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Breakfast: Is it What We Eat or When We Eat It That Really Counts?

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Breakfast is oft-quoted as being the most important meal, yet it is the easiest and most commonly skipped, setting a bad precedence for the rest of the day. A study at the University of Edinburgh found that more than half of girls in the UK over the age of 15 were skipping breakfast, often to watch their weight.

A recent study by the University of Connecticut has homed in on breakfast items and has concluded that eating eggs for breakfast might help you eat less later in the day. The reason is simple; protein is more filling and satisfying and does not trigger the cravings that carbohydrate items can induce.

Although the Atkins diet was slated as being unhealthy in many ways, one thing it was right about was that eating a high protein breakfast was the best start to the day. However, this does not advocate a piled plate of breakfast items from the local Pancake House. The Atkins rule was to eat slowly and stop as soon as you are full. Generally this was an egg and a couple of slices of bacon, and your stomach was happy until well into the afternoon.

The University of Connecticut study alternated its test candidates with an egg breakfast one day and a bagel breakfast on the next. The subjects found that out of choice they ate between 100 and 400 fewer calories less for lunch after eating the egg breakfast than after eating bagels. Those trying to lose weight whilst keeping the dreaded appetite and hunger pangs at bay may find this a useful study to emulate.

Further studies at the University of Alabama and Baylor College recently published the results of their obesity study in the International Journal of Obesity. They also concentrated on breakfast habits and found that mice that ate large breakfasts were still able to lose weight. The condition was that a high calorie or high carbohydrate meal was consumed at breakfast and compensating smaller meals were then eaten for lunch and dinner.

The study concluded that the time of day at which high-fat meals were consumed greatly affected the cardiometabolic syndrome parameters. In layman’s terms, they found that mice which were fed a high-fat meal at the end of an active phase led to weight gain, with an increase in the storing of calories as fat along with glucose intolerance and the presence of excess insulin in the blood. Mice fed a similar high-fat meal at the beginning of an active period responded with an increase in their metabolic rate during their active period, burning off the calories.

Basically, if those mice were men, the body would aim to increase its metabolism after a high-calorie breakfast but would simply store it as fat if it was eaten at the end of the day. It seems that it is not just what we eat, but when we eat it that, according to this and other studies, affects our weight.