Benefit of a big breakfast

THE secret to fighting the flab is not so much what you eat but when you eat, scientists say.

They found that if breakfast or lunch was the biggest meal of the day, rather than dinner, it led to the greatest weight loss.

Experts at Loma Linda University in California studied more than 50,000 adults.

Those eating most calories in the morning saw the largest decline in weight, while big lunches led to a slightly smaller reduction. But taking the largest meal of the day in the evening led to no change.

Researchers said: ‘Eating breakfast and lunch five or six hours apart and making the overnight fast last 18 to 19 hours may be a useful strategy.’