Though skipping breakfast might seem like an easy way for dieters to cut calories, new research from the University of Colorado finds that the majority of people who are successful at losing weight and keeping it off eat breakfast every day.
The researchers believe that eating breakfast helps you spread out your hunger and manage your food intake better throughout the day. If you start out the day by eating something, you don't get this burning hunger later that causes you to overeat.
The researchers analyzed data on nearly 3,000 people, mostly women, enrolled in the National Weight Control Registry, an ongoing study of adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept the weight off for a year or more. The average participant in the new analysis had lost about 70 pounds. Results showed that 2,313 participants (78%) had breakfast 7 days a week, while another 151 (5%) had breakfast 6 days a week and 136 (5%) had breakfast 5 days a week. Only 114 (4%) said they never ate breakfast.
The researchers did not gather detailed information on every food the study participants ate for breakfast, though overall they tended to consume a diet consisting primarily of carbohydrates, with 20% to 25% of daily calories from fat.
The bottom line - eat breakfast to help lose weight!
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