There is a highly popular new way to lose weight - eat a big breakfast. It could become the biggest diet fad ever for people wanting to shed a few kilos. Researchers conducted a study on how a big breakfast affected the body's metabolism. Sixteen men ate a low-calorie breakfast and high-calorie dinner one day, and reversed this with a high-calorie breakfast the next day. Eating a bigger breakfast and smaller dinner boosted diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) - the generation of body heat to burn calories. This happened even when the total calories consumed in one day was the same.
A big breakfast led to 2.5 times higher rates of DIT. A researcher said the study showed that a big breakfast, regardless of the amount of calories it has, creates twice as much DIT as the same meal eaten for dinner. She said this, "underlines the value of eating enough at breakfast". She added: "Eating more at breakfast instead of dinner could prevent obesity and high blood sugar. We recommend that patients with obesity as well as healthy people eat a significant breakfast rather than a large dinner to reduce body weight and prevent metabolic diseases."