It would appear that if you are on a calorie controlled diet that it might be best to have most of those calories at the start of the day. For scientists have found that obese women who had a big breakfast and a light dinner lost more weight than those who did the reverse.
In a study, the women were put on a diet that restricted them to 1,400 calories a day. They either ate a breakfast that had 700 calories, a lunch with 500 and a dinner with 200, or had a diet where the dinner and breakfast calorie intake was reversed.
After 12 weeks, women in the ‘big breakfast’ group had lost an average of just over 17lb, while those in the ‘big dinner’ group had lost an average of just over 7 lb. The study of 93 women was published in the journal Obesity.
This raises the question again of whether there is some evidence to support the argument that it’s not just what you eat but also when. It would be interesting to know whether the 1,400 calories for both groups had the same nutritional profile of proteins, fats and carbs/sugars or different ones. I, for one, don’t necessarily believe, in the face of a lot of opposition it has to be said, that all calories are equal.
In the meantime, I shall take solace from the fact that I enjoy breakfast and thankfully wake with a good appetite and do concentrate on getting my calories at the earlier part of the day….it may be working in my favour!
CAROL