Pancakes for Breakfast...Count me in!!!

There was a study released June 17th that is helping to show the importance of eating breakfast and actually that by taking it to the next level and consuming about 600 calories for breakfast you can lose more weight. It's called the Big Breakfast Diet. When I first heard about this my initial thoughts were pancakes, sausage, bacon, etc. It's just another gimmick diet and there's no way this can work. But after doing a little research I liked some of the things I saw.

They had two groups on separate diets. One group followed a low calorie/low carb diet and the other group was on the low calorie/big breakfast diet. Here's the overall breakdown:

Low Carb Group

about 1000 total calories with 290 calories for breakfast

Big Breakfast Group

about 1200 total calories and 610 for breakfast

What were the results? After the first 4 months the low-carb diet had an average weight loss of 28 pounds while the big breakfast diet group lost an average of 23 pounds. It was after eight months, however, that the true benefits of a big breakfast diet became apparent. After eight months the low-carb dieters had regained 18 pounds. The big breakfast diet group continued to lose weight, losing another 16.5 pounds on average.

This is a substantial difference worth talking about. I always encourage my clients to really think about breakfast and make sure they get in a solid meal to start the day. One of my philosophies is eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. This way you are tapering off the food as your body is winding down and you're not consuming extra calories that you don't need.

Take home message, evaluate what you're doing for breakfast and 600 calories might seem a little high for some, but 350 should be doable and your body and metabolism will thank you later for it.

(sample 600 calorie breakfast would be: 1 slice whole grain toast, 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1 cup milk, 1 cup orange juice, 1/2 banana, and 1 hard boiled egg)