The old saying goes Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper.

The underlying notion is that you can work your breakfast off, but a big dinner will just get stored as fat.

Molly Bray and colleagues from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama, in the International Journal of Obesity, showed that mice fed a high-fat meal at the beginning at the start of their day managed better than when they were given a high-carb breakfast. Scientists use mice because their bodies respond similar to ours (surprisingly).

But when the high-fat meal was for dinner, they gained weight and developed aspects of metabolic syndrome.

Importantly, these changes were independent of daily total or fat-derived calories.

This study adds to the growing evidence that biological rhythms profoundly influence energy balance.  When we eat certain foods may be as important as the composition of those foods.

Changing our eating habits is key to changing our weight. And if you need help, try hypnosis!