You've heard time and time again that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Still, there have been many times in your life when you've skipped it, perhaps because you woke up late and had to run out the door, or you just weren't hungry. But new research from Germany shows that the old adage rings true: Taking time for a large breakfast in the morning can boost your metabolism more than if you had eaten a small breakfast or nothing at all.
At study, published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, each of 16 male participants between the ages of 20 and 30 ate either a high-calorie or low-calorie breakfast at 9 a.m., two hours after waking up, for three days. About two weeks later, the men switched, so those who ate the low-calorie breakfast two weeks earlier ate the high-calorie breakfast the second time, and vice versa.
They defined low-calorie meals as 11% of the individual daily energy requirement and high-calorie meals as 69% of the individual daily energy requirement, each tailored to the study participant.
The low-calorie meals, which contained an average of 250 calories, included two slices of crusty bread (which has a texture similar to a whole wheat cracker) with cream cheese, yogurt, cucumber, and nectarine. High-calorie meals, which averaged 997 caloriesThey included two slices of crusty bread with a berry compote, cream sauce, butter, cream cheese, yogurt, and cucumber.
The participants also had lunch at 7 p.m. and dinner at 4 p.m. — 5 hours before they were told to go to bed. Calorimetric measurements and blood samples were taken before and after each meal.
Breakfast is more important than dinner
La thermogenesis Diet-induced, your body's energy production process as a result of food consumed, was 2 times higher when participants ate a high-calorie breakfast and a low-calorie dinner than the other way around. This shows that «breakfast has a more efficient energy value for our body than dinner“, indicates the study, which means that it is important to eat breakfast every day. The researchers noted that when participants ate low-calorie breakfasts, they reported getting hungry earlier and craving more sweets.
Although more research is needed to better understand the reason behind the study results, it could be because gastric emptying and absorption carbohydrates, fats and proteins they could be faster in the morning than at night.
And while this was a very small study, previous research supports the idea that breakfast is very beneficial. For example, a 2018 study published in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism found that eating breakfast fuels your workouts and therefore improves your endurance performance.
It doesn't really matter when you eat breakfast, as long as you do it at some point. There is no scientific evidence on the optimal time for breakfast. People differ, there are those who are hungry immediately after waking up and then have to eat something quickly, and there are those who have no appetite after waking up and wait two to three hours until their need to eat appears. Therefore, it is better to listen to your body rather than follow strict time rules regarding breakfast time.