People wake up to no breakfast
IT’S amessage rammed into us as children – breakfast is the most important meal of the day. As adults we’re also told skipping breakfast doesn’t actually help us lose weight, despite many diets telling you fasting is the way to go.
With so many contradicting theories around, it’s easy to get confused, but a new study shows breakfast skippers might be on to something when it comes to weight loss.
Australian researchers analysed studies that looked at the effect eating breakfast regularly had on weight change and energy intake. They found people who skipped breakfast consumed fewer calories and were on average 0.44kg lighter.
The Monash University team in Melbourne said the idea “breakfast was the most important meal of the day” came from observational studies that could be skewed.
In its study published in the British Medical Journal it said there was no good evidence to support the idea eating breakfast promoted weight loss or that skipping breakfast led to weight gain.
In fact, the findings show that people who eat breakfast had a higher daily calorie intake – an average of 260 more calories consumed in a day – and that skipping the meal did not make you hungrier later in the day. About a third of people in developed countries regularly skip breakfast.
Previous studies have suggested eating breakfast is linked to maintaining a healthy weight, but they say these findings could also reflect someone’s wider healthy lifestyle and food choices.