{"id":2233,"date":"2017-07-29T09:13:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-29T09:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lowcarbprogram.com\/life\/?p=2233"},"modified":"2017-07-28T20:14:39","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T20:14:39","slug":"breakfast-really-important-meal-study-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lowcarbprogram.com\/life\/breakfast-really-important-meal-study-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Is breakfast really your most important meal? (study review)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“To eat or not to eat breakfast?”, that is the question\u00a0<\/em>scientists from the German\u00a0University of Hohenheim geared their latest\u00a0research<\/a> towards.<\/p>\n

Let’s be honest, this research question has never been settled and you’re probably still wondering whether eating breakfast does a body good or not.<\/p>\n

A recent unpublished paper <\/a>suggests that, compared to a normal non-time-restricted diet, eating within an 8h window (which means skipping breakfast here) reduces a person’s 24 hour resting metabolic rate (RMR), which isn’t optimal.<\/p>\n

Meal skipping and energy balance<\/strong><\/p>\n

In order to define what resting metabolic rate is and why it matters for body composition, let’s reassert a few facts about energy balance.<\/p>\n

Long-term changes in energy balance are what ultimately determine what happens to the body. A long-term excess of energy balance (energy in exceeds energy out) will lead to a gain of body mass while a long-term deficit in energy balance (energy out exceeds energy in) leads to a decrease in body mass.<\/p>\n

Whether that changed body mass is made up of fat, muscle, or some combination depends on a few factors.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the energy out side of the equation that’s referred to as metabolic rate. The RMR refers to the energy needed to sustain the body\u2019s most basic functions. As you sit reading and growing more bored by the minute, literally thousands of cellular reactions are proceeding within your body.<\/p>\n

Your brain is using glucose for fuel, your eye muscles are using energy as you scan the page, your heart is beating, your muscles are somewhat tense as you sit in the chair. Protein in your muscles is being broken down and resynthesised, as are fatty acids in your fat cells. Your cells are constantly cycling sodium into the cell and potassium out (called the Na\/K+ pump) using up energy in the process. All of this uses energy.<\/p>\n

In the aforementioned unpublished study, they’ve found that RMR decreased by 33% (2440.8 kcals, 1674.2 kcals) when skipping breakfast, resulting in reduced energy expenditure.<\/p>\n

But, this is at best preliminary evidence and this new German study\u00a0shows conflicting results.<\/p>\n

They report that “when compared with the 3-meal control, 24-h energy expenditure was higher” with a meal-skipping regimen that had a lot of similarity to what many of you will practice and label “intermittent fasting”.<\/p>\n

The new study<\/strong><\/p>\n

The researchers’ main interest was to find out whether the timing of meal skipping affects the circadian regulation of energy balance, glucose metabolism and inflammatory responses.<\/p>\n

To this ends, the German researchers had 17 participants participate in a randomized crossover trial comprising three isocaloric 24-h interventions (55%, 30%, and 15% carbohydrate, fat, and protein, respectively), to compare the metabolic effects of:<\/p>\n