Skipping breakfast could help you lose weight: Study
Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day? If you are looking to lose weight, then perhaps not.
A study, conducted by Monash University, has found that skipping the morning meal could actually help to shed the kilos and tackle Australia's growing obesity epidemic.
Gastroenterologist Alex Hodge, who will present the results of the study at an Australian Gastroenterology Week meeting today, said fasting between 8pm and midday could help people to achieve a slimmer waistline and ward off fatty liver disease.
A group of 32 participants with the disease fasted and took in no kilojoules during the 16-hour time slot.
All patients lost weight over a 12-week period, and reduced their waist circumference, which, according to the experts, is one of the best indicators of improvement in liver damage.
The group also recorded improvements in visceral fat, insulin resistance and blood pressure.
There was no difference in kilojoule intake, activity levels, hunger or quality of life.
“For most people, once they get over the morning hunger bump, it wasn’t that difficult, and it’s not like they didn’t ‘break the fast’ as such — it’s just that they delayed it till later in the day,” Dr Hodge told the West Australian.
“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.
“I tried it myself and it worked pretty well.”
Morning news break - October 22
