It sounds too good to be true: Eat a bigger breakfast and you'll lose weight.
I took one look at the photos of pancakes, omelets and French toast, turkey sausage, smoothies and breakfast desserts in "The Big Breakfast Diet" and thought: I've got to try this.
And after researching the science behind the book and giving it a semi-committed one-week trial, I found out it may be a sound strategy for weight loss.
The new diet book from Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, a specialist in endocrinology and metabolic diseases, has two simple rules:
1. Always eat breakfast.
2. Always eat in sync (meals that work with your metabolism and circadian rhythms instead of against them).
There are a lot more specifics about each strategy in the book -- you must eat a set amount of proteins for breakfast before 10 a.m., along with any sweets or starches for the day. Then you eat a lunch of mostly lean protein, vegetables or fruit and a similar (ideally, smaller) dinner.
Jakubowicz explains that carbohydrates eaten in the evening interfere with the release of growth hormones and promote fat storage while you sleep.
She argues that it's not so much the total calories consumed, but the types of foods and when you eat them, as well as their effect on the body's hormonal environment.
Ideally, all the protein and happy morning carbohydrates (you can even have a little doughnut or brownie!) keep you fuller and rev your metabolic engine for the day. A sample breakfast: scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, orange-vanilla smoothie made with Greek yogurt, two small biscuits with marmalade, black tea with Splenda, and milk and a small square of banana cake. You can break it up into two meals, but you've got to eat all that before 10 a.m. (9 a.m. during Daylight Savings time). The plus side? Your friends may have breakfast envy, with their granola bar and cup of coffee gobbled on the run. Lunch and dinner are a little less exciting (no pancakes or doughnuts), but have lean proteins, vegetables and fruits to fill you up. Ideally, you'll be less hungry at dinner time and won't fill up as much. And after a week of this mostly painless plan, I stepped on the scale to a pleasant surprise: Down a few pounds. Good morning, indeed. A breakfast metabolism boost? If you want to lose weight (or maintain a healthy weight), don't skip breakfast, says dietitian Cece Davis, owner of Nutrition Consultants of Tulsa. It's a mistake made by many people struggling with their weight. One of the first things she advises her clients to do is eat breakfast, even if they think they're not hungry in the morning.
"Eating breakfast increases your metabolic rate," Davis said. "There are two ways to wake up your metabolism (for losing weight): Eating breakfast and exercise." Skip breakfast, and you're more likely to eat more at lunch and dinner -- and more of those calories will get stored as fat. "You're better off having those calories earlier than later," she said. Her go-to breakfast: A protein- rich smoothie (similar to the one recommended in "The Big Breakfast Diet") made with a scoop of whey protein powder, a cup of skim or 1 percent milk and two servings of fresh or frozen fruit blended in. "That's my favorite," she said. Try two of Kashi's toaster waffles with a tablespoon of peanut butter spread on top, or bircher muesli, a traditional Swiss breakfast: Mix two cups of vanilla yogurt with a cup of uncooked, steel cut oats and a teaspoon each of real maple syrup and lemon juice, let sit overnight in the fridge, and in the morning, it's a pudding-like, protein-rich breakfast. "Protein is very important for breakfast," she said. Try to start your day with a mixture of protein and carbs. If you're pressed for time, grab a Muscle Milk from the convenience store, or an Egg McMuffin or yogurt parfait at McDonald's. Whatever you eat, you're better off eating it early and cutting back later in the day, Davis says.
