Breakfast really could be the most important meal of the day when it comes to losing weight, claims a researcher.

Over several months, obese women who ate half their daily calories first thing fared better than those eating a much smaller amount.

US researcher Dr Daniela Jakubowicz told a San Francisco conference having a small breakfast could actually boost food cravings.

A UK expert said a big breakfast diet might simply be less boring.

Dr Jakubowicz, from Virginia Commonwealth University, has been recommending a hearty breakfast to her patients for 15 years.

She tested it against a low carbohydrate diet in a study of 96 obese and physically inactive women.

This diet involved 1,085 calories a day - the majority of these coming from protein and fat.

Breakfast here was the smallest meal of the day - just 290 calories, with just seven grams of carbohydrates.

Her "big breakfast" diet involved more calories - 1,240 - with a lower proportion of fat and more carbohydrates and protein.

Breakfast here was 610 calories, with 58 grams of carbohydrates, while lunch and dinner were 395 and 235 calories respectively.

Four months on, the low-carb dieters appeared to be doing better, losing an average of 28 pounds to the 23 shed on the "big breakfast" diet.

However, after eight months, the situation had reversed, with the low-carb dieters putting an average of 18 of those pounds back on, while the big breakfasters continued to lose weight, on average 16.5 pounds each.

They lost a fifth of their total body weight on average, compared with less than 5% for the low-carb dieters.

Slower metabolism

Dr Jakubowicz reported that the big breakfasters said they felt less hungry, particularly in the mornings.

She said: "Most weight loss studies have determined that a very low carbohydrate diet is not a good method to reduce weight.

"It exacerbates the craving for carbohydrates and slows metabolism - as a result, after a short period of weight loss, there is a quick return to obesity."

She said that the bigger breakfast helped by making people feel fuller during the day, and was healthier, because it allowed more fibre and fruit to be included.

Dr Alex Johnstone, from the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, said that other studies had shown that while low-carb diets were a "good tool" to reduce weight quickly, they were not a "diet for life".

She said that the regaining of lost weight by these dieters could be more a sign of the relative monotony of the two diets, rather than their ability to necessarily reduce cravings.

"It could be that it is simply easier for people on a higher-carbohydrate diet to comply with it over a longer period."

A spokesman for the British Nutrition Foundation said there was evidence that a good-sized breakfast could help dieters.

She said: "Research shows that eating breakfast can actually help people control their weight.

"This is probably because when we don't have breakfast we're more likely to get hungry before lunch and snack on foods that are high in fat and sugar, such as biscuits, doughnuts or pastries."

資料來源 BBC NEWS  

減肥方法五花八門，少吃多動是不二法門，但無論怎麼少吃，早餐可不應該省略。美國研究人員賈庫波維茲（Daniela Jakubowicz）說，其實好好吃頓豐盛早餐，反而有助於減肥。 
維吉尼亞州邦聯大學教授賈庫波維茲說，受訪者一連數月在早上飽餐一頓，吃掉一天一半的熱量，減肥效果反而優於早餐吃得少。她說，如果早上吃得少，反而會刺激食慾。 她設計的「豐盛早餐」熱量約610卡，遠高於中餐的395卡與晚餐的235卡，三餐刻意降低脂肪攝取，但提高醣類（58毫克）與蛋白質比例。 至於對照組一天熱量約1085卡，營養以蛋白質和脂肪為主。早餐熱量只有290卡，是一天當中份量最少的一餐。 
4個月之後發現，低醣量少早餐組的減肥效果優於高醣量大早餐組，前者少了28磅（約14.2公斤），後者甩了23磅（約11.7公斤）。不過8個月之後，低醣量少早餐組出現復胖，體重增加了18磅（9.1公斤）。而量大早餐組則持續瘦身，每個人平均甩肉16.5磅（8.4公斤）。     　整體而言，早餐吃得飽，平均可減重20%；早餐吃得少，平均體重只掉了5%。 
賈庫波維茲說，刻意降低醣類攝取，短期可看到減肥效果，但低醣容易引發食慾、減緩新陳代謝，長期下來反而造成復胖。

資料來源 中時電子報