Question: Does eating breakfast help you lose weight?

Does eating breakfast help you lose weight?

Short answer

No.

Experiments show that getting overweight people to eat breakfast does not lead to weight loss.

Slim people are more likely to eat breakfast, but this may just be a symptom of their overall healthier relationship with food.

Long answer

Slim people are indeed more likely to eat breakfast. One survey found that 96% of slim people with no history of weight problems ate breakfast every day. Does that mean that if overweight people start eating breakfast, they will lose weight?

Many commentators, nutritionists, and others certainly think so.They recommend eating breakfast as a weight-loss strategy, and use phrases like “it kick-starts your metabolism” and “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” to support their claim. I used to say these things too.

However, according to research, these claims are probably mistaken.

Experiments

Experiments have taken overweight volunteers in a free-living setting, and asked them to start eating breakfast everyday. After some time, do they lose weight? No, they do not.

For example, one experiment took two groups of volunteers, asking one group to eat breakfast every day, while the other group was given no such instructions. After 16 weeks, both groups were weighed, and the breakfast-eating group was no different in weight than the non-breakfast-eating group.

Indeed, some experiments record a weight loss in those told to stop eating breakfast! Other long-term studies observing the lives of people have found that overweight breakfast-skippers sometimes weigh less than overweight breakfast-eaters.

Other experiments have had mixed results, where the only people losing weight were the ones asked to change their usual habits. In other words, those who don’t normally eat breakfast lost weight if they started eating it; and those who normally do eat breakfast lost weight if they stopped eating it!

Clearly, the idea of “eat breakfast to lose weight” is over-simplified at best, and dead wrong at worse.

So what is the truth about breakfast eating and weight loss?

A reasonable conclusion

While it’s true that slim people are far more likely to eat breakfast than overweight people, we also have to examine what they are eating. The same survey that found 96% of them ate breakfast every day also asked them what they ate. Most said fruit, vegetables, and starches – such as oatmeal. They did not answer Nutella, bagels, Pop-Tarts, or fried bacon.

This is probably the answer to the puzzle. Yes, slim people are more likely to eat breakfast, but this is just a symptom of their overall healthier relationship with food. They eat breakfast, yes, but their time of eating is less important than what they are eating.

If overweight people truly want to mimic “naturally slim” people and their breakfast habits, they ought to start the day with low-energy-density foods like fruits, not sugary cereals or bacon sandwiches.

Experiments show that eating better foods will, for certain, lead to long-term fat loss. Changing the timing of unhealthy food consumption will not.

Regularly watching my daily online video series will help you and encourage you to adopt healthy habits and lose body fat. You can also follow me here at Steemit for regular healthy-eating encouragement.

Thanks for reading! I hope you found this interesting!

I'll be back with more science-based weight loss information soon.

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Scientific references

“Evaluating the Intervention-Based Evidence Surrounding the Causal Role of Breakfast on Markers of Weight Management, with Specific Focus on Breakfast Composition and Size” by Heather J Leidy, et al., Advances in Nutrition, 2016 – http://advances.nutrition.org/content/7/3/563S.long