Let Us Eat Cake (for Breakfast)

These researchers should win a humanitarian award.  A group of Israeli researchers published an ingenious study in the international journal Steroids (as in hormones that regulate eating behavior) that found eating dessert after a big breakfast caused major weight loss. Over the 32 week study, obese participants who ate a large (600 calorie) protein-and-carbohydrate-rich breakfast that included dessert of cake, cookies or chocolate lost significantly more weight--a whopping 40 pounds on average-- than their counterparts eating a typical calorie-restricted, low-carbohydrate breakfast. Both groups were asked to eat the same total calories throughout the day (1400 for women and 1600 for men.)

After the 16th week, in the second half of the study, the low-calorie breakfast group regained an average 22 pounds per person while the high-calorie breakfast-dessert eaters lost an additional 15 pounds each on average. 

In this study persistence paid off, which is often not the case for dieters who typically hit a wall and find themselves gaining back weight despite Herculean efforts. In the first 16 weeks both groups of dieters (heavy vs moderate breakfast) lost the same amount of weight (about 33 pounds), but after the 16th week, in the second half of the study, the low-calorie breakfast group regained an average 22 pounds per person while the high-calorie breakfast-dessert eaters lost an additional 15 pounds each on average. The results will come as no surprise to legions of failed dieters who know how tough it is to be virtuous all the time.

Falling Off the Wagon, graphically: The high calorie breakfast dessert eaters, labeled HCPb, lost significantly more weight in the second half of the study than the low calorie eaters (LCbs.) "Attempting to avoid sweets entirely can create a psychological addiction to these same foods in the long-term," says lead researcher, Daniela Jakubowicz of Tel Aviv University's Wolfson Medical Center. The researchers established a biological basis for falling off the wagon. A major finding was the difference in levels of ghrelin (the hormone that increases feelings of hunger.) For the breakfast-dessert eating group, ghrelin levels fell by 45.3%, but for those who ate a restricted breakfast ghrelin only fell by 29.5%.  The more precipitous drop in ghrelin left the happy breakfast-cake eaters feeling more satisfied and less hungry for the rest of the day.

In the study, those who ate the lighter breakfast with no sweets eventually cheated later in the day. But, says Jakubowicz, "The group that consumed a bigger breakfast, including dessert, experienced few if any cravings for these foods later in the day." In this case, starting the day with a reward increased willpower.