Weight loss starts with what you eat for breakfast, and if you chose to tuck into a tasty bagel in the morning – but also struggle to keep off the pounds – you might benefit from swapping to eggs.
Toast, cereal and even a Full English fry up are popular choices for breakfast across the nation.
While a Full English breakfast and a bacon sandwich were the first and second place results of a 2014 Co-op survey, tea and toast came in third place.
One slice of toast is roughly 75 calories, which isn’t an awful lot when you think about it. But, nutritionally speaking there’s not much protein to keep your body going through the day in a slice of toast.
Bagels – traditionally from New York but very popular in modern day Britain – weigh in at 245 calories. Again, there’s only 10g of protein in a bagel.
All this talk of protein could baffle some, but hardened dieters and those interested in nutrition will know protein helps you stay full for longer.
Eating foods that deliver some fat, fibre, and some protein are ideal for those wishing to take part in a healthy, balanced diet – be it for weight loss or just health purposes.
In the UK, adults are advised to eat 0.75g of protein for each kilogram they weigh. That means, on average, men should eat 55g and women 45g of protein daily.
In December 2005 a team of scientists conducted a study into the short-term effect of eggs on satiety in overweight and obese subjects.
Specifically, they looked at how eating an egg for breakfast rather than a bagel would effect satiety – in layman’s terms, how long the test subjects stayed feeling full for after each breakfast.
Thirty women with BMIs of at least 25 kg/M2 between the ages of 25 to 60 were recruited to participate in a randomised study.
And the results were very interesting.
The egg-breakfast enjoyed by the women induced “greater satiety” and significantly reduced short-term food intake, the scientists reported.
Another study in 30 men compared the effects of three types of breakfasts on three separate occasions: eggs on toast, cereal with milk and toast, and croissant with orange juice.
The results of this study, undertaken in 2013, backed up the results from the 2005 study on women.
Scientists at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, reported eating eggs for breakfast caused the men to automatically eat up to 470 calories less at lunch and dinner buffets, when compared to eating the other breakfasts.
They stated: “The breakfast meal with the greatest effect on satiety and subsequent intake of energy was distinct in having the highest protein and lowest carbohydrate content relative to the other two breakfasts.”
Therefore swapping the carbs in favour of protein in the morning – or even adding an egg to your morning round of toast – could be beneficial to anyone wishing to lose weight.