A calorie expert has shared his top tip for burning fat - and keeping it off - by making a simple breakfast and dinner swap. Speaking to podcast host Steven Bartlett on popular YouTube channel 'Diary Of A CEO', University of Cambridge professor and molecular geneticist Giles Yeo explained what those hoping to lose weight should consider doing during their morning routine to melt fat.
Discussing his 'eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch and a pauper at dinner' method, the expert revealed that consuming more at dinner than at breakfast isn't the way forward to getting rid of fat. Yeo actually says it is much better to get the most of your calorie intake at breakfast time and to eat less during the evening.
According to research, dieters who have their biggest meal at breakfast and smallest for dinner are nearly ten per cent slimmer than people who do the opposite. Yeo says our metabolism has evolved to be at its most active during the daytime, meaning our bodies work more effectively to burn fuel – or food – then and are less likely to store excess calories as fat.
Going into detail, he told listeners: "Our metabolism is highest during the day, because we have to 'avoid becoming food' and we have to 'look for food'. Whereas at night when we're asleep, our metabolism drops.
"So if you eat your biggest meal at night and a couple of hours later you go to sleep, you are loading your calories then going to sleep - which is in storage mode. Whereas if you eat your biggest meal during the day, you have the whole day left in order to burn it."
He goes on to reference a study by a "good friend" of his called Professor Alexandra Johnstone, who is known as a "leading innovative UK researcher within the field of human appetite control" at the University of Aberdeen. The diet guru explains how in the study, a group of people were supplied the exact same amount of calories every day for a period of time.
"And they did this either by front-loading all the calories at breakfast, or back-loading all the calories at dinner - everyone ate the same thing - and then everybody swapped." He said, before adding: "She found that... the difference was if you ate more at breakfast, you felt less hungry during the day, than if you ate more at dinner.
"So while if you eat exactly the same foods, at breakfast and dinner or at dinner and lunch, it doesn't actually matter. But for some people, it may very well be easier to have a big breakfast because it means they get less hungry throughout the day."
He continued: "So if you were trying to lose weight... then you might begin to think about when you want to eat more. I would probably cut the calories from your dinner rather than cutting the calories from your breakfast."
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However, the professor went on to point out that if you have a busy job with varying shift patterns, such as being a nurse, this may not always be possible and to "eat when you're hungry".
Steve ended the discussion by asking: "So as general advice for the general person who isn't constrained by night shifts or anything like that, eating late, closer to when you fall asleep, is not going to help you lose weight?" Yeo replied by saying: "Correct."
Much of Dr Giles Yeo research largely focuses on the genetics of obesity. He is the author of two books: 'Gene Eating: The Story of Human Appetite' and 'Why Calories Don't Count: How We Got the Science of Weight Loss Wrong'.
