Eating a larger meal at the beginning of the day will keep you full longer. I know you have heard it a million times if not more that breakfast is the key to starting the day right. A well balanced healthy breakfast can keep you full all morning long. If you feel full, you will be less likely to graze on the office snacks. There are plenty of studies that show that eating breakfast is tied to a healthier weight and weight loss success[1], but few studies examined the association between time-of-day of nutrient intake and the metabolic syndrome.
A study from 2013 published in Obesity looked at breakfast versus dinner caloric intake[2]. The goal of the study was to compare two weight loss diets that vary by either having a high caloric breakfast or dinner. The two diets had the same calorie content and only differed in percent of calories consumed during breakfast or dinner. The subjects were a group of overweight and obese women with metabolic syndrome. The subjects were randomized into two isocaloric weight loss groups with either a large breakfast (700 kcal breakfast, 500 kcal lunch, 200 kcal dinner) or a large dinner (200 kcal breakfast, 500 kcal lunch, 700 kcal dinner) for 12 weeks.
The researchers found that group that ate a larger breakfast has a greater weight loss and waist circumference reduction than the group fed a larger dinner. Oral glucose tolerance test led to a greater decrease of glucose and insulin in the large breakfast group. In response to the meal challenges, the overall daily glucose, insulin, ghrelin, and mean hunger scores were significantly lower, whereas mean satiety scores were significantly higher in the breakfast group.
The bottom line: A high-calorie breakfast and a reduced intake at dinner is beneficial and might be a useful alternative for the management of obesity and metabolic syndrome. The larger breakfast keeps you full longer and helps reduce caloric intake and lower insulin resistance.
Footnotes
[1]Haislip, “Research: Breakfast and Weight Loss.”
[2]Jakubowicz et al., “High Caloric Intake at Breakfast vs. Dinner Differentially Influences Weight Loss of Overweight and Obese Women.”
Jakubowicz, Daniela, Maayan Barnea, Julio Wainstein, and Oren Froy. “High Caloric Intake at Breakfast vs. Dinner Differentially Influences Weight Loss of Overweight and Obese Women.” Obesity 21, no. 12 (July 2, 2013): 2504–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.20460.
I am a family physician who has served in the US Army. In 2016, I found myself overweight, out of shape, and unhealthy, so I made a change to improve my health. This blog is the chronology of my path to better health and what I have learned along the way.
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