If any of you still believe that the whole "breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day" theory is false or outdated at best, think again: a recent study comes to confirm what has become the staple of countless weight loss diets in recent decades - namely the belief that a big breakfast followed by a moderately-sized lunch and a frugal dinner is the best way to keep our weight under control and avoid piling on the pounds. Scientists now claim that the bigger the bowl, the better.

In fact, a recent study conducted at the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela, encourages women who want to achieve a continued weight loss over a longer time span to eat up to half their daily calories first thing in the morning. During the research, scientists put a number of young obese women on a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet with a twist: they had to eat almost half of their day's ration (about 1,240 calories) in one single high-protein, high-carbohydrate breakfast. The results were compelling: after eight months, the women in the "big breakfast" team successfully lost more than 21% of their body weight.

The success of this approach has several explanations. First of all, a more consistent breakfast means that the body has time to digest a large intake of calories efficiently, which also results in feeling less hunger pangs and having fewer carbohydrate cravings. When we skip breakfast, we starve our body of beneficial nutrients, with the result that our organism will store more from the upcoming lunch and dinner as fat. Merely restricting our carbohydrate intake will not succeed, as our cravings for high-calorie foods are sure to increase. A big breakfast is thus not only an excellent way to lose weight, but also a sure path towards keeping our weight under control and preventing the pounds from piling back on.