Fasting until lunch cuts calories

Losing weight could be as simple as skipping breakfast, new research suggests. Fasting until lunch causes people to eat around 353 fewer calories a day, a study found.

Study author, Dr. Keith Tolfrey, said: “There is a common belief that breakfast is the ‘most important meal of the day’. However, around one third of children and adolescents in many countries skip breakfast regularly.”

The findings from the Universities of Loughborough and Bedfordshire support a growing body of evidence that restricting calories, via fasting, boosts weight loss by reducing people’s calorie intake and regulating hormones involved in fat storage. The findings were published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
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Researchers from the universities of Loughborough and Bedfordshire analysed 40 girls aged between 11 and 15 years old. Results reveal skipping breakfast causes people to eat 353 fewer calories a day. Although people eat around 115 more calories a day when they have breakfast, that meal alone contains on average 468 calories. Consequently, skipping breakfast reduces a person’s calorie consumption by a total of 353 units.

This finding supports a growing body of evidence that restricting calories via fasting boosts weight loss by reducing people’s calorie intake and regulating hormones involved in fat storage.

Yet, the result contradicts previous research that suggests eating breakfast boosts weight loss by kick-starting people’s metabolism.