Skipping breakfast the next weight-loss trend?
There’s no doubt that at one point or another that we’ve all heard that skipping breakfast is bad for you. While it has be claimed to be the most important meal of the day, new research suggests skipping your first meal of the day might be the key to supporting healthy weight loss in people with fatty liver disease.
Researchers from Monash University have reported in research due to he presented at the Australian Gastroenterology Week conference that people who fasted between 8pm and midday the next day saw improvements in their blood pressure and lost centimetres from their waist circumference.
Yes, that’s right; this study flies in the face of the usual expert recommendations to sit down to the breakfast table first thing and start your day with a healthy meal.
Of the 32 participants that took part in the study, all suffered from fatty-liver disease and as part of the research they fasted between 8pm and noon the next day. Over the initial 12-week period, all patients lost weight.
The results show that those who fasted also had reduced visceral fat, insulin resistance and blood pressure. However, there was no difference in activity levels, hunger or kilojoule intake of the fasting group and the group places on a regular diet.
Monash University’s gastroenterologist, Dr Alex Hodge, said, “What it really shows is that eating over a shorter period of time has added benefits, even though people actually ate the same amount of calories in the study as they did before but they just ate them over a shorter period of time.”
"Despite the small numbers of participants in this novel study, there was a significant health benefit from intermittent fasting. When the standard care group was changed to intermittent fasting for an additional 12 weeks, they continued to show improvements."
Of course, because this study was performed with participants who suffered from an existing health condition, it’s too early to tell whether healthy adults would see the same benefits. And it’s important to bear in mind that there are many experts who warn that fasting in the morning can lead to overeating later on in the day.
But this study adds support to other evidence questioning whether breakfast is really "the most important meal of the day".