Eating Dessert with Breakfast Helps Low-Calorie Dieters

doughnut
JoyHey / Getty Images

Turns out, that morning chocolate-chip scone may not wreck your diet after all. In fact, it might help you stick to your weight-loss goals.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University report that eating dessert with breakfast — cookies or cake, for instance — can help dieters lose more weight. The study was originally published in March in the journal Steroids and is being presented Monday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Houston.

Bear in mind, the results don’t suggest that everybody should simply add a glazed doughnut to their morning meal. The study looked specifically at people eating strict low-calorie diets — 1,600 calories a day for men; 1,400 calories a day for women. The research included nearly 200 nondiabetic obese adults, who were randomly assigned to one of two low-calorie-diet groups; both were identical except for breakfast: one group (the lucky ones) ate a 600-calorie high-carb breakfast that came with a choice of a cookie, chocolate, cake or a doughnut for dessert. The other group ate a 300-calorie low-carb breakfast. Both breakfasts were rich in proteins, as they included tuna, egg whites, cheese and low-fat milk.

(MORE: What’s The Healthiest Breakfast? Here’s What the Experts Say)

Women in the dessert-with-breakfast group were allowed 500 calories for lunch and about 300 calories for dinner; men in that group had a 600-calorie limit for lunch and up to 464 calories for dinner.

After 16 weeks on the diet, both groups had lost weight — about 33 lb. on average — suggesting that both diets worked about the same. But in the final 16 weeks of the study, the follow-up period, those in the low-carb group had regained an average of 22 lb., while those indulging in dessert in the morning went on to lose another 15 lb. on average.

The dessert group reported feeling less hunger and fewer cravings than the other participants; their food diaries showed they were also better at sticking to their calorie limits. What’s more, dessert eaters showed greater drops of the “hunger hormone” ghrelin after breakfast — 45%, vs. a 30% drop for the low-carb dieters.

“The goal of a weight-loss diet should be not only weight reduction but also reduction of hunger and cravings, thus helping prevent weight regain,” lead study author Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz said in a statement.

(MORE: Eating a Big Breakfast Doesn’t Cut Daily Calories)

The authors say weight-loss success lies in the timing and composition of dieters’ meals. Their high-protein breakfasts reduced hunger, while the addition of carbs increased satiety and the sweet dessert cut down on cravings. Allowing yourself little treats is a key strategy, says Jakubowicz, because they keep you satisfied; if you restrict yourself to a totally sweet-free meal plan, you’re more likely to break down at some point and binge on diet-busting foods.

Upon the study’s initial release, Jakubowicz told the New York Times, “Most people simply regain weight, no matter what diet they are on … But if you eat what you like, you decrease cravings. The cake — a small piece — is important.”

MORE: 5 Ways to Get Oatmeal in Your Diet, Deliciously

Eating Dessert with Breakfast Helps Low-Calorie Dieters

doughnut
JoyHey / Getty Images

Turns out, that morning chocolate-chip scone may not wreck your diet after all. In fact, it might help you stick to your weight-loss goals.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University report that eating dessert with breakfast — cookies or cake, for instance — can help dieters lose more weight. The study was originally published in March in the journal Steroids and is being presented Monday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Houston.

Bear in mind, the results don’t suggest that everybody should simply add a glazed doughnut to their morning meal. The study looked specifically at people eating strict low-calorie diets — 1,600 calories a day for men; 1,400 calories a day for women. The research included nearly 200 nondiabetic obese adults, who were randomly assigned to one of two low-calorie-diet groups; both were identical except for breakfast: one group (the lucky ones) ate a 600-calorie high-carb breakfast that came with a choice of a cookie, chocolate, cake or a doughnut for dessert. The other group ate a 300-calorie low-carb breakfast. Both breakfasts were rich in proteins, as they included tuna, egg whites, cheese and low-fat milk.

(MORE: What’s The Healthiest Breakfast? Here’s What the Experts Say)

Women in the dessert-with-breakfast group were allowed 500 calories for lunch and about 300 calories for dinner; men in that group had a 600-calorie limit for lunch and up to 464 calories for dinner.

After 16 weeks on the diet, both groups had lost weight — about 33 lb. on average — suggesting that both diets worked about the same. But in the final 16 weeks of the study, the follow-up period, those in the low-carb group had regained an average of 22 lb., while those indulging in dessert in the morning went on to lose another 15 lb. on average.

