As a recipe for losing weight, tearing into a slice of chocolate cake at breakfast would seem an unlikely fantasy. But a full breakfast that includes a sweet treat really can contribute to weight loss success, researchers claim.
A team from Tel Aviv University found that eating pudding as part of a balanced 600-calorie breakfast that also includes proteins and carbohydrates, can help dieters lose more weight and keep it off in the long run. I’m ALL over this lol!
The key is to indulge in the morning, when the body’s metabolism is at its most active and we are better able to work off the extra calories throughout the day, according to Professor Daniela Jakubowicz and her team.
Attempting to avoid sweets entirely can create a psychological addiction to these same foods in the long-term, she said. So adding dessert items to breakfast can control cravings throughout the rest of the day.
Over the course of a 32 week-long study, detailed in the journal Steroids, participants who added dessert to their breakfast – cookies, cake, or chocolate – lost an average of 40lbs more than a group that avoided such foods. What’s more, they kept off the pounds longer.
A meal in the morning provides energy for the day’s tasks, aids in brain functioning, and kick-starts the body’s metabolism, making it crucial for weight loss and maintenance.
And breakfast is the meal that most successfully regulates ghrelin, the hormone that increases hunger, explains Professor Jakubowicz.
While the level of ghrelin rises before every meal, it is suppressed most effectively at breakfast time.
One hundred and ninety three clinically obese, non-diabetic adults were randomly assigned to one of two diet groups with identical caloric intake – the men consumed 1600 calories per day and the women 1400.
Ultimately, this shows that a diet must be realistic to be adopted as part of a new lifestyle. Curbing cravings is better than deprivation for weight loss success, the team concluded.
Will you try this? If you do, let us know lol!
via BMS
