Skipping Breakfast May Not Aid Weight Loss
Tue Feb 26,10:27 AM ET

By Jacqueline Stenson

SAN DIEGO (Reuters Health) - Though skipping breakfast might seem like an easy way for dieters to cut calories, new research finds that the majority of people who are successful at losing weight and keeping it off eat breakfast every day.

"My guess is that eating breakfast helps you spread out your hunger and manage your food intake better throughout the day," said study author Dr. James O. Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.

"If you start out the day by eating something, you don't get this burning hunger later that causes you to overeat," he told Reuters Health.

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 study, which was funded by General Mills, was presented here Sunday at a nutrition conference organized by the American Society for Clinical Nutrition and other medical groups.

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, according to Hill. The US government recommends a carbohydrate-rich diet focusing on whole grains, fruits and vegetables, with no more than 30% of daily calories from fat.

Hill said the new findings offer some food for thought to the many dieters who are skipping breakfast as a weight-loss strategy.

"Look at the people who are losing weight," he said. "They are eating breakfast."

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