Two new studies, aimed at understanding the importance of eating breakfast and whether it is actually necessary to lose weight, have found no relation between eating breakfast and weight loss. Dev Goswami finds out more
We know that we’ve told you over and over again how important it is to eat breakfast if you want to stay healthy and lose weight, but there’s now a study that seems to be dispelling all those ideas. Look for instructions about losing weight or eating healthy, and a healthy breakfast is bound to be one of the top tips. But, if the following studies are anything to go by, eating breakfast might be over-hyped. Both studies were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and both of them were targeted at answering one simple question — does eating breakfast guarantee weight loss?
The answer to the question, the studies found, was no. While the first study was conducted among 33 lean adults for six weeks, the second one was a much more comprehensive one, studying around 300 overweight people. The 300 people were divided into three groups — the first group wasn’t allowed to eat breakfast, the second group had to eat breakfast, while the third formed the control group, eating a standard, healthy diet.
The study found that after 16 weeks of following this routine, the groups displayed absolutely no difference in weight. David Allison, one of the researchers of the study, was quoted as saying, “Our simple question was (when it comes to weight loss), does it help to eat breakfast? And the answer seems to be probably not.” However, he does emphasise on the fact that the study didn’t include specific foods and only studied obese subjects. This basically means that the effects of eating different kinds of food, as well as the benefits of eating breakfast among those who are underweight or the disadvantage of skipping it among those who maintain a balanced weight is not something that the study shed light on.
So, should you stop making an effort to have a healthy breakfast every day? Not yet. The researchers admit that the results need more investigation and the idea itself needs more research. Also, as researchers said, the study only focussed on the connection between breakfast and weight loss and not on whether eating breakfast is healthy in general.