Study: Breakfast Helps Keep Weight Off

Do you eat the most important meal of the day?

If you do, you're in lean company. A study published in Thursday's issue of the journal Obesity Research showed that eating breakfast every day is a key behavior among people who have lost an average of 60 pounds -- and have kept it off for six years.

Researchers monitored the 3,000 participants of the National Weight Control Registry, an ongoing study of successful maintainers of significant weight loss in the United States. They found that nearly 80 percent of them eat breakfast every day as part of their routine to stay slender. And cereal was identified as a favorite choice for breakfast.

Of the breakfast eaters, 60 percent said they "always" or "usually" eat a bowl of cereal.

"It is striking not just that breakfast eating is a frequent behavior among individuals within this group, but that such a high proportion report eating breakfast every day of the week," said Dr. Jim Hill of the University of Colorado, the study's lead researcher and co-director of the National Weight Control Registry.

"I'm not surprised that starting the day with a bowl of cereal for breakfast has proven to be one of the key components in successful weight loss and maintenance: it worked for me," said Jani Bielenberg of Denver, a study participant who lost 50 pounds and has kept it off since 1985.

Researchers involved with the study said the possible reasons regular breakfast eating may be an essential behavior for weight loss maintenance are:

1. Eating breakfast may reduce hunger later in the day that leads to overeating.
2. Breakfast eaters are able to better resist fatty and high-caloric foods throughout the day.
3. Nutrients consumed at breakfast may give people a "better ability" to be more physically active, according to the study.

A typical strategy for people who want to lose weight is to skip breakfast, which, along with obesity, is significantly increasing as a trend in the United States, according to the study. Twenty-five percent of Americans now skip breakfast, and overweight and obesity rates have nearly doubled over the past decade.

"When I skip breakfast, I get so hungry that by lunch time I've either eaten junk food or I overeat," said Janet Wilson of Fort Myers, Fla., who said she is a typical "yo-yo" dieter.

With the publication of today's study, the NWCR researchers have now added "eating breakfast on a regular basis" as the fourth "common behavior" among those who are successful at losing weight and maintaining that weight loss. The other defined behavior are:

1. Eating a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet.
2. Regular self-monitoring of body weight and food intake.
3. High levels of physical activity.

A growing body of evidence indicates that a simple bowl of cereal may be a key component for getting and staying slender. Data from Nielsen's National Eating Trends Survey showed that women who are frequent cereal eaters -- defined as those who eat cereal more than seven times in a two-week period -- weigh about 8 pounds less on average than women who eat cereal infrequently or not at all.

The data also indicated that those who do not eat cereal frequently are more likely to be overweight or obese.

The NWCR was established in 1994 to investigate the characteristics and behaviors of individuals who have been successful at achieving their goal of losing weight and keeping it off in the long term. The NWCR is the largest ongoing study of individual successful weight loss maintainers.

Today's study falls on the heels of Surgeon General David Satcher's "call to action" to prevent and decrease the overweight and obesity epidemic in the United States. More than 61 percent of adults are overweight or obese.

"We're not talking about quick-fix diets," Satcher said at a news conference in December 2001. "We're talking about lifestyles."

The NWCR study involved researchers from the University of Colorado, University of Pittsburgh, and Brown University and was funded by National Institutes of Health and cereal-maker General Mills.