Big Breakfast Diet: Start Your Day with 600 Calories

If you want to lose weight, eat big breakfast. No, the folks at at the Virginia Commonwealth University have not gone completely bonkers. They did find a link between breakfast and weight loss. The key is to start your day with a 600-calorie breakfast which should include food rich in protein and carbohydrates. According to Daniela Jakubowicz, MD, an endocrinologist from Caracas, Venezuela, who led the said study, "Those on the 'big breakfast diet' feel less hungry before lunch and all day." CBS News has a detailed report on their findings here.

So, how does this so-called big breakfast diet work? If we are to follow several of the obese and physically inactive women that took part in the study, we should eat a breakfast of 610 calories and make sure that it includes 58 grams of carbohydrates, 47 grams of protein, and 22 grams of fat. If we do that, we might also lose about 21% of our body weight and we might even get lucky and continue to lose unwanted poundage as we continue the diet.

This may sound like something that resembles a hoax, but it does make sense. The study results showed that those who went on a calorie-rich breakfast eating spree had fewer cravings and felt that the stomach grumblings aren't that severe. That's right, they were less hungry when the lunch bell rings.

The message that the study wants to convey is that we should eat breakfast everyday with very conscious effort to compute the calorie, carbohydrates, fat, and protein content of the food we are consuming. Skipping breakfast is a big no-no.

While I am not very conscious about my calorie intake, I do consult online calorie calculator just to have an idea how my favorite food are doing in the calorie rankings. But out of curiosity, I really like to know if McDonald's Big Breakfast meet the Calorie-Carbohydrates-Fat-Protein content requirements of the Big Breakfast diet. The answer sure looks like a resounding no, but come on, we need proof.

McDonald's Big Breakfast consists of hash browns, muffin, egg, and sausage.

Serving Size: 266g
Calories: 730
Total Fat: 46g
Total Carbohydrates: 53g
Protein: 26g
*data taken from calorie-count.com

Chef Yogi's verdict:

Too high calorie content
Not enough protein
More than double the fat content
Carbohydrates, almost but not quite

So, guys and gals, McDonald's Big Breakfast is not an option if you want to go on a big breakfast diet. So, don't even think about it.