Can Eating Dessert for Breakfast Really Help You Shed Pounds?

Breakfast is often promoted as the most important meal of the day. Eating a healthy breakfast

• provides us with the energy we need to accomplish our daily tasks
• helps our brains function well
• gets our metabolism going, and
• helps us regulate ghrelin, the hormone that increases hunger.

Researchers set out to determine whether when we eat and what we eat impacts weight loss in the long and short term, or whether weight loss is determined purely by the number of calories we consume.

One hundred and ninety-three clinically obese, non-diabetic adults were randomly assigned to two groups with the same caloric intake. For 32 weeks, men in both groups were restricted to 1,600 calories a day, and the women consumed 1,400 calories a day.

The Dessert Breakfast Club

One group was put on a low-carbohydrate diet that included a small 300-calorie breakfast. The second group ate a 600-calorie breakfast that was high in protein and carbohydrates, but included dessert.

After 16 weeks, members of both groups lost an average of 33 pounds per person. But during the second half of the study, the low-carbohydrate group regained an average of 22 pounds per person. Those who ate a larger breakfast—with dessert—either cookies, cake, or chocolate—lost an average of 40 pounds more than the group who avoided dessert. And they kept the weight off longer.

Controlled cravings

Researchers concluded that when we eat dessert at breakfast, it helps us control our craving for sweets throughout the day. Restrictive diets are initially successful, but the withdrawal-like symptoms they create ultimately lead to cheating. Those who try to avoid sweets altogether end up creating a psychological addiction to the foods they’re trying desperately to avoid.

By indulging our sweet tooth in the morning our metabolism is at its most active, and we’re able to burn off the extra calories throughout the day.

For any weight-loss plan to succeed, it must be realistic. Learning how to curb cravings keeps more weight off in the long run rather than depriving ourselves of all indulgences cold turkey.