'Big breakfast key to slimming'

18 June 2008 07:48am

If you want to stay slim, start the day with a hearty breakfast packed with carbohydrates and protein.

That is the advice of researchers who compared the "big breakfast" diet with a strict low-carb weight loss programme.

The key to keeping trim is to eat well in the morning and then watch the carbs and calories during the rest of the day, the findings suggest.

A study of 94 obese and physically inactive women found that low-carb dieters adopting this strategy continued to shed pounds while those who skimped on breakfast put them back on.

The "big breakfast" diet is thought to work because it controls appetite and cravings for sweet food and starches. It is also said to be healthier, because it allows people to eat more fruit.

Dr Daniela Jakubowicz, who led the study, has been recommending the diet to her patients for more than 15 years.

She pointed out that only 5% of low-carbohydrate diets are successful after two years because they do not address the issue of "addictive" eating.

"Most weight loss studies have determined that a very low carbohydrate diet is not a good method to reduce weight," said Dr Jakubowicz, from the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela.

"It exacerbates the craving for carbohydrates and slows metabolism. As a result, after a short period of weight loss, there is a quick return to obesity."

Dr Jakubowicz, who carried out the research with US colleagues from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, compared 46 obese women on an ordinary low-carb diet and 48 on the "big breakfast" diet. She presented her findings at the annual meeting of The Endocrine Society in San Francisco.

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