Eating enough of these foods for breakfast can really help you control your weight and blood sugar!

Have you ever had this worry: you ate breakfast, but not long after, you started to feel very hungry! Why is this happening?

Scientists have found that if you don’t consume enough protein for breakfast, you will get hungry quickly, which is likely to lead to excessive energy intake throughout the day, making it easier to gain weight.

What is going on?

Not eating enough protein for breakfast may cause two problems

Insufficient breakfast protein intake may cause two problems: one is that it leads to increased energy intake throughout the day and a poor diet structure; the other is that it is easier to gain weight.

1. Not eating enough breakfast protein will increase energy intake throughout the day

Researchers spent 13 months tracking and recording the eating habits of 9,341 middle-aged people, focusing on whether their breakfast protein intake was sufficient and the impact of protein intake on the following meals. Finally, they published the observation and analysis results in the international journal “Obesity”.

Researchers divided the whole day’s diet into three time periods (morning, noon, and evening), analyzed the relationship between each meal, and finally found that:

High proportion of breakfast protein, low energy intake throughout the day, and high intake of healthy food;

Insufficient breakfast protein intake will lead to more high-energy foods such as saturated fat, sugar or alcohol throughout the day, and high energy intake and low diet quality.

In other words, if you don’t eat enough protein for breakfast, your body will think you are “starving”, and even if you eat three big meals later, it will still prompt you to stuff your mouth with high-energy food… Scientists say that this situation is the “protein leverage” – the protein “debt” owed in the morning will be “urged” to be replenished on the same day.

2. Not eating enough protein for breakfast makes you more likely to gain weight

Increasing the proportion of protein in breakfast will not only reduce the energy intake throughout the day, but also make overweight people lose weight and body fat faster.

How much protein should be eaten for breakfast to be considered enough?

Protein digests slowly and has a strong sense of fullness, which is beneficial for controlling weight and body fat. In addition, according to a review on high-protein diet and insulin secretion published in Physiological Reports in 2023, protein promotes the secretion of insulin by pancreatic B cells, which helps lower blood sugar, so that blood sugar will not fluctuate greatly after a meal. It can be seen that increasing a certain proportion of protein in breakfast is conducive to the stability of blood sugar.

So, how much protein should be consumed for breakfast to meet the needs? Let’s continue reading.

According to the latest version of the “Dietary Nutrient Intake of Chinese Residents”, the recommended total protein per day for adult women is 55g, and for men is 65g. Based on the fact that breakfast accounts for 30% of the whole day, for a qualified breakfast, women and men should consume at least 16.5g and 19.5g of protein respectively.

But if you want to achieve the effect of weight loss and blood sugar control, this ratio has to be increased. Different studies have different experimental amounts of protein, but these are basically above 25g. Therefore, if the protein content of breakfast reaches about 25g, it will be more effective in controlling appetite and helping weight loss.