How to Lose Weight – Eat Eggs for Breakfast (?)

The controversy continues – should one eat more protein or more carbs to avoid weight gain?  In fact, it probably matters less what you eat, than what you eat when.  A case in point is a study comparing the effects of an egg breakfast with a carbohydrate-based meal.  It’s published in the journal Nutrition Research. 

A group of 21 men, aged 20 to 70, ate two breakfasts containing the same total calories, one week apart.  The protein-rich breakfast consisted of 3 scrambled eggs and 1½ pieces of white toast;  the other, carbohydrate rich, was a plain bagel, ½ tablespoon of low-fat cream cheese and 6 ounces of low-fat yogurt.  The percentage ratios of the egg breakfast was 22% carbs, 55% fat, and 23% protein; the bagel breakfast contained 72% carbs, 12% fat, and 16% protein.  At 30, 60, 120, and 180 minutes blood was drawn for glucose, insulin, and ghrelin(the hunger hormone), and subjective hunger scores were recorded.

After the egg-based breakfast, the men ate an average of 115 calories fewer at a buffet lunch offered at the 180-minute time point.  And they ate 400 fewer calories in the 24 hours after the egg breakfast.  The ghrelin blood levels were higher after the bagel breakfast, corresponding with higher hunger scale scores.  Blood glucose and insulin levels were also higher after the bagel breakfast.      

This study supports an earlier report that eating eggs for breakfast as part of a reduced-calorie diet helped overweight subjects lose 65% more weight than those eating a bagel breakfast of equal calorie content.  Overweight dieters who are having trouble in achieving their goal might consider trying eggs for breakfast for 5 days a week, for a trial period.  (Without increasing their total daily calories, of course!).