Yes, it’s true that eating chocolate cake for breakfast could be the best solution for long term fat loss and it’s been backed up by research published earlier this month. The media has jumped all over this. After all, who wouldn’t want to hear that eating junk food could help you lose weight and keep it off?
These findings may sound shocking and confusing to you coming off the heels of a big promotion in the online fitness industry that revolved around skipping breakfast as the best method for long term fat loss. Who are you to believe? Which method really works best?
We’ll get to that answer soon, but first let’s take a look at this recent research, exploring the benefits of eating chocolate cake for breakfast…
About The Chocolate Cake Breakfast Study
The study is called Meal Timing and Composition Influence Ghrelin Levels, Appetite Scores, and Weight Loss Maintenance In Overweight and Obese Adults.
193 subjects participated in this study. The average age was 47 and the participants were obese, sedentary, and non-diabetic. They were randomly placed into one of two groups; The first group followed a low carb diet, which included a 300 calorie breakfast. The second group followed an isocaloric diet with a 600 calorie high protein breakfast, which included a desert consisting of either chocolate cake, cookies, or chocolate. Both groups consumed the same amount of calories per day. The males consumed 1600 calories per day while the females consumed 1400 calories per day.
After 16 weeks both groups lost very close to the same amount of weight. The low carb breakfast group finished slightly ahead with an average loss of 33 pounds compared to the chocolate cake group who had an average loss of 30 pounds.
It was during the second 16 weeks that you noticed a big difference between the groups. The low carb breakfast group ended up regaining an average of 25 pounds while the chocolate cake group continued to lose weight with an average of an additional 15 pounds lost.
It was also noted that the chocolate cake breakfast group reported feeling more satisfied throughout the day, while the low carb breakfast group felt intense cravings, which is speculated to have led to their ultimate demise causing them to regain much of their weight.
Analyzing the Chocolate Cake Breakfast Results
The first important lesson that we can learn from this study is that calories are what matter the most… or more important… the deficit is what matters, because both the low carb breakfast group and the high protein plus desert group lost close to the same amount of weight during the first 16 weeks while consuming the same amount of calories.
The second thing that this study shows is that compliance is the key to long term success and allowing yourself a small treat each day can help you stick to your plan. Within the Metabolic Masterpiece Body Sculpting Collection I share my food journal, which reveals how I applied this exact strategy at the beginning of my transformation. This worked wonders for helping me comply to my diet during those early stages. Over time I was able to slowly cut back on the treats and these small changes took away any sense of deprivation. I took this lesson from my wife Angie who enjoys a small treat each day to help her maintain six pack abs.
It’s very important to emphasize that protein was consumed with the cake/chocolate/cookies. If you are adding cake to a high protein breakfast such as three whole eggs with salsa, that would leave you approximately 300 calories for the remainder of your 600 calorie breakfast. 300 calories for a piece of cake sure isn’t much. A mistake that some people would make is just blindly guessing how many calories are in their piece of cake.
It’s also important to emphasize that the goal of this study was to simply see if adding a small desert to your breakfast would help obese men and women lose weight and keep it off for the long term. This diet hasn’t been portrayed as a short cut or the “healthiest” plan… but, rather a long term plan that may be very practical for many people.
What Can We Learn From The Chocolate Cake Breakfast Study?
Many diets work in the short term including the low carb diet, but steps need to be taken to ensure long term success. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened with the low carb group if they had been allowed to cycle their calories/carbs by introducing a small desert one or two times per week. This has been shown to reduce the feelings of deprivation among many “dieters”.
Is The Chocolate Cake Breakfast The BEST For Long Term Fat Loss Success?
For some people… yes… for others it could backfire. If you are the type of person who feels like they need a small treat every day in order to stick to your calorie restricted diet, than the chocolate cake breakfast could very well be the best fit for you. The research from the chocolate cake breakfast study illustrated this to be true.
If you are the type of person who doesn’t already feel like you need a treat every day, why start now? This is a really good argument that some fitness experts may have against the chocolate cake breakfast diet… Making junk food a mandatory part of your everyday diet could create bad habits in individuals who previously didn’t eat treats every day.
What the chocolate cake breakfast study has shown is that it’s important to select the foods and meal composition that leave you feeling satisfied, while avoiding the feelings of deprivation that often come from calorie restricted diets.
Some people may find that the “skipping breakfast diet” I mentioned at the beginning of this post allows them to feel more satisfied, and less deprived. It may suit their lifestyle and personality type better than the chocolate cake breakfast diet. This doesn’t mean that skipping breakfast is the best fat loss solution… it just means that it could be the best solution for a certain group of people.
Diet truly is very individual. There is no one size fits all plan. Essentially you need to find the plan that resonates the best with you and allows you to stick with it for the long term. For me, that plan is Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle because it can be easily adjusted to suit my goals whether it be fat loss, muscle building, or maintenance. It also allows for treat meals throughout the week. The amount of treat meals will depend on your goals. It could be daily just as my wife Angie prefers to do.
The bottom line is that you need to be in a caloric deficit in order to lose weight. Following a plan that makes it easier to comply with that deficit until you reach your goal and having a follow up plan after you reach your goal will be the key to your success.
So there you have it… you can actually have your cake and eat it too 😉 I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Are you someone who needs a small treat each day to prevent yourself from binge eating? Or are you the type of person who needs to avoid junk at all costs because one bite could put you into a binge? Please take a moment to share your thoughts in the comment box below.
Sculpt a Masterpiece,
Scott Tousignant
About The Author
Scott Tousignant, BHK, is a Certified Fitness Consultant with a passion for transforming fitness enthusiasts into physique artists. His most recent program, Metabolic Masterpiece guides you through the process of sculpting your body into a work of art, by applying what Scott has coined, “The A.T.T.R.A.C.T. Formula.
With his synergistic, boredom busting body sculpting workouts you will melt stubborn fat and gain muscle while skyrocketing your metabolism!