According to a study carried out by Daniela Jakubowicz and colleagues from Venezuela, a small breakfast can lead to food cravings and overeating.
She tested her theory against a low carbohydrate diet on 96 obese and inactive women. The low carbohydrate diet involved 1085 calories a day, the majority coming from protein and fat and breakfast was the smallest meal of the day with just 290 calories, and seven grams of carbohydrates.
The "big breakfast" diet involved 1240 calories with a lower proportion of fat and more carbohydrates and protein - breakfast was 610 calories, with 58 grams of carbohydrates, while lunch and dinner were 395 and 235 calories respectively - the women were placed on one of the two diets.
After four months while the women eating small breakfasts had lost an average of around 2.2 kilograms more than the women who ate high calorie breakfast, the weight loss was not sustained and by eight months, the small breakfasters had regained an average of 8 kilograms of weight.
But the women who ate healthy high calorie big breakfasts continued to lose weight, shedding another 7.5 kilograms on average and the researchers say that at the end of the study, the big breakfast eaters had lost more than 21 per cent of their body weight compared with just 4.5 per cent for the other women.
Researchers say that women eating a big breakfast feel less hungry during the day and so less likely to overeat later.
