Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Record
Daily Record
Lifestyle
Charlotte Smith & Abbie Meehan

Calorie expert explains how to burn fat with simple dinner and breakfast swap

A health expert has shared the best tip for losing weight - and keeping the fat off - by making a simple change to your breakfast routine.

University of Cambridge professor and molecular geneticist Giles Yeo spoke to podcast host, Steven Bartlett, on his popular YouTube channel Diary of a CEO about the helpful hack.

He explained what those hoping to burn fat should consider switching up their morning routine, reports Nottinghamshire Live.

The method, titled 'eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch and a pauper at dinner', has been explained by Giles during his time on the podcast.

He notes that consuming more at dinner than at breakfast is not the way going forward when losing weight - it is actually to do the opposite.

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, those dieting who have their biggest meal in the morning and their smallest in the evening are almost 10 per cent slimmer than people who do the opposite.

The expert said that people's metabolism has evolved to be at its most active during the daytime - so weight is burned during the day when we are awake, not at night.

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 (Getty)

Going into detail, He said: "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."

The expert went into detail about a study conducted by "good friend" Professor Alexandra Johnstone, who he described as a "leading innovative UK researcher within the field of human appetite control" at the University of Aberdeen.

The guru explained how the study supplied people with the same amount of calories every day for a set amount of time.

He continued: "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.

"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."

Giles added: "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."

The professor did however point out that if you have a busy job with different shift patterns, like a nurse, this may not always be possible - so he suggested to "eat when you are 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?"

Giles replied by saying: "Correct."

The expert mainly focuses on the genetics of obesity and has two books published - 'Gene Eating: The Story of Human Appetite' and 'Why Calories Don't Count: How We Got the Science of Weight Loss Wrong'.

Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our newsletter here.

READ NEXT:

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.