The dessert group reported feeling less hunger and fewer cravings than the other participants; their food diaries showed they were also better at sticking to their calorie limits. What’s more, dessert eaters showed greater drops of the “hunger hormone” ghrelin after breakfast — 45%, vs. a 30% drop for the low-carb dieters.

“The goal of a weight-loss diet should be not only weight reduction but also reduction of hunger and cravings, thus helping prevent weight regain,” lead study author Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz said in a statement.

(MORE: Eating a Big Breakfast Doesn’t Cut Daily Calories)

The authors say weight-loss success lies in the timing and composition of dieters’ meals. Their high-protein breakfasts reduced hunger, while the addition of carbs increased satiety and the sweet dessert cut down on cravings. Allowing yourself little treats is a key strategy, says Jakubowicz, because they keep you satisfied; if you restrict yourself to a totally sweet-free meal plan, you’re more likely to break down at some point and binge on diet-busting foods.

Upon the study’s initial release, Jakubowicz told the New York Times, “Most people simply regain weight, no matter what diet they are on … But if you eat what you like, you decrease cravings. The cake — a small piece — is important.”

MORE: 5 Ways to Get Oatmeal in Your Diet, Deliciously

Songza and Spotify Challenge Pandora for Ears and Ads

The latest challengers to Pandora, a source of free, convenient Internet radio, are the playlist app Songza and the digital music service called Spotify, which recently made its radio feature available free on mobile devices. Both companies have made splashy changes in the last couple of weeks, bringing warnings from analysts about the possible effects these updates will have on Pandora.

Songza, introduced last fall, is based on the principle that even using Pandora, which tailors song streams to a listener’s taste, requires too much thought. To use Pandora, a listener thinks of an artist or song and then gives feedback as the music plays. Songza has ready-made playlists for certain times of day or activities, such as getting going on Monday morning or romancing on Friday night.

“The idea here is that we can get you to awesome music without you having to think,” said Elias Roman, 28, Songza’s chief executive.

When Songza introduced a new version of its mobile app this month, it was downloaded 1.15 million times in 10 days, and shot to the top of Apple’s App Store rankings, passing Pandora and iHeartRadio, a radio app from Clear Channel Communications. Songza executives say the service’s number of monthly active users is in the seven figures.

With stick-figure icons and a whimsical editorial approach, Songza has created more than 100,000 playlists. The site’s three founders, who met at Brown University and previously ran the music download service Amie Street, explained in an interview at the company’s bare-bones headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, that elaborate thinking sometimes went into creating playlists for the dullest situations. For example, “epic film soundtracks” is meant to help listeners slog their way through a day at the office.

“If you’re at work, filling in cells in a spreadsheet, and you’re listening to the soundtrack to ‘The Last of the Mohicans,’ suddenly that changes everything,” said Peter Asbill, the chief operating officer, who is also 28. “It feels awesome, fun and epic.”

Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at BTIG Research who has been critical of Pandora, said that Songza and Spotify put pressure on Pandora.

“It’s not that Pandora isn’t a good service; it is,” Mr. Greenfield said. “The question is, now that there is more direct competition, what happens to listener hours? Not to mention, some of these companies are going to be competing for the same ad dollars as Pandora.”

Pandora went public a year ago at $16, but its shares have been below that price since last July. On Wednesday it closed at $11.79, up 2.97 percent.

Tim Westergren, Pandora’s founder and chief strategy officer, said in an interview this week that the competition had not affected the service’s growth. In the last two years, its user base has tripled, and the company’s revenue has also been growing rapidly, though it has never had a profitable year.

“Our growth just keeps going unabated,” Mr. Westergren said. “Nothing has impacted it: Spotify hasn’t; iHeartRadio hasn’t.”

Songza gets its music through the same compulsory license process as Pandora, Sirius XM and other forms of Internet radio. But unlike most of them, it carries no audio advertising. The company makes money from display ads and from partnerships with other media companies. It is available on a trial basis through Sonos, the wireless speaker system, and will soon be on Roku devices. It will also soon release an app for Android devices, the Songza executives said.

Mr. Roman declined to say whether the company was profitable over all, but said that it was profitable on every user stream it served.

“Our whole premise is not that this is more gamified than Pandora, or has more elite features,” Mr. Roman said. “It’s that this is simpler and more directly related to the thing you want, which is music to make whatever you’re doing better.”

very good article