Lose Weight and Keep It Off

Proven Strategies to Keep Weight Off for Good

If 2011 was a successful year for slimming down, now comes the tricky part: maintaining your weight loss. Here, we reveal the secrets of those who have shed 30 pounds or more and kept if off
By Hollis Templeton fitbie
 

Energize with Breakfast Every Day

Skipping the first meal of the day may seem like a smart strategy for reducing the total number of calories you consume from morning to night, but eating breakfast has important weight-maintenance benefits. “By spreading your calories out across the day, you avoid the peaks and valleys in hunger that can lead to overeating,” says J. Graham Thomas, PhD, a NWCR coresearcher and assistant professor at Brown University Alpert Medical School.

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When survey responses from 2,959 NWCR members were compiled for a study published in Obesity Research, 78% of respondents reported that they ate breakfast every day of the week. Nearly 90% of respondents reported eating breakfast on most days of the week, and 4% reported that they never ate breakfast.

According to the study, there was no difference in the total number of calories consumed each day between breakfast eaters (those who ate breakfast four or more times a week) and nonbreakfast eaters (those who ate the meal three or fewer times a week). However, breakfast eaters reported that they engaged in slightly more physical activity each day.

The study’s authors suggest that regularly eating breakfast may help people pick less caloric foods throughout the remainder of the day. They also suggest that the nutrients consumed during an a.m. meal—among NWCR members who typically ate breakfast, 80% reported that, at the least, they sometimes ate cereal in the morning and 79% reported that they at least sometimes ate fruit—may help breakfast eaters better perform physical activity.

Video: The Perfect Preworkout Breakfast

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