers set out to test out a hypothesis: Could eating breakfast make an impact on a person’s ability to lose weight? To test out this hypothesis, they split the participants into two groups, and then had them follow one of two plans–a diet that skipped breakfast or one that included breakfast. However, no other restrictions were placed on what or when they could eat.
Then they asked them to follow this diet for the next 16 weeks to see how it affected their weight.
As it turned out, skipping breakfast had no impact on their weight.
“We found it didn’t really make a difference,” says David B. Allison, a professor of public health and associate dean for science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who co-authored the study. “We all…probably need to be more skeptical of platitudes about obesity.”
However, other researchers note that skipping breakfast resulted in other negative health outcomes. For instance, previous evidence found that school children who skipped breakfast performed poorly in school.
“Long-term, [skipping breakfast] is not the best strategy,” says Dr. Keith Ayoob, an associate clinical professor of pediatrics and director of the Nutrition Clinic at the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at Albert Einstein College. “It’s not always just about weight. Breakfast is a great vehicle meal for healthy foods such as whole grains, low-fat dairy products and fruit.”
Overall, though, if you’re expecting to lose more weight by skipping breakfast, chances are it won’t work, say researchers.
What You Should Do
Want to lose weight? Forget skipping meals; they don’t work. Instead, focus on amping up the quality of the foods you consume instead.
Readers: Do you skip breakfast? Why or why not?
Sources:
Does Skipping Breakfast Help or Hurt Your Diet? The Answer Revealed – CBSNews.com
Study: Skipping Breakfast Not Shown to Improve Weight Loss Odds – MedicalNewsToday.com
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