Eat Breakfast to Lose Weight

Eat Breakfast and Lose Weight

Our diet doctor and weight-loss book author Melina Jampolis shares her heart-healthy formula for building breakfasts that help you lose weight and boost your metabolism.

By Melina Jampolis, M.D.

Skipping breakfast may seem like an easy way to cut calories if you're dieting, but it actually makes it harder for you to lose weight and keep it off. The National Weight Control Registry-one of the largest ongoing studies of successful weight-losers-has found that the majority of people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for five years or more eat breakfast every day of the week.

There are three important reasons for eating breakfast:

Breakfast boosts your metabolism. By starting your day with a balance of carbohydrates and lean protein, you actually boost calorie-burning in three ways:

• Your body burns calories through the digestion, absorption, and processing of food.
• Eating breakfast can boost your energy level, which helps increase calories burned through activities throughout the day.
• Providing your body with healthful fuel after nighttime "fasting" keeps your body from using calorie-burning muscle for energy during physical activity.

Breakfast prevents "crescendo eating." Like a symphony, food intake builds over the course of a day. What begins with skipping breakfast often builds to an evening finale involving ice cream. Crescendo-eaters and those who just eat two large meals a day have a higher risk of obesity.

Breakfast stabilizes blood sugar. A breakfast of lean protein and fiber helps your body better process carbohydrates for the entire day. Keeping your blood sugar levels stable helps prevent hunger pangs associated with late-morning dips in blood sugar. Steady blood sugar levels improve energy, which helps burn more calories.

Discover good breakfast choices in the next pages.