Ah, breakfast. Eggs, pancakes, oatmeal, fruit, cereal — what’s said to be the most important meal of the day comes in many forms. But how important is it, really? What are the tangible effects eating a big breakfast has on our health? Or our waistline?
Long purported to be the secret to weight loss, new research published in Cell Press suggests that the truth may be a little simpler: If you front-load your daily calories in the morning, you’ll be less hungry throughout the day
So maybe you’ll eat less. Maybe you won’t.
According to the research, the time of day that you eat your largest meal does not actually affect how your body breaks down the calories.
In the monthlong study, participants were randomly assigned diets that either front-loaded calories with a big breakfast or back-loaded those calories to a large dinner.
Overall, researchers noted that those who ate large meals early and those who ate large meals late had the same net weight loss of about 7 pounds during the four-week cycle.
But breakfast lovers, don’t worry — a big breakfast still has its benefits. For example, participants who ate their large meals in the morning reported that their appetites felt more controlled, and feelings of satiety lasted longer.
Next, scientists plan to extend their research into how time of day can affect metabolism. Even then, scientists caution that you won’t be able to generalize their findings to the population at large. For now, rest assured you can eat as much breakfast or as little as you like.
At the end of the day, it’s not so much when you eat, but how many calories you consume throughout the day that really matters.