Eating carb-rich breakfast helps lose more weight

WEDNESDAY JUNE 18, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- If you are really serious about weight loss, start eating a big breakfast with high amounts of carbohydrates, a new study suggests.

The study showed that those who ate big breakfast with half of their daily calories first thing in the morning lost much more weight in a long term than those who used a small greasy breakfast.

The high carb diet followers kept their weight from coming back.

The carb-rich breakfast regimen beat the low carb diet that has fascinated millions of Americans who found the pounds coming back months later.

Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, lead author of the study, at the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela explained, quoted by foxnews.com, "A very low carbohydrate diet exacerbates the craving for carbohydrates and slows metabolism. After a short period of weight loss, there is a quick return to obesity."

A diet with high carb and protein is believed to help suppress cravings for sweet or starchy foods and boosts the metabolism.

In the study, Jakubowicz and team from Virginia Commonwealth University tested both a strict low-carb diet and a "big breakfast high in carbohydrates" in 94 obese, inactive women to see the weight loss patterns in the two groups.

Initially the low-carb dieters lost more weight. They lost an average of 28 pounds compared to 23 pounds for the big-breakfast eaters.

After eight months, the low carb followers regained 18 pounds while those eating big breakfast continued to lose another 16.5 pounds during the study.

In the end, those who ate big breakfast lose more than 21 percent of their initial body weight while the low carb dieters lost merely 4.5 percent.

Those who used big breakfast actually ate 1,240 calories per day and reported feeling less hungry and experienced few cravings for carbs.

The low carb eaters on the other hand ate only 1,240 calories and they were more likely to feel hungry.

It seems carbohydrates are easy to be disposed in the body and people are less likely to gain weight by eating carbohydrates.  

The study was not the first to demonstrate the efficacy of a high carb diet on weight loss.

Colin T. Campbell, Cornell nutritionist says in his book China Study that his early study showed people who ate more calories mainly from carbohydrates were less likely to become obese than their counterparts in the U.S. who ate greasy meal with less calories.

Another study published in the Sept. issue of The American Journal of Medicine showed a diet full of plant food was more effective at helping women lose weight than an omnivorous diet, womenfitness.net reports.

In another study of nearly 55,000 women, Tufts University researcher P. Kirstin Newby and colleagues found those who ate carbohydrates-based diets were less likely to gain weight.  

The current study is scheduled to be presented this week at ENDO 08, the 90th annual meeting of The Endocrine Society in San Francisco.