Want to lose weight? Chocolate cake breakfast may help | ABS-CBN News

MANILA, Philippines - Here's good news for chocoholics: a new study shows that eating chocolate cake as part of a balanced breakfast can help you lose weight.

The study, conducted by a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel, showed that it is better to consume sweets in the morning because that is when the body's metabolism is most active.

Professor Daniela Jakubowicz, one of those who conducted the study, said eating chocolate cake or a cookie as part of breakfast also helps control cravings throughout the day.

"Attempting to avoid sweets entirely can create a psychological addiction to these same foods in the long term," Jakubowicz said in the study, which was published in the journal Steroids.

Researchers split 193 clinically obese, non-diabetic adults into two groups -- one consumed a low-carbohydrate, 300-calorie breakfast while the other had a 600-calorie high-protein and high-carbohydrate breakfast that always included a chocolate cake for dessert.

The study showed that both groups lost an average of 33 pounds per person halfway through the 32-week program.

But in the second half, the low-carbohydrate group regained an average of 22 pounds per person while those who consumed the high-calorie breakfast lost another 15 pounds each.

At the end of the program, the dessert eaters lost an average of 40 pounds more per person than their peers.

Jakubowicz said although both groups consumed the same amount of calories per day, "the participants in the low-carbohydrate group had less satisfaction, and felt that they were not full."

"But the group that consumed a bigger breakfast, including dessert, experienced few -- if any -- cravings for these foods later in the day," she added.