Don’t count on a big breakfast to promote weight loss. Earlier research suggested that a hearty morning meal cuts down on your appetite – and calorie intake – at lunch and dinner. Apparently not. A new study from Germany found that eating a breakfast that totaled 400 calories more than a small one didn’t change the amount individuals consumed at later meals.
In this study, the only difference seen was that those who ate a big breakfast skipped a mid-morning snack. But foregoing the snack calories didn’t compensate for the amount consumed at breakfast. On the basis of food journals kept by their 380 participants, the German team found that no fewer calories were consumed at lunch or dinner regardless of the size of the breakfasts.
The Munich researchers described the earlier findings on this issue as misleading and suggested that if you eat a big breakfast and want to lose weight, you’ll still have to consciously sacrifice calories from other meals.
