Washington D.C. [USA], Feb 19 : Eating a heavy breakfast and a light dinner is the way to a healthy and fit body as the regime may prevent obesity and high blood sugar by burning more calories, suggests a new study.
The human body expends energy when we digest food for the absorption, digestion, transport and storage of nutrients.
This process, known as diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT), is a measure of how well human metabolism is working and can differ depending on mealtime.
"Our results show that a meal is eaten for breakfast, regardless of the number of calories it contains, creates twice as high diet-induced thermogenesis as the same meal consumed for dinner," said the lead researcher Juliane Richter.
"This finding is significant for all people as it underlines the value of eating enough at breakfast," added Richter.
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism of the Endocrine Society.
The researchers conducted a three-day laboratory study of 16 men who consumed a low-calorie breakfast and high-calorie dinner, and vice versa in a second round.
The researchers found identical calorie consumption led to 2.5 times higher DIT in the morning than in the evening after high-calorie and low-calorie meals. The food-induced increase of blood sugar and insulin concentrations was diminished after breakfast compared with dinner.
The results also show eating a low-calorie breakfast increased appetite, specifically for sweets.
"We recommend that patients with obesity as well as healthy people eat a large breakfast rather than a large dinner to reduce body weight and prevent metabolic diseases," said Richter.