Weight loss is not just a goal that people keep in order to look good. There are a number of health benefits of losing weight and getting it under control. Some health benefits of weight loss include better regulation of blood pressure and blood sugar levels, increased stamina, a reduction in levels of inflammation and triglycerides and subsequently improved heart health. This is because obesity comes with a number of risk factors and may even reduce the lifespan of an individual. There has been a lot of research on the subject of diet and weight and how making changes in diet is a possible way of reducing risk of obesity.
A number of these studies have focused on healthy diet practices for breakfast, which help in weight loss. Breakfast is often said to be the most important meal of the day, as it helps in keeping you satiated till lunchtime and is also responsible for keeping your energy levels high for the stressful workday mornings.
Here are some science-backed breakfast diet tips that one may follow for assured weight loss:
1. Make your breakfast protein-rich
You may have heard a number of health experts saying that a healthy breakfast should be rich in protein. There’s some research to back this advice. A study published in BMC looked at the impact of protein-rich breakfast in controlling food cravings in overweight adolescent girls. The results of the study said eating a protein-rich breakfast can reduce post-meal cravings and increase the concentrations of homovanillic acid (HVA), which indicates an increase in dopamine (a happiness hormone) production in the brain and central nervous system.
2. Drink black tea/coffee for breakfast
Feel like loading up on some caffeine to give your a day a good start? Grab that cup of coffee or tea by all means. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that coffee or caffeine is responsible for increasing metabolism. The study results said that consumption of caffeine can lead to a significant increase in the metabolic rate in the three hours after caffeine-ingestion. The caffeine also resulted in an increase in fat oxidation and the researchers saw that the thermic effect on the breakfast meal containing caffeine was significantly greater than the one that included decaffeinated coffee.
3. Skip sugary drinks/ packaged fruit juices for breakfast
Loading up on sugar early in the morning may not be a great idea and hence, one must stay away from consuming packaged fruit juices or any other excessively sugary drink. A systematic review of studies on the impact of sugar-sweetened beverages on the weights of kids and adults warned that consumption of such drinks is positively associated with obesity. The study was published in the European Journal of Obesity and it included results from 30 individual published research articles on the subject.
4. Skip the sugary breakfast cereals
Not a lot of people are aware of the fact that almost all breakfast cereals are loaded with sugar, as well as refined carbohydrates, which is why eating these cereals as a part of your breakfast meal can lead to weight gain or hamper weight loss. A World Health Organisation report published for 2012-13 said that high salt and sugar foods marketed to children including breakfast cereals in the shapes of cartoon characters are one the leading causes of childhood obesity as well as in the development of ‘diet-related non-communicable diseases’.
Although claims that one must absolutely have breakfast, if they want to lose weight are now being contested, those are habituated to eating early in the morning, must follow these diet tips to keep their weight under check and reduce risks of chronic metabolic diseases.
