Healthy living
Diet and weight loss
Eat breakfast to stay in shape
Why starting the day with a good meal may be the key to halting middle-age spread
Dr Nita Forouhi, lead researcher of a long-term study based at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, said: "The key is to shift your calories to the morning. Stick to the old adage: 'Eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince and dinner like a pauper'."
Her advice is timely. Around 20 per cent of adults in the UK are now obese and a YouGov poll in January 2007 revealed that nearly half of the population does not eat breakfast every day.
Researchers recruited over 6700 men and women between the age of 40 and 75 who all lived in Norfolk. At the beginning, they were weighed and measured and asked to give details about their daily eating habits. They were also asked about their lifestyle including exercise patterns and whether or not they smoked. At the end of the study, about four years later, they were weighed and measured again.
The findings, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, revealed that, although all the volunteers put on weight over the trial period, those who ate a greater proportion of their total daily calories at breakfast gained significantly less than those who tended to skip breakfast and eat later in the day.
"It makes a notable difference to eat a larger proportion of your calories in the morning," said Dr Forouhi. "I would recommend eating a substantial breakfast – not a big fry-up - keep it healthy! Stick to lots of fresh fruit, cereals and brown bread." She’s also keen to point out that eating a good breakfast does not mean you can eat a hearty lunch and dinner too.
So why does breakfast help battle the bulge? One theory is that people who eat breakfast tend to be those who lead a healthier lives. However Dr Forouhi and her team found that the beneficial affects of a big breakfast remained the same even after taking into account other factors, such as exercise, smoking and social class.
Forouhi thinks that there are two possible explanations: First, if you starve the body by missing breakfast and then eat a meal, hormonal changes affect the metabolism so that the body lays down more fat. Secondly, it has also been observed that people who eat a good breakfast tend to snack less later on.
The Cambridge study backs up previous research showing that people who eat breakfast tend to be slimmer than those who don’t.
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