Big Breakfast = lousy diet

reposted from: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/01January/Pages/impact-of-breakfast-calories-on-daily-intake-studied.aspx

crabsallover highlights, key points, comments / links.

The key to dieting is “not a big breakfast”, reported the Daily Express. It said that researchers of a study on 300 people claimed: “people ate the same at lunch and dinner, regardless of what they had for breakfast”.

This news report is based on a study that compared how many calories 300 obese and normal-weight people ate throughout the day, for a 10-day period. The research paper has not yet been published in full, but there is a draft copy available from the publisher’s website. The analyses in the study are complex and there are some errors that should be ironed out before publication.

However, one finding is certain, that greater intake of calories at breakfast was linked to greater overall daily calorie intake. It seems sensible that people trying to lose weight should apply the same calorie caution to their breakfast as to other meals in the day and if a large number of calories are consumed at breakfast, other meals should be adjusted to compensate for this to keep within recommended limits.

A healthy breakfast is still important, and this study should not be interpreted to mean that people trying to lose weight should skip breakfast.

Where did the story come from?

The study was carried out by researchers from the Technical University of Munich. The authors do not report any external sources of funding. The study is not fully published yet, but has been accepted for publication in the Nutrition Journal.

The newspaper reports appear mostly to be based on a press release from the journal. The research paper has not yet been published in full, but there is a draft copy available from the publisher’s website. The analyses in this research are complex and there appear to be small errors in the results and interpretations that make a full appraisal difficult to carry out.

What kind of research was this?

The researchers say that previous studies have had conflicting results regarding whether a high energy (high calorie) breakfast will reduce a person’s overall calorie intake for the rest of the day. While some have suggested that a big meal in the morning reduces overall energy intake over the course of the day, others have shown no evidence of this. They say it is difficult to compare the studies with one another directly because of the different methods that have been used, so a new study that looks at the issue again would be helpful.
 
Previous research has tried to answer this question using one of two methods. The first method is to compare the number of calories consumed at breakfast with the number of calories consumed during other meals. The second is to assess calorie intake according to the ratio of breakfast to total daily energy in later meals (i.e. what proportion of the day’s energy was from breakfast).

The researchers say it is possible that these other studies have had contradictory results because they analyse their data using these two different methods.

This cross-sectional study enrolled 280 obese individuals and 100 normal-weight subjects to assess the link between the number of calories eaten at breakfast and the energy consumed during other meals of the day and overall.

What did the research involve?

The obese participants were recruited through the clinic at which they were being treated for their weight problem. The normal-weight controls were recruited through advertisements and selected to match the obese group on age and gender. All participants kept a food diary for 10 days. For the obese group, this was for the period prior to the start of their therapy. The participants were asked to record what they ate and drank for this 10-day period, how much they consumed and the time of day they consumed it.

The participants were asked to note clearly in the diary which meal they were consuming. Any foods eaten between breakfast and lunch were considered to be morning snacks, while foods eaten between lunch and dinner were evening snacks. The researchers then converted the food eaten at different meals to calories and assessed the effect of breakfast size on overall daily intake. This was done in two different ways, first by analysing the number of calories consumed at breakfast and, second, according to the ratio of energy from breakfast to total daily energy, i.e. what proportion of the day’s energy was from breakfast.

What were the basic results?

In both obese and normal-weight subjects, the more calories consumed at breakfast the larger the total daily calories consumed. This means that on days when a large number of calories were eaten at breakfast, the total daily calorie intake was high.

The researchers note that the foods associated with a bigger (higher calorie) breakfast were bread, eggs, cake, yoghurt, cheese, sausages, marmalade and butter.

How did the researchers interpret the results?

The researchers conclude that greater energy intake at breakfast is associated with greater energy intake for the whole day in normal weight and obese subjects. They say, therefore, that low energy intake at breakfast can be helpful to lower daily energy intake and improve the energy balance during treatment of obesity.

Conclusion

This cross-sectional study found that highly calorific breakfasts were linked with a greater overall intake of calories during the day. The author’s conclusion seems sensible. The research paper has not yet been published in full, and there are a number of complexities and some potential errors in the available draft, which makes a full appraisal difficult.

One finding is certain from their analyses, that greater calories at breakfast were linked to greater overall daily calorie intake. It seems sensible that if you are eating a calorie controlled diet, the same calorie caution should apply to breakfast as to other meals and if a large number of calories are consumed at breakfast then other meals should be adjusted to compensate for this to keep within recommended limits.

Studies of this design usually have other weaknesses, one of which is the use of food diaries. It is possible that the participants reported that they were eating more or less than they actually were. The researchers tried to address this by telling the participants at the beginning of the study that what they wrote in their diary would not affect what food they received during their treatment. Presumably, they hoped this would make participants more honest about what they were eating. They were also asked not to change their diets during the 10-day period.

Importantly, the study also says that on days where breakfast constituted a small proportion of the total daily intake, the overall intake was significantly greater. This suggests that skipping breakfast leads to higher overall energy intake than having some breakfast. This study is not advocating skipping breakfast entirely, but suggests that eating a healthy breakfast is a good way to balance energy intake.

Links to the headlines

Put down your knife and fork: Why eating a big breakfast DOESN'T help you to diet. Daily Mail, January 17 2011

Key to diet ‘is not big breakfast’. Daily Express, January 17 2011

Breakfasts 'don't make you eat less'. The Independent, January 17 2011

Links to the science

Schusdziarra V, Hausmann M, Wittke C, et al. Impact of breakfast on daily energy intake - an analysis of absolute versus relative breakfast calories. Nutrition Journal 2011

Big breakfast 'aids weight loss'

The easy way to lose weight?

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.

It could be that it is simply easier for people on a higher-carbohydrate diet to comply with it over a longer period Dr Alex Johnstone Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen

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."