the benefits of eating the largest meal of the day in the morning are supported by a 2017 study that involved more than 50,000 seventh day adventists. they were asked to fill out questionnaires every two years about their dietary habits, physical activity, meal frequency, major health events and changes in body weight. subjects who ate the largest meal early in the day tended to have a lower body mass index than those whose largest meals were lunch or dinner. perhaps the most interesting finding was that the lowest body mass index was found in people who ate breakfast and lunch but then did not eat again until the next morning, fasting for some 18 to 19 hours.
extrapolating these findings to the general population is difficult because seventh day adventists have quite a different lifestyle from the average person. they consume no alcohol, eat less meat and many are vegetarian. still, the fasting aspect is interesting. with a steady supply of carbohydrates being cut off, the body undergoes a metabolic shift and starts using fat as fuel instead of carbohydrates, leading to fat loss.
the benefit of a large breakfast and small supper gets a boost from a study in israel that put overweight women on an unevenly distributed 1,400-calorie-a-day diet. half the women consumed 700 calories at breakfast, 500 at lunch and 200 at supper, with the other half following the diet in reverse order. both groups lost weight, but those who ate the large breakfast lost two and a half times more weight and lost more belly fat. furthermore, their fasting glucose levels improved. it seems that when it comes to weight loss, when you eat may be as important as what you eat!