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World Obesity Day: Effect of Breakfast on body weight

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Dr Ashish S. Dengra, Director, MAHI Diabetes Thyroid Care Research Centre, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh    04 March 2022

“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper” so goes a proverb and quite a well-worn one at that. For long, breakfast has been described as the “most important meal of the day”. So is breakfast really beneficial? Evidence on this has been rather mixed. While some studies suggest that a healthy breakfast helps in weight loss, there are others that have found contrary to this and according to them, skipping breakfast may be of help in reducing body weight.

Adding to the evidence, a new study reported in the journal Obesity states that eating breakfast was associated with greater weight loss in overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes.1

Researchers examined a subgroup of 3915 participants from the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) trial to examine if breakfast consumption frequency had any impact on weight in persons who were either overweight or obese and also had diabetes. The participants were randomized into two groups: the intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) group and the diabetes support and education (DSE) group.

An annual questionnaire was used to gather information about the frequency of consumption of breakfast. The association between average breakfast consumption frequency and percentage weight change was examined over a period of 4 years.

The average breakfast consumption frequency over four years was similar between the ILI group of 1916 participants and the DSE group with 1999 participants. Each 1-day higher average breakfast consumption frequency was associated with an extra weight loss of 0.5% in the ILI group but not in the DSE group. This association was seen regardless of the sociodemographic, anthropometric, diet and other clinical variables. According to the authors, this association of weight loss with ILI was also possibly mediated by physical activity. Hence, dietary and physical activity counselling should be an important part of consultation for the diabetic patient, and pursued by the treating physicians in particular for those who are also overweight or obese. Eating breakfast should be stressed upon as it would prevent impulsive eating during the day.

Reference

  1. Duan D, et al. Eating breakfast is associated with weight loss during an intensive lifestyle intervention for overweight/obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2022 Feb;30(2):378-388. doi: 10.1002/oby.23340.

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