Weight Loss Improved with High-Calorie Breakfast

Caroline Scott-Thomas explains why a high calorie breakfast may help you lose weight more quickly and improve your health:

Published in the journal Obesity, the study randomly assigned 93 overweight or obese women to one of two diets, both providing 1,400 calories a day over a 12-week period.  One group consumed a high-calorie breakfast (700 calories), followed by a 500-calorie lunch and a 200-calorie dinner, while the other group ate a 200-calorie breakfast, 500-calorie lunch and 700-calorie dinner.  The 700-calorie breakfasts and dinners were the same, including desserts such as chocolate.

Both groups lost a significant amount of weight over the 12-week period, but average weight loss in the high-calorie breakfast group (8.7 kg) was more than twice that of the low-calorie breakfast group (3.6 kg). 

In addition, the large breakfast group had lower blood glucose, insulin and triglyceride levels, which are considered as markers for diet-related disease. Blood triglycerides, which are fats linked to heart disease risk, fell by more than a third in the large breakfast group. but increased by 14.6% in the large dinner group.