In today’s hectic lifestyle, who has time for breakfast? According to the Morning MealScape 2011 study, men aged between 18 and 34 are the most likely to skip breakfast, while only 10% of women over the age of 55 forgo their morning meal. However, there are several reasons why eating breakfast is beneficial to your wellbeing; not least of all because it can help with your weight loss diet.
A recent study published in the journal Obesity revealed that eating a big breakfast as part of a low-calorie diet can help obese women lose weight. Led by Daniela Jakubowicz, researchers at Tel Aviv University divided 93 obese women into two groups; one that ate a 700-calorie breakfast and a 200-calorie dinner, and another that consumed a 200-calorie breakfast and a 700-calorie dinner. Those who ate a big breakfast managed to lose an average of 17.8lbs over a period of 12 weeks, while those in the small breakfast group lost an average of 7.3lbs. Moreover, the big breakfast dieters had significantly lower levels of insulin, glucose and triglycerides in their blood, which meant that their wellness was more secure against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
However, another study, this time published in the journal Physiology and Behaviour, showed that skipping breakfast can be, for some, a great way to eliminate excess calories. Senior author David Levitsky, a Cornell professor of nutritional sciences and of psychology, commented, ‘I realize that skipping breakfast runs counter to common belief—that breakfast is an important meal for weight control, but the data does not support this view. Of course, these results apply to healthy adults—if you’re diabetic or hypoglycaemic, for example, you need to eat breakfast to maintain glucose levels. But generally, we must learn to eat less, and occasionally skipping breakfast may be a reasonable way to accomplish this.’
Still, even if skipping breakfast can help you to lose weight, researchers at the American Heart Association warn that skipping breakfast increases a man’s risk of coronary heart disease. According to lead researcher Leah E. Cahill of the Harvard School of Public Health, ‘Skipping breakfast may lead to one or more risk factors—including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes, which may in turn lead to a heart attack over time.’