Does consuming breakfast influence activity levels? An experiment into the effect of breakfast consumption on eating habits and energy expenditure

Abstract

Objective: To experimentally compare the effects of eating or skipping breakfast on energy expenditure, activity levels and dietary habits. Design: A randomised cross-over trial, lasting 2 weeks. Participants were provided breakfast during one week and were required to fast until mid-day during the other week. Setting: University campus. Subjects: Forty-nine participants (twenty-six female and twenty-three male participants) were recruited. Food intake was monitored using food diaries, and energy expenditure was assessed using pedometers and heart rate monitors. Morningness-eveningness, physical activity and health were assessed using validated questionnaires. Results: Across all participants, daily energy expenditure did not differ between the two experimental conditions. Total energy intake over 24 h did not vary with condition (male participants: 8134 (SD 447) kJ/d and 7514 (SD 368) kJ/d; female participants: 7778 (SD 410) kJ/d and 7531 (SD 535) kJ/d, for the breakfast and no-breakfast conditions, respectively). However, when comparing habitual breakfast eaters with those with irregular or breakfast-skipping habits, it was found that male non-habitual breakfast eaters consumed significantly (P 5 0?029) more energy during the breakfast condition. Furthermore, female participants who were habitual breakfast eaters were found to eat significantly (P 5 0?005) more and later in the day under the no-breakfast condition. Conclusions: Although the suggestion that breakfast is a behavioural marker for appropriate dietary and physical activity patterns is not refuted by the present findings, our data suggest that the effect of breakfast may vary as a function of gender and morning eating habits, and thus there may be other mechanisms that link BMI and breakfast consumption behaviour.

A cross-over experiment to investigate possible mechanisms for lower BMIs in people who habitually eat breakfast

“…15 However, some research14,16 did not report the participants' breakfast habits, and this could be of relevance as differences in BMI between breakfast eaters and skippers are possibly associated with differing morning habits. 17 Such habits may in turn be linked to a preference for early or late rising and being more active earlier or later in the day, respectively; these patterns have been considered by researchers by reference to the concept of 'morningness',18 and these time of day preferences may be linked to caffeine intakes. Several studies19,20 have shown that people who prefer to be active in the evening consume more caffeine compared with those who are morning active.…”

Is breakfast the most important meal of the day?

“…throughout the day suggested that breakfast omission leads to greater energy intake than breakfast 255 consumption (35) . Two recent studies from the same research group using similar cross-over consumed an ad libitum high-carbohydrate breakfast under supervised laboratory conditions (36) .…”

“…Other past studies have attempted to quantify aspects of physical activity behaviour in breakfast or fasting (36,48) or any difference in accelerometer counts when comparing a three-meal 354 feeding pattern with a single evening-meal for 8 weeks (61) . However, natural adjustments in 355 overall activity may have been masked in the latter study because participants were "encouraged 356 to maintain their normal exercise throughout the day".…”

Breakfast intake among adults with type 2 diabetes: influence on daily energy intake

“…Although we did not include breakfast skipping as a separate group, our data provides some information to explain the previous conflicting results that eating versus skipping breakfast was associated with similar (22,23) , higher (8,24) , or lower (5) daily energy intake. We found that energy consumed at breakfast is positively associated with daily energy intake at the higher quartiles (Q3, Q4), but not the lower quartiles (Q1, Q2) of breakfast energy.…